Vancouver Chamber Choir sings in honour of the patron saint of music, November 4

CECILIA is a mixed program that features three works by composers who share the titular saint’s first name, among other stirring pieces

By Gail johnson

Kari Turunen.

Vancouver Chamber Choir presents CECILIA on November 4 at 7:30 pm at Pacific Spirit United Church

DEVOUT, PROGRESSIVE, SERENE, and anguished: these are words that Vancouver Chamber Choir artistic director Kari Turunen uses to describe texts that will come to vocalized life when the ensemble presents Cecilia, a concert in honour of the patron saint of music.

If it sounds as if the mixed program might seem somewhat unruly, that’s the point: “Inspiration tends to lead us down unexpected paths and make the world more colorful and surprising than sturdy craft,” Turunen writes in his program notes. “A Cecilian world is one that challenges, comforts and delights.”

The mixed program features works by three composers who share the same name as the titular saint: Canada’s Cecilia Livingston (“Bright Wings:); England’s Cecilia McDowall (“Cecilia, Busy Like a Bee”); and Finnish artist Cecilia Damström (Rädda mig). There are pieces by Irish composers Rhona Clarke and Ina Boyle as well as Yellowknife composer Carmen Braden, among others. Then there’s Benjamin Britten’s rhapsodic four-movement “Hymn to St. Cecilia”, set to a poem he commissioned from W. H. Auden.

More details are at Vancouver Chamber Choir.

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