New Beginnings – The Upper Canada Choristers celebrate their 30th anniversary at Grace Church on-the-Hill

A new song by a Grade five student, a specially commissioned work with words by three famous Canadian poets, and two other world premieres are just some of the pleasures in store as the Upper Canada Choristers celebrate their 30th anniversary with a concert titled “New Beginnings”.  Co-founder Laurie Evan Fraser conducts, joined by pianist Hye Won (Cecilia) Lee, and the choir’s accomplished Latin ensemble, Cantemos; with featured guests the Boys’ Choir of Maurice Cody Junior Public School, directed by Carole Snow.

 The following will be heard for the first time:

* We’ll Live in Harmony, with words and music by Maurice Cody School fifth grader Gwyneth Twyford, arranged for the school’s boys’ choir by Laurie Evan Fraser, and performed together with the Upper Canada Choristers’ tenors and basses.

* To Greet the Sun, a commissioned three-movement work by David Archibald, a University of Toronto Masters student in composition, who has woven fragments of poems by three famous Canadians – Bliss Carmen, E. Pauline Johnson/Tekahionwake, and L.M. Montgomery – to embody and celebrate the hope and possibility in beginning anew.

* Little Robin, a song about new beginnings composed and conducted by choir member Matthew Secaur, with lyrics by his daughter, Fiona Ibaseta.  

* Heartshine – Brilla Corazón, composed by Laurie Evan Fraser with lyrics in English and Spanish by Jacqui Atkin and Jacinto Salcedo. 

Interspersed with these is music by Ola Gjello and arrangements of the unofficial Cape Breton anthem We Rise Again, Billy Joel’s And So It Goes, the wistful Scottish song Loch Lomond, Over the Rainbow, and So Let’s Begin Again from John Rutter’s “entertainment”, The Reluctant Dragon.  Recalling its 2019 Peace Through Music visit to Japan, the choir sings Hana Wa Saku (Flowers Will Bloom), written in response to the devastating 2011 Tohoku Tsunami, which took 18,000 lives. The Choristers had initially sung it with a Japanese choir at a concert in Ageo City on the outskirts of Tokyo.

Cantemos, which in 2023 celebrated its 15th anniversary, specializes primarily in music from Latin America.  Tonight the ensemble sings Todo Cambia (Everything Changes) from Chile, and Quinta Anauco (known in English as It Never Ends), dedicated to the  city of Caracas, Venezuela.

Children 16 and under are admitted free of charge when accompanied by an adult. Mask-wearing is strongly recommended.

ALSO STREAMING LIVE: The concert also streams live via the choir’s website, www.uppercanadachoristers.org or directly on YouTube (https://shorturl.at/ewS79) There is no charge but donations are gratefully welcomed.