Tina Chang, piano

Described as a "scintillating player" (Opera Wire) whose "...pianism was a wonder," (Opera Canada), pianist and coach Tina Chang is currently on the music staff at Vancouver Opera, and recently at Wexford Festival Opera in Ireland. Based in Vancouver, she has been involved with various arts organizations, including Arts Club Theatre, Chor Leoni, Sound the Alarm Music Theatre, City Opera, and Against the Grain Theatre. She holds her own private studio, and has held adjunct positions at University of British Columbia and Dalhousie University. Find out more about Tina at www.TinaChangPiano.ca.

Katherine Evans, trumpet

Praised for her “solo work of exceptional quality” by the Boston Globe, Katherine Evans is in her fifth season as principal trumpet of the Newport Symphony in Newport, OR. She previously held principal trumpet positions and appeared as a soloist with several regional symphonies around Boston, MA. In Vancouver, Ms. Evans can be heard primarily as a soloist and freelancer. She appears with Turning Point Ensemble, the Vancouver Brass Orchestra, and OneTwoTrio, and has been featured in multiple recital series including those at Holy Rosary Cathedral, St. Andrews-Wesley, and UBC. She is recorded on the Centuar, Chéldar, and Albany labels.

Jane Kim, organ

Jane Kim was brought up in a Christian family and started playing the piano at the age of four. Her musical talent was recognized at an early age, and she became her church’s main pianist/organist at the age of ten. She has long been interested in church music, and she played the piano and organ with great skills even while she was young. Jane has worked as an organist at various churches in Vancouver since immigrating to Canada in 2008. She was principal organist at Vancouver Korean Presbyterian Church from 2010 to 2015. She served as principal pianist and music assistant at Willingdon Church for many years and invited as principal organist at Church Music Ministry of Canada from 2012 to 2019. She also has been invited as guest organist from Vancouver Oratorio Society for many years. She is currently working as principal organist and choral accompanist at First Baptist Church in Vancouver.

William Grant Still

Often referred to as the "The Dean of Afro-American Composers," William Grant Still was the first African-American to have a piece produced by the New York City Opera, and the first African-American to conduct a major symphony orchestra in the United States. In this piece, he has set a text by Verna Arvey - a stirring message from the past. We hear voices from the Civil Rights movement, telling the story of the songs they sang so that today we might all sing ours. We are reminded that our task is to remember their message and to carry on their work, to continue singing of love, light, and freedom.

Stacey Philipps

"This yearning piece evokes the universal experience of missing those who are gone, whether temporarily or permanently, and originated as a response to the world retreating from COVID-19 in early 2020, when many connected via video calls to stay in touch from a safe distance."

Gustav Holst

Arvo Pärt

Arvo Pärt received the original impetus for composing his Latin vocal piece, Da pacem Domine (Latin for “Give us peace, Lord”), from Jordi Savall, a virtuoso gambist and researcher of early music, who commissioned it for his peace concert. Pärt built the piece around the melody of the antiphon while adding three polyphonic voices to evoke the sense of a Gregorian chant.

Michael Betteridge

"In Flanders Fields is a dramatic setting of the well-known text by John McCrae written from the perspective of those who have perished during war. The short piece starts with an explosive and sparkly accompaniment, whilst the voices sing calm hymn-like material: distant, yet confident. A change of mood in the middle, on the line 'We are the Dead' sees the voices briefly echo one another before coming together in a more declamatory style and then swiftly returning to the hymn of the opening. The work ends with a quiet a cappella bass solo. A moment for reflection for all those we've lost in conflict."

Don Macdonald

"After the Last was written as a reflection on the last hours and minutes shared with a loved one as they face the ultimate challenge of passing from this life to the next. Written after my father's passing, the creation of this work helped begin the process of healing."

Shawn Crouch

"This single movement sets a poem by Iraq War veteran Brian Turner whose moving accounts of the war are vivid and powerful. Having myself had a brother who served two tours of duty in Iraq in the Marine Corps, I was drawn to the visceral images Turner paints with his text. In the music, I want to emphasize the lyrical qualities and changing colors of the poem that emerge as arching musical lines that often seem to layer upon themselves. Here, in Lullaby, a father seeks ways to comfort his child and himself as the sounds of war ring out all around them."

Byron Adams

"I composed this musical setting of Yeats’ elegy in wartime. I deliberately chose the male chorus as the most appropriate and poignant medium with which to realize musically this meditation on war and its inexcusable waste of noble lives."

Greg Martin

"The great thing about performing Keane's "A Bad Dream" is that the song stems from the same Yeats poem "An Irish Airman Foresees His Death" that we'll sing right beforehand. In the arrangement, I tried to reflect the song's journey from ominous serenity to anger and weariness over war and loss. For further choral connections, I explicitly incorporated some of the chant melodies from Adams's setting of "Irish Airman", as well as an homage to the "aeroplanes" of Chilcott's "Five Ways to Kill a Man" that Chor Leoni co-commissioned."

Rupert Lang

Originally commissioned for Chor Leoni in 1997, Rupert Lang’s ‘KONTAKION’ has been a regular feature of the choir’s annual Remembrance Day concerts and has gone on to be performed at state events around the world such as the memorial service for Princess Diana. The piece incorporates a refrain that is repeated several times, initially stated by a tenor soloist but gradually inviting the audience to join in. The work builds to eventually recall motives from The Last Post. This year’s concerts celebrate the 25th anniversary of this composition.

Emil Fredberg