Celebrate Mother’s Day by joining The Vancouver Bach Choir for a concert of favourites!
3pm, Sunday 13 May 2012
Reception following the concert in the Trendell Lounge, St. John’s Shaughnessy Anglican Church, 1490 Nanton Avenue at Granville
For ticket information, please call our office at 604.872.8789 or purchase online using the button below.
2012 MARCH 31, Saturday, 8pm
Orpheum Theatre
Haydn’s masterpiece performed in the original German. Haydn spent almost two years completing this work, the most time spent on any of his works. He was to have said, “I spent much time over it because I expect it to last a long time.” This is surely the most celebrated oratorio after Handel’s Messiah and rightly so.
It is a miracle of invention, word painting, and it conveys a sense of awe and wonder from the mysterious opening bars depicting Chaos until the Third Part in the Garden of Eden where peace and serenity reign. Featuring triumphant choruses and achingly beautiful arias, this work has not been programmed by the VBC in over a decade and it now makes a welcome return and brings a classic end to an adventurous season.
2012 FEBRUARY 25, Saturday, 8pm
Orpheum Theatre
Two of the most explosive works of the 20th century. Stravinsky’s Les Noces (1923) is striking in its folklike writing which conjures up the excitement and ceremony of a rustic wedding. Featuring chorus, soloists, an ensemble of four pianos and an array of percussion instruments, this is a landmark work of the twentieth century and is perhaps Stravinsky’s most original creation. Carl Orff’s Catulli Carmina (1943), the “sequel” to his celebrated Carmina Burana uses similar forces and is a setting of the writings of Catullus (1st century BC Roman poet) which celebrates love and desire before the ultimate betrayal. The pulsing and driving rhythms of the music combined with the highly erotic poetry is sure to ignite one’s passions. We open the concert with Midsummer Flower (2008) by Marcel Bergmann, one of the featured pianists of the evening, which is a highly lyrical invocation to the first breath of spring
Join the full array of the Vancouver Bach Choir and the many groups of the Vancouver Bach Children’s Chorus accompanied by organ and brass ensemble as we celebrate the festive season.
This concert will feature beloved traditional Christmas favourites as well as newer works, including a world premiere for the massed forces from the team of composer Cameron Wilson and writer Kico González-Risso. The concert is on Sunday December 4 – 2:00 pm at the Orpheum Theatre.
The Vancouver Bach Choir is pleased to announce our new “30 Under 30” program. If you’re 30 years of age or under, you can sign up to receive special discount tickets for our regular season concerts. Tickets are 2 for $30 and only available for a limited time.
How does it work?
Sign up for our 30 Under 30 mailing list, and the week of our concert, you will receive an email with a coupon code. You will have 48 hours to purchase tickets with that coupon code. Seats are for the best available seats (excluding Dress Circle), and purchases are unlimited.
Rules
The VBC is pleased to announce that Kemuel Wong is our new Assistant Conductor, as of 1 September 2011. Kemuel holds a Masters of Music in Choral Conducting and a Bachelor of Music degree, Major in General Studies: Secondary Education Stream from the University of British Columbia. More details are available on our Artistic Team page.
Leslie Dala, music director of the Vancouver Bach Choir, would love to have you join him and the choir for an open rehearsal of Brahms’ German Requiem.
| Where: | Vancouver Academy of Music, Recital Hall |
| 1270 Chestnut Street | |
| Vancouver, BC | |
| When: | Tuesday 31 May 2011 at 7:30 pm |
| RSVP: | Barbara Livingston, VBC General Manager |
| 604.872.8789 |
Come and join Maestro Dala and the Vancouver Bach Choir for a read-through of one of the world’s greatest oratorios!
** We have some scores available but if you have your own, it would be greatly appreciated if you would bring it along! **
The offices of the Vancouver Bach Choir are now at Heritage Hall in the Mount Pleasant neighbourhood of Vancouver. Heritage Hall is a landmark building at the corner of 15th Avenue and Main Street in Vancouver.
The hall is located at 3102 Main Street in Vancouver, ten minutes from downtown. Free parking available on local streets. There is no “resident only” parking in this neighbourhood. The building is also wheelchair accessible.
Vancouver Bach Choir
Heritage Hall
#304 – 3102 Main Street,
Vancouver, BC
V5T 3G7
Telephone 604-872-8789
David Gordon Duke of The Vancouver Sun wrote in his review of The Damnation of Faust— the Bach Choir’s 2011 Season finale concert:
“Programming Damnation as the Vancouver Bach Choir’s season finale demands to be read as a clear statement of intent for new VBC conductor Leslie Dala. And good for him. Saturday’s mammoth production at the Orpheum was a red-letter event… The importance of the conductor as commanding general can’t be overstated: Dala performed with courage and theatrical panache, ending his inaugural year in triumph— and with an implicit promise of further excitement to come.”
Leslie Dala has already made an impression as Maestro of the Vancouver Bach Choir.
Leslie Dala’s appointment as Music Director was announced in December 2009. At the time, Anthony Roper, President of the Vancouver Bach Choir, expressed great pleasure at the appointment and the expectation of many years of stellar music making.
Leslie agreed, “I am thrilled to be chosen as the new Music Director of the Vancouver Bach Choir. This is one of Canada’s most acclaimed choirs and it is a great honour to succeed Bruce Pullan who has left a remarkable legacy during the course of his tenure. I relish this opportunity and I look forward to the challenges ahead and to working with this wonderful ensemble in exploring the great works for chorus and orchestra”.
Described as “a dynamic young conductor, equally at home with symphonic music, opera and contemporary work”, Leslie Dala is in demand across Canada. He has been Music Director of the Prince George Symphony Orchestra for seven seasons, Chorus Director and Associate Conductor with the Vancouver Opera for five seasons and was recently appointed Principal Conductor of the Vancouver Academy of Music Orchestra.
During his tenure with the Prince George Symphony the orchestra has given many first performances of important works from the 20th Century as well as several premieres of newly commissioned works. As Chorus Director and Associate Conductor of Vancouver Opera, Leslie has assisted with over fifty main stage productions and conducted the company premiere of Kurt Weill’s Threepenny Opera, and Verdi’s Rigoletto.
Leslie Dala’s experience and interests fit well with the Vancouver Bach Choir, specializing as it does in symphonic choral music. Through its own series of concerts, the choir has become known for presenting the Canadian or British Columbian premieres of many important choral works such as Mahler’s 8th Symphony, Berlioz’ Messe Solennelle, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Requiem and Paul McCartney’s Liverpool Oratorio as well as a broad spectrum of music from the symphonic choral repertoire. The choir has also made several successful films for television including Whalesong, the Gemini Award-winning film of its Expo 86 concert, and has toured nationally and internationally, singing from London to Tokyo and from Warsaw and Paris to Toronto and Calgary.
Read the full review from The Georgia Straight
Read the full review from The Vancouver Sun
Quotes from the Faust concert preview and reviews:
“According to the Vancouver Bach Choir’s new conductor Leslie Dala, “Berlioz’ Le damnation de Faust isn’t a concert: it’s an event!” He’s absolutely right.”
“…there are musical reasons aplenty to have put Damnation near the top of Dala’s wish list as something just right for the Bach Choir: A splendid end to his first season…”
“Rarely has the road to hell been described in music so powerful– and so very appealing.”
David Gordon Duke / concert preview in The Vancouver Sun / 2011 April 14
“…a wonderful rendition Saturday night at the Orpheum by the Vancouver Bach Choir, the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, and a set of splendid soloists with conductor Leslie Dala. The performance of this epic work drew cheers that were long and loud and deserved.”
“The choir sang wonderfully, right down to the mock-serious fugue that follows “The Song of the Rat“, with its demandingly high part for the tenors…”
“…the three soloists— tenor Paul Groves as Faust, bass-baritone John Relyea as Mephistopheles, and Allyson McHardy as Marguerite— were nothing less than sensational. Bass-baritone Giles Tomkins in the minor role of Brander was impressive as well.”
“For this rarely done work (because it’s just too big) almost everything came off, including the Bach Choir’s first use of Surtitles. That made perfect sense: this is a work where you want to know what’s going on.”
Lloyd Dykk / concert review in The Georgia Straight / 2011 April 18
“Programming Damnation as the Vancouver Bach Choir’s season finale demands to be read as a clear statement of intent for new VBC conductor Leslie Dala. And good for him. Saturday’s mammoth production at the Orpheum was a red-letter event.”
“The importance of the conductor as commanding general can’t be overstated: Dala performed with courage and theatrical panache, ending his inaugural year in triumph— and with an implicit promise of further excitement to come.”
David Gordon Duke / concert review in The Vancouver Sun / 2011 April 18