Near North Voices offers music On Life and Living
Near North Voices – North Bay’s University-Community Choir – is pleased to begin their 10th performance season with music On Life and Living on January 21, at 7:30 p.m., at St. Andrew’s United Church, 399 Cassells St., North Bay.“The ensemble has continued to grow and evolve each year, and the level of repertoire we’ve performed is beyond what one might expect of a non-auditioned university-community choir,” said Dr. Adam Adler, artistic director of Near North Voices and assistant professor of Music Education at Nipissing University. “We’ve consistently challenged ourselves by undertaking Canadian premieres of challenging repertoire, and this concert is no exception.”
The concert On Life and Living will feature works that narrate different life stages and events such as birth, motherhood, friendship, teaching and learning, faith, commitment, celebration, decline, and death. The second half of the concert will feature the Canadian premiere of Requiem for the Living by American composer Daniel Forrest, for choir with organ and chamber ensemble. Requiem For The Living (along with several other works on the program) is an exploration of Parallel Narratives – composed using traditional liturgical texts (because a choir needs text to sing!) as a canvas and foundational narrative about wishing rest for the departed, woven with additional layers of interpretation, meaning and musical story around the life experience and challenges of the living and our need for respite from an increasingly busy and complex world.
Near North Voices is pleased to welcome back Shawn Grenke, Minister of Music at Eglinton St. George’s United Church, Toronto, and Artistic Director of the Woodstock Fanshawe Choir, as guest organist. The performance will also feature North Bay Symphony Orchestra musicians Calvin Cheng (violin), Rosalyn Heuer (cello), Mary Kennedy (flute), Geoff Sinclair (French horn), and Angela Schleihauf (oboe), and Marilyn Sutherland (piano, harp/keyboard).
On Life and Living takes place on Saturday, January 21, at 7:30 p.m., St. Andrew’s United Church, 399 Cassells St., North Bay. Tickets are $20 for adults, and $10 for post-secondary students with valid student I.D., available at Gulliver’s Quality Books and Toys on Main St., and at the door.
For further information, go towww.nearnorthvoices.com.