Dear friends of Elektra,
Happy New Year! This issue of the Elektric Wire includes news of our upcoming Choral Singing Workshop for Women, background about our next concert, Spring: O Primavera, information about our new Repertoire Resource for Women's Choirs, news of our latest uploads to YouTube, and a reminder about our upcoming Reading Session of New Compositions. Read on!
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Choral Singing Workshop for Women
 It's a new year, we've all had a great break, and now it's time to sing again! Elektra has a special invitation for all women singers: Join Elektra for a day of singing together, vocal exercises and development, and musical camaraderie! Our Choral Singing Workshop for Women is an opportunity to sing new music together, get expert vocal technique pointers, sing together and for each other, and to enjoy a welcoming and fun day of music making.
Your registration includes a delicious lunch and music, which you get to keep. The workshop concludes with an informal showcase of choral singing that is open to the public. To any choral conductors who may be attending, we're offering a special invitation: If most of your choir is going to join us for the workshop, we'd love to have your choir participate in this performance. The 3 pm showcase is free and open to the public, so invite your family and friends to stop by. Just fill out the portion at the bottom of the registration form to indicate your interest.
We'll sing, we'll laugh, we'll share - what could be a better way than to start a musical new year? Please join us.
You may register online and make payment via PayPal here, or you may download the registration form by following the same link and mail or fax it in, along with payment.
Please note that your registration is not complete without payment, and registration deadline is January 21.
Choral Singing Workshop for Women
with Elektra Women's Choir
Morna Edmundson, Artistic Director
and guest clinicians
Heather Thomson Price
Voice teacher,UBC School of Music
Ann MacDonald
Artistic Director,Bellingham Sings
Saturday, January 29, 2011
9:30am - 4:00pm
*FREE INFORMAL CONCERT AT 3 PM*
Ryerson United Church
2195 West 45 th Avenue, Vancouver, BC
$40 (Adult) and $35 (Student)
Registration includes lunch and music.
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Spring: O Primavera
Elektra & Pacific Baroque Orchestra - A Match Made in Heaven
 It's always exciting to sing with an orchestra, and Elektra is particularly looking forward to our upcoming exploration of Italian Early Music with the Pacific Baroque Orchestra. We're also very excited that the vocal soloists featured in this concert are all from within Elektra! Our co-production (March 26 & 27) is called Spring: O Primavera.
The place is Venice. The time: exactly 300 years ago. The performers of the day: young women virtuosi in singing and playing instruments, students of the famed Venetian ospedali schools for illegitimate girls. Their music teachers were among the finest composers in Europe: Vivaldi, Porpora, Legrenzi and others, and the music-making so exquisite that people travelled from across the continent just to hear it.
You'll hear orchestral works by Antonio Vivaldi (including the beautiful Primavera from The Four Seasons), and Jean-Baptiste Lully. Elektra joins the orchestra for Nicola Porpora's Magnificat and closes the concert with Vivaldi's familiar and gorgeous Gloria. While Vivaldi is certainly a known name to most of us, Legrenzi and Porpora are not - but never fear, their music is as ravishingly moving as that of the "Red Priest's." Spring: O Primavera is your invitation to a concert evocative of the glories and mystery of Venice, the warmth of Italy, and an exciting collaboration between two local ensembles at the top of their game.
*Please note the Sunday performance starts at 2:30pm, (not 3 pm as previously advertised.)*
Spring: O Primavera A co-presentation of Pacific Baroque Orchestra and Elektra Women's Choir Saturday, March 26, 2011 · 8 pm Ryerson United Church, 2195 W45 Ave, Vancouver
Sunday, March 27, 2011 · 2:30 pm West Vancouver United Church, 2062 Esquimalt Ave, West Vancouver
Adults $30 · Seniors $25 · Students $12 Brown Paper Tickets 1.800.838.3006 www.brownpapertickets.ca 
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Elektra Launches New Repertoire Resource for Women's Choirs
*of special interest to choral conductors!*
The conversation usually goes like this: "Morna, I'm in the middle of planning my repertoire for next season and I need one more folk song that features my altos. What has Elektra done that you would recommend?" Or "We just started working with a fabulous new accompanist and I want to feature her in our next concert" or "Our Christmas concert is shared with a children's choir. Any suggestions for repertoire?"
Then, whether it's in Calgary or Caracas, Smithers or San Francisco, every choral conductor within earshot is gathered around to share their recent discoveries. These are some of the most enjoyable moments of being part of the choral world.
The internet has made it possible for Elektra to launch a brand new resource - think of it as 24/7 access to some of those conversations. Everything Elektra has sung for 24 seasons is there including, in some cases, notes on what the piece is like to teach and conduct, notes from composers, links to composers and publishers, texts and English translations, durations, and more.
The resource is "live" now and growing all the time, as more details are added on the music such as score samples and recorded excerpts. Visit elektra.ca, choose "Repertoire Resources" and click on "Collections" to see a list "Suitable for Young Voices" or "All Canadian Works" or "Christmas Music." Happy browsing! |
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Submissions Deadline for Reading Session of New Compositions is Jan 17!
Are you a budding composer living in the Lower Mainland who has composed a work for treble choir? Do you want to hear it sung by one of the leading women's choirs of North America? Then we need your work by Monday, January 17! Email the pdf of your score to manager@elektra.ca.
We welcomes submissions of new SSAA works for consideration, to be sight read at the choir's Reading Session of New Compositions for Women's Choir, on Monday February 21, 2011 (7 pm - 9:30 pm), held at Ryerson United Church, 2195 West 45th Avenue, Vancouver.
A total of four compositions will be selected from those submitted. Each will receive a reading by the choir as well as constructive comments from the conductor's and singers' viewpoint, and each composer will receive a recording of their part of the evening.
For full information visit our website and while there download the resource document called Writing Well for Women's Choirs. AUDITORS are WELCOME and admission is FREE! Come hear these new works. Who knows? You might be the first to hear something destined to take its place alongside Elektra favourites such as David MacIntyre's beloved Ave Maria!
Reading Session of New Compositions for Women's Choir
Monday February 21, 2011 ~ 7 pm
Ryerson United Church, 2195 West 45th Ave., Vancouver BC
Free Admission - auditors welcome! |
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Have You Visited our YouTube Channel Lately?
 Our presence on YouTube is growing. There's been a flurry of uploads over the holiday season! Recent additions include Ed Henderson's ravishingly beautiful setting of Star Song (poetry by Luci Shaw), Benjamin Britten's There is no Rose, a clip of Elektra warming up for a recent recording session with The Sussex Carol, and more!
These take their place alongside parts 1 and 2 of our From the Hearth retrospective, which looks back at 20 years of music-making and friendship with co-founders and co-directors, Morna Edmundson and Diane Loomer, C.M.
We've also included a meditative clip of R. Murray Schafer's Snowforms that was posted by a fan.
Click here to check them out, and remember to subscribe to the channel so that you're notified of new uploads!
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Connections
Whether by mail, email, Twitter, Facebook, or YouTube, we love hearing from you!
Did you know that your comments are always welcome, and that we have several ways for you to reach us? If you read something that you enjoy on the Elektra blog, feel free to leave a comment. You can find the Elektra blog by clicking on the RSS icon on the Elektra site. (That's the button that looks like this:  ) or you may click on this link.
Elektra's Facebook Page is a going concern (511 visits last week!), full of comments, posts, photos, and general newsy bits, perfect for checking out while enjoying your morning coffee. Feel free to join in the conversation. 
We're on YouTube as well.
If comments in 140 characters are more your style, follow Elektra on Twitter. We're @ElektraYVR and we'd love to connect. 
If you feel moved to write a review of a concert, we'd love to see it! Email it to us and we may post it to our website. Of course, you can also send us a card or a note through the mail. Our address is Elektra Women's Choir, 949 W49th Ave, Vancouver BC V5Z 2T1.
Whichever way you choose to interact with us, we'd love to hear from you!
Elektra couldn't exist without the generous support of people like you; people who believe that choral music is important enough to support. Please consider making a donation to Elektra. Every donation helps and no amount is too small.
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