The 2009 – 2010 Season

Artistic Director Jon Washburn and the Vancouver Chamber Choir present a great new concert season; a world of music... all in one place!

The Choir’s 39th concert season opens September 25 and 27 at Ryerson United Church with music from Japan, Taiwan and other Asian traditions, along with some of the Canadian music we’ll be taking with us to represent our homeland. October at the Chan we’ll sing the world premieres of two significant 40th anniversary works by Briton Sir John Tavener and Canadian Peter Berring - an exciting event! In November, the choirs of UBC and Capilano University join us, the new Pacifica Singers and the Focus! Choir of young singers for a veritable choral-festival-in-one-night. Christmas I is a Baroque family affair with JS Bach and his son Carl Philipp Emanuel. (I’ll try to explain how Vivaldi fits in at that time!) Christmas II will be much more intimate, with Bard on the Beach’s Russell Roberts reading A Child’s Christmas in Wales with the Choir interpolating appropriate carols and songs.

January introduces our new Assistant Conductor John William Trotter in a programme of a cappella favourites from the European choral repertory. March brings our annual Canadian tour programme with something old, something new, something borrowed and... well, you get the idea. April brings our Good Friday concert, with Schubert, Mozart and the premiere of R Murray Schafer’s new work on passages from Dante’s Paradiso, another outstanding 40th anniversary commission. (There will be three more in the following season.) And May brings another fascinating National Conductors’ Symposium finale, with six conductors leading great choruses from large works of 12 great master composers.

In addition to a full season of nine concerts, the Choir will continue to present special events, outreach initiatives, and award winning educational programs, such as the National Conductors Symposium. A recent recording is Unexpected Gifts music for healing II, which follows the success of Finding the Still Point, the first release in the groundbreaking “music for healing” CD series.