Elmer Iseler Singers

The Elmer Iseler Singers is one of Canada's foremost professional chamber choirs. This 20-voice choir, based in Toronto, has gained an enviable international reputation since its debut performance in 1979. Now conducted by Lydia Adams, the group was founded by and nurtured under the direction of the late Dr. Elmer Iseler, the "Dean of Canadian Choral Conductors." This celebrated choir has performed throughout Canada and the United States as well as internationally. With repertoire that spans 500 years of choral music, the Elmer Iseler Singers are known for their beauty of tone and wide interpretive range. The choir regularly commissions and performs new works, and is frequently involved in radio and television broadcasts and a variety of recording projects.

The Elmer Iseler Singers have appeared at several national and international festivals, including the Canada in Holland Festival, the Joy of Singing International Choral Festival in Toronto, Festival 500 in Newfoundland, the Festival of the Sound in Parry Sound, Ontario and at the Sixth World Symposium on Choral Music in Minneapolis, USA. They are highly valued for their contributions to master classes and workshops for schools and community choirs. The Singers organization has been associated with celebrated Canadian composers such as R. Murray Schafer, Harry Somers, Louis Applebaum, Harry Freedman, Eric Robertson, Bert Carriere, Srul Irving Glick, Christos Hatzis, Ruth Watson Henderson, Eleanor Daley and many others, premiering and promoting their work through concerts, recordings and broadcasts. Throughout the academic year, the Singers are the Professional Choir-in-Residence at the University of Toronto, Faculty of Music, working with Dr. Doreen Rao, the Elmer Iseler Chair in Conducting. The Singers are also participants in the International Bach Festival conducted by Helmut Rilling.

Discography

Gloria - Sacred Choral Works

Quatre Motets Sur Des Themes Gregoriens - Maurice Durufle Pasumes - 114 and 115 - Milhaud Messe En Sol Majeur - Poulenc O Sacrum Convivium - Messiaen Prayer Of St. Francis - Cabena God The Master Of The Scene - Somers Missa Brevis - Henderson Talmud Suite - Robinovitch

The ''sound'' of the Elmer Iseler Singers, has been described as a fleeting moment of almost ineffable beauty and passion. Elmer Iseler was a man of deep faith, and he professed it in an unusual way: by fashioning a choral instrument, a highly accomplished professional group. The sacred works collected here are varied and touch upon some of the most passionate and poetic humanistic ideals. In this release, Maestro Iseler honours landmarks of the French repertoire by Duruflé, Milhaud, Poulenc and Messiaen. He also features classic works from our time by his own living colleagues - Canadian composers Barrie Cabena, Harry Freedman, Ruth Watson Henderson and Syd Robinovitch.

Ave Maris Stella Gaudete! In the Bleak Mid-winter A Christmas Lullaby Angelus ad Virginem In Dulci Jubilo Jumalisten joucko The Huron Carol Christmas Lullaby Puer Nobis Nascitur Puer Natus in Bethlehem 13) Un Instant Mystique Laetetur Jerusalem Paranymphus Adiens Corde Natus Father’s Love Begotten Waye Not His Cribb Verbum Caro Factum Est Resonet in Laudibus Christmas Song 14th Century

The Iseler Singers perform carols by Canadian composers commissioned for this recording – four original compositions, an arrangement of the Huron Carol and eleven new arrangements of carols from the 1582 collection, “Piae Cantiones” by the Swedish monk, Theodoricus Petrus of Nyland. Published in England in 1853, its timeless melodies have permeated the church music of the English-speaking world. According to Ken Winters’ informative liner notes the only work on the program not commissioned by the Singers is Healey Willan’s miniature masterpiece, Resonet in Laudibus, also from “Piae Cantiones”. Each carol is a highly individual exploration of musical beauty. Exquisite dissonances propel Eleanor Daley’s harmonization of Ave Maris Stella; Eric Robertson astonishes with his symphonic vision of Puer Natus in Bethlehem; Derek Holman’s modal counterpoint to the syncopations of Gaudete bursts with energy; Donald Patriquin’s folk song treatment of Puer Nobis Nascitur is fresh and unexpected; Peter Togni’s arrangement of Corde Natus – Of the Father’s love begotten moves with deft assurance from two-part simplicity to a grand multiphonic concluding Amen.

8457 CD $15.98

O Come All Ye Faithful The Echo Carol The Holly And The Ivy Noel Cest L'Amour Good Christian Men Rejoice Mary Is A Lady Bright Welcome Yule Lullaby For The Christ Child The Twelve Days Of Christmas A Canadian Christmas Carol The Huron Carol God Rest You Merry Gentlemen Deck The Halls Christmas Song Of The 14th Century Masters In This Hall What Is This Lovely Fragrance Cherry Tree Carol ` Il Est Ne Divin Enfant The Golden Vase Carol Variations On The Sussex Carol Hodie Christus Natus Est Angelus Ad Virginem Away In A Manger We Wish You A Merry Christmas

This recording features the contributions of several Canadians to the caroling genre, as composers of new carols and arrangers of old ones. From the perennially beautiful O Come All Ye Faithful and The Holly and the Ivy to the 14th century German Christmas Song, better known as "Joseph, lieber Joseph", this is a lively recording by one of Canada's most loved choirs. Derek Holman's rollicking arrangement of Deck the Halls shows off its insouciance by capturing an unmistakable tipsiness which very likely did accompany the decking of those particular halls. Two of the arranged carols are especially notable: The Huron Carol, known as Canada's first Christmas Carol (1642), is sung here in Robert Anderson's arrangement; and a rare Nova Scotia variant of the Cherry Tree Carol collected by Helen Creighton and arranged by Louis Applebaum.

8459 CD $15.98

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