Choir of Choirs, Winspear Concert Hall

"you're like a saint song to me, i will try and sing it pure and easily"


This was the first concert I have attended here in Edmonton, the Choir of Choirs at the lovely Winspear Center for Music downtown. In celebration of the U of A's centenary, 5 of it's best choirs performed selections of their own and all together in a sort of voltron-like super choir with over 300 singers when all was said and done. The afternoon featured the Augustana choir, the U of A Concert choir, the Chorale Saint-Jean, the U of A Madrigal singers, and the U of A Mixed chorus.

Supporting these voices were a few musicians, the U of A Symphonic Wind ensemble, the University Symphony orchestra and Philip Chow bangin' on the concert hall's impressive Organ.

There was much to enjoy on this freezing afternoon, even the lousy song (the term "shit sandwich" kept running through my mind) was worth listening to for it's comic value. The composer who wrote the piece also presented it and spent longer than the song's length describing the deep philosophical mystery put into his composition. The guy clearly is a victim of highbrow Davinci codeism and years of grant based employ. One lady I overheard on the way out summed it up best: '[the song] wasn't so bad considering the whole place hated it before it even started'.

One of my favorite songs was La Chorale Saint-Jean's 'Je te retrouve':
Quand je pense a d'ou je viens
a cette route qui m'a conduit a qui je suis
Quand je pense aux jours passes
ton nom me vient comme un refrain que j'aime chanter
Quand je pense a tous ces gens
qui ont laisse un coin d'ciel bleu au fond de moi...

The Madrigal singers were a standout, mostly because of this one beautiful girl with long straight platinum grey hair (bangs) and glasses ('sup, shoot me a msg sweetheart).

While the orchestra were nice and the organ is supposedly one of the best (certainly the best in Edmonton), it was when the choirs sung unaccompanied that the afternoon really shone. I know that in small venues, watching small choirs, you can pick out individual voices, but in this concert hall with 300+ singers that was impossible. Even picking out the seperate voice parts (soprano, alto, contralto, etc..) was tough as the harmonization was so overwhelming and, I suspect, complex, with multiple melodies for each group. Closing my eyes and just listening to these voices one layered on the next was intoxicating, and brought tears to the eyes of several concertgoers at many a point.

All in all it was a nice afternoon, and I'm glad I went. Yet another solo adventure into the marvel that is Edmonton culture.