Moonshot: To Seek Where Shadows Are
Dear friends and supporters of Pro Coro Canada
Thank you for joining us this past week in our exploration and celebration of contemporary music. Today we would have held our season-end subscription concert Moonshoot: tar swan, featuring new works by emerging Canadian composers, and compositions by Alberto Grau and Velijo Tormis. Instead we curated a week full of music that had been commissioned and/or premiered here in Edmonton by Pro Coro Canada.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading about the creation process of works like The Midnight Giant or Furiouser and Spuriouser. When we’re in the active process of writing and rehearsing, the entire narrative sometimes disappears from sight. Amy Brandon’s work Erratics was a new release and it was an exciting moment to share it with you. As you possibly realized, the author of Erratics, Calgarian David Martin, is also the author of tar swan, the eponymous work of today’s cancelled concert.
Today’s treasure is by our dear friend Paul Mealor. Paul’s music has appeared on our programs for many years, and his attendance at our concerts here in town have been highlights for us all. I recall the moving performance of his Stabat Mater (Good Friday 2015), or the evocative The Farthest Shore, both at a sold-out Winspear Centre. Paul accepted at that moment to step into the position of composer-in-residence, a newly-formed two year program of the organization. In his role, he created new works for us and took part in the performances of many others.
To Seek Where Shadows Are was written in 2016, commissioned in collaboration with JAM (John Armitage Memorial Foundation, UK) and premiered at the national conference Podium here in Edmonton. The set contains three works, I Dreamland, II Dreaming, and III In the Bleak Midwinter. The composition is a companion set to Paul’s Now Sleeps the crimson petal, a similarly evocative a cappella work. Paul’s writing seems to be tailored to the sonority of Pro Coro and we thoroughly enjoyed working on these short pieces. The composer himself directed the choir in a subsequent performance at the International Choral Festival in 2017.
Developing, commissioning and performing contemporary choral music is a part of our mission and I hope you enjoyed this week’ selection in our Moonshot series. Don’t forget to tune-in tonight at 6PM MST to ‘Raising Voices’ on CKUA. Pro Coro Canada will be featured with another selection of contemporary compositions by Canadians Marie-Claire Saindon, and Laura Hawley, with a reprisal of The Midnight Giant.
Michael
