From The Podium: Moonshot I - Ugis Praulins
Dear friends and supporters of Pro Coro Canada
June is around the corner, and this coming week would have been the season-end production of our choir, Moonshot II: tar swan. This program was inspired by the prize-winning poem tar swan by Calgarian writer David Martin, shining a spotlight on humanity’s treatment of nature and natural resources across the continent and here in our own backyard. The concert was to feature the powerful Raua Needmine (Curse Upon Iron) by Veljo Tormis, our composer-in-residence Alberto Grau with Kasar Mie La Gaji (the earth is tired), and new works by emerging Canadian composers that have been mentored through the PIVOT program, of the Canadian League of Composers.
The members of the PIVOT program 2020 are Jessie Rivést, Fjóla Evans, Steven Webb, Sarah Albu, Rebecca Gray and Félix-Antoine Coutu, and they would have arrived in Edmonton this Saturday for a week full of workshops, attending our rehearsals and finally presenting their new works with Pro Coro on June 7. The new scores they have submitted to us so far are very exciting, experimental and forward-thinking and we will eventually present this music to you.
Pro Coro Canada has established a pioneering position on the national choral scene through commissioning and presenting exactly these kinds of new works. We are developing and working with composers through education here in town, for example with students at MacEwan University, through collaboration nationally with many of today’s prominent artists such as Peter Togni, Marie-Claire Saindon, Kristopher Fulton, Cecilia Livingston, Cy Giacomin, Laura Hawley, Stephanie Martin, Jason Noble, Amy Brandon or Stuart Beatch, and by presenting the newest works of internationally renowned composers such as Paul Mealor, Ugis Praulins, Tarik O’Regan, Alberto Grau, and Sven Helbig.
Over the coming week, Pro Coro Canada will share some treasures from the vault and, in the spirit of exploring new territory with our Moonshot series, celebrate contemporary music. I look forward to giving a behind-the-scenes of works created during the Choral Art Residency in Banff by Dominik Dieterle and Jason Noble, and to share a hot-off-the-press release by Amy Brandon.
Latvian Composer Ugis Praulins, Pro Coro Canada Composer-In-Residence 2017-2019
With the start of my tenure with Pro Coro Canada in 2012, our organization established a relationship with Latvian Ugis Praulins, which led eventually to our composer-in-residence program. The very first concert as newly-appointed director included the Candian premier of The Nightingale, a 30 minutes work for 24-part choir and recorder. Since then, Ugis has written several works for us, and we have expanded our vocal and musicianship skills to master his music.
The work we would like to start this week of new music with, is a video of the Canadian premier of Tumsa Gaju / I walked in Darkness, recorded live exactly one year ago at the Edmonton International Choral Festival. Our guests are the Georgian Folk Ensemble Didgori. This composition shows the mastery of Praulins in combining traditional folk songs, the Georgian singing style and a classical chamber choir sonority, resulting in a genre-bending, rousing and eclectic choral experience.
I hope you enjoy our presentations and I look forward to hearing from you.
