Vancouver Chamber Choir perform Renaissance Madrigals
A night of renaissance polyphony performed by the Vancouver Chamber Choir, presented by Muzewest Concerts
Sat, 28 January 2023, 7:30 PM – 9:00 PM PST
Annex 823 Seymour Street Vancouver, BC V6B 3L4
Join us for an unforgettable night of renaissance choral music performed live and in-person by the Vancouver Chamber Choir led by Artistic Director Kari Turunen.
This concert is taking place on the ancestral and living lands of the Coast Salish Peoples.
COVID GUIDELINES (as of July 25, 2022):
Müzewest Concerts follows current provincial health orders
All guests are encouraged to wear masks and we will have some available if people wish.
There will be no intermission in order to reduce crowding into smaller spaces
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
The Vancouver Chamber Choir was founded by Jon Washburn in 1971 and it has become an amazing success story, ranking with the handful of North America’s best professional choruses and noted for its diverse repertoire and performing excellence. The choir has presented concerts to audiences at home in Vancouver and on tour across Canada. International excursions have taken the them to the USA, Mexico, Japan, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, Finland, France, Germany, the Czech Republic, Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Ukraine.
Honoured with the Margaret Hillis Award for Choral Excellence by Chorus America, the choir has performed countless concerts and broadcasts, released 36 recordings and received numerous awards. Foremost supporters of Canadian music, they are responsible for commissions and premieres of 334 choral works by 145 composers and arrangers, most of whom are Canadian. Over the years the choir has sung over 4,000 performances of works by Canadian composers, in addition to their extensive international repertoire.
The choir’s award-winning educational programs include the Conductors’ Symposium for advanced choral conductors, Interplay interactive workshops for choral composers, Focus professional development program for student singers, OnSite visitations for school choirs, the biennial Young Composers’ Competition, and many on-tour workshops and residencies.
Kari Turunen was educated at the University of Helsinki and the Sibelius Academy where he studied choral conducting (MA). He holds a doctorate in early music performance practice from the University of the Arts, Helsinki. From August 2019 he is the new artistic director of the professional Vancouver Chamber Choir.
Before moving to Canada Dr. Turunen taught choral conducting at the Tampere University of Applied Sciences’ School of Music, between 2001 and 2011. After 2011 he was a free-lance conductor and has been the artistic director of, for example, the following Finnish choirs: Akademiska Damkören Lyran (1998–2009), Akademiska Sångföreningen (2008–2019); Kampin Laulu chamber choir (2011–2019); the choir of the cantors of the Finnish Lutheran Church, Chorus Cantorum Finlandiae (2011–2019); Spira Ensemble (2012–19) and the professional early music ensembles Ensemble Petraloysio and I Dodici, with which he continues to work sporadically. He was a member of Lumen Valo, a vocal ensemble that is one of the driving forces on the Finnish early music scene, for 26 years (1993–2019).
Dr. Turunen appears regularly as a teacher of choral courses, adjudicator and clinician. Dr. Turunen acted as chair of the Finnish Choral Directors’ Association (FCDA) 1997–2018. He was the Choral Conductor of the Year 2008 in Finland.