Event

Strata Vocal Ensemble Concert

You will be grounded and uplifted by our spring concert as we explore the beauty of sounds and sights in the world around us! Our programme features Ola Gjeilos Sunrise Mass, a gorgeous work for choir and string quartet, in which the composer set the traditional Latin texts of the Mass but gave each section an English title relating to the natural world (The Spheres, Sunrise, The City, Identity, and The Ground. Says Gjeilo, I wanted the musical development of the work to evolve from the most transparent and spacey, to something completely earthy and grounded; from nebulous and pristine to more emotional and dramatic, and eventually warm and solidas a metaphor for human development from child to adult, or as a spiritual journey.

Celebrated composer Morten Lauridsen finds inspiration from the remote beauty of Waldron Island in Washington State, where he lives. Complementing the Sunrise Mass is Lauridsens Chanson des Roses, a five-song-cycle setting of the elegant French poems by the German poet Rainer Maria Rilke.

We are also excited to bring you music of three Canadians. Nancy Telfer is a well-known Ontario-based composer. As with many of her compositions, she drew inspiration for Silence from the beauty of natural environments. Frank Thorolfson was the first chairperson of McMaster University's music department and we are pleased to be singing The Ghost, which he wrote for the McMaster University Choir. Manitoban Andrew Balfour is a distinguished Indigenous composer. The Ojibway text of his choral work Ambe, which opens our programme, translates as Come in, all two-legged humans, there is good life here.

Mark your spring calendars to come and be warmed by these delightful compositions as we present to you, Sights and Sounds!