Community Connections

As an extension of our mission, to inspire and lead in the choral art form, Esprit Singers is proud to offer several ongoing programs that support others in the choral community. These opportunities are focused primarily on support, encouragement and education. The programming provides an artistically rich environment to ensure that there is opportunity for participants to learn and grow. Esprit Singers has three such programs which involve collaboration with other choirs, composers and conductors. Please join us!

Composers

We work with a composer on their choral composition, allowing the composer to hear their work performed and make adjustments and revisions with increased ease of reading, performing and enhancing.

For many composers, an electronic choral simulator is often the first or only approach to hear their compositions. An electronic choral simulator has several challenges compared to having an actual choir while composing. These simulated voices allow for accuracy of note writing, but not awareness of range limitations in the human voice, or the ability to gauge density of part-writing.

This opportunity for composers could lead to the performance of the work, offering the composer a public ‘airing’ of their music.

Esprit Singers offers composers the opportunity for a choral workshop in a limited rehearsal setting, with the goal of having the work performed at a future Esprit Singers concert. Composers can submit compositions for selection by Esprit Singer’s artistic director. The selection will be based on quality and choral specifications (i. e: length, difficulty, appropriate text, etc.) for this workshop and possible performance opportunities.

2024

Esprit Singers presented the world premiere of Songs of Spring by internationally sought-after Canadian composer, Sarah Quartel on Sunday, May 5th , 2024.

The commission, Songs of Spring, was funded by a generous donor and is comprised of three songs forming an a cappella song cycle for treble voices. Sarah Quartel writes that the songs can be presented alone too. Anyone who has had the opportunity to sing Sarah Quartel’s work will find these three songs a fascinating glimpse into the composer’s writing as it evolves with continuous commissions and international exposure.

The texts to the songs are from three poems by the American lyric poet Sara Teasdale, who won the Pulitzer Prize in 1917:

  • Sister of the Sky (from the poem Morning) – Sara Teasdale
  • Fearless Heart (from the poem May Night) – Sara Teasdale
  • Sing Before Night (from the poem Dusk in June) – Sara Teasdale

Sarah Quartel’s treatment of the poetry is as lyrical as Teasdale’s writing, resulting in music evocatively matching the imagery, and rhythms supporting the beat and flow of the text.

2022

We were thrilled to premier a three movement composition, Incandescent, by Winnipeg composer Neil Weisensel and Rachel Landrecht, librettist. The music celebrated the organ in memory of G. Barry Anderson. This was premiered on April 30, 2022 with guest organist Sarah Svendson on the Barry Anderson organ, Knox United Church, Winnipeg.

Incandescent (2022)

  1. Invocation
  2. Incarnation
  3. Incandescent

“Amazing low notes audible on the organ! The first chord that the choir sings is so powerful. I get chills listening to it The organ solo in the first movement – your guest artist Sarah Svendsen is a remarkable player. The superb quality of the choral sound is very satisfying for a composer. I had tears in my eyes watching the video.”

Neil Weisensel, Composer

“Working and co-creating with Valdine Anderson and Esprit de Choeur was a beautiful and transformative experience. After meeting and sharing our proposed concept, we were gifted with the support and freedom to create whatever wanted to flow through us.

Composer Neil Weisensel is also an organist so he was very excited to write something for Sarah Svendsen, knowing she could handle anything he asked of her. The same was absolutely true of the choir. All of these things made everything more expansive and easy to imagine.

This work is presented as an invitation for each singer to enter into sacred presence with their matriarchal, ancestrial lineage. We wanted specifically to invoke a field of welcoming, appreciation, reverence, and healing. Having each singer uniquely co-create by saying/singing the name of their mother, grandmother, or great grandmother creates a unique work every time. I had chills listening to it at the premier, and I am so honoured to have co-created this beautiful work with everyone.”

Rachel Landrecht, Librettist

2018

Esprit de Choeur was thrilled to work with Dr. David Scott. Dr. Scott is created a new choral composition to the text by a young Icelandic poet, Magnus Sigurdsson that was selected pieces premiered in Iceland on August 12, 2018

The five-movement composition is in a setting of selected poems from the collection, Cold Moons by the Icelandic writer, Magnús Sigurðsson. The text is sung in the original Icelandic dialect and in English, translated by Meg Matich.

White Field (2018)

  1. Blackbirds/Svartþrestir
  2. Agriculture/Akuryrkja
  3. Through the Dark Forest/Um Myrkurskóginn
  4. Icy Moon/Frosið tungl
  5. Day Lilies/Daglilian

Funding for this commission was provided by the Canada Council for the Arts.

Further support provided by Bockstael Construction Limited.

2015

World Premier : On This Late Morn

In 2015, Esprit de Choeur commissioned Vancouver composer, Glenn Sutherland, to compose two songs which were premiered by the choir in Vancouver at the Tapestry International Music Festival.

“Working with Valdine and Esprit de Choeur on their commission was a truly memorable and delightful collaboration, both personally and professionally. From initial discussions of the work’s shape with Valdine, to workshopping the piece with Esprit, through to their premiere performance – full of warmth, grace and deep feeling, to which the audience responded in kind – I remain deeply honoured to have been a part of their process of artistic creation and expression.”

Glenn Sutherland, Composer

Choirs

We offer a workshop for rural, emerging or developing choirs in a rehearsal setting to work on the technical aspects of singing as well as specific choral song selections.

The benefits for an emerging choir to sing with a more experienced group like Esprit Singers, includes enhanced musical scope and choral confidence, awareness and development of choral technique ideas, and observation of choral etiquette.

Esprit Singers would offer developing choirs from Winnipeg or rural Manitoban communities the opportunity to:

  1. Work together with Esprit Singers in a workshop/rehearsal setting to stimulate and motivate the choir’s understanding of choral techniques and offer ideas for phrasing and other musically enhancing concepts. The conductor of the developing choir and Esprit Singers would choose a choral piece that both choirs prepare and then rehearse together under Esprit Singers’ leadership.
  2. Prepare a choral work of the developing choir’s choosing for Valdine Anderson to attend, and provide a workshop in a rehearsal setting.

Choirs We Have Performed With:

Esprit Singers have been honoured to perform with several international choirs including:

The opportunity to expand and grow musically is a gift. 

Conductors

Valdine works with a conductor with a choice of options in a rehearsal setting:

  1. With the conductor’s choir on a mutually set number of pieces.
  2. With the conductor, privately, for a mutually arranged amount of time.

OR

  1. With Esprit Singers, after a session with option a) or b) on one specific piece. The conductor would be invited to stay and observe the remainder of the Esprit Singers rehearsal for further development.