Like sifting through a collection of treasures, audiences will delight in the mix of old and new in Lost and Found, a weekend of TWU Chamber Choir concerts featuring favourite choral selections from recent years.
Performances will run Nov. 3 and 4 in Abbotsford and Langley.
Under the direction of Dr. Joel Tranquilla, award-winning conductor and director of choral activities at TWU, the choir will present pieces from its upcoming tour of the Far East, which covers a variety of musical genres including English Baroque (Purcell), French 19th-century (Fauré) and contemporary Canadian (Nickel). A selection of traditional songs from South Africa, France, China, and the United States rounds out this richly diverse program.
Arvo Pärt’s The Woman with the Alabaster Box and Rend Collective’s Alabaster, re-tell the story of Jesus and the woman with the alabaster box. Other selections evoke, through textual or musical depictions, the sounds and imagery of bells and starlight.
Henry Purcell’s Rejoice in the Lord Always is often referred to as the “Bell Anthem” for its opening accompaniment figure that sounds like the chiming of church bells.
Tim Corlis’ Sonnez les cloches is a clever arrangement of the well-known children’s song Frere Jacques, while Jon Washburn’s Chinese Melodies is a beautiful mash-up of two traditional songs with distinctive bell imagery.
Songs by Eriks Esenvalds, Frank Ticheli, and Samuel Barber employ night-time language in which starlight comes to represent health and hope and majesty.
“Much of the music is about waiting quietly, and I think that message is an important one to hear in our busy day-to-day lives,” said Tranquilla.
Lost and Found features several Trinity Western voice majors in classical solo selections. They include: Kathy Haddadkar (Abbotsford), Sarah Quinn (Langley), Katrina Reynolds (Calgary), Anna-Marie Ryan (Agassiz), and Chloé Thiessen (Calgary).
TWU’s Chamber Choir performs at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 3 at Emmanuel Free Reformed Church, 3366 Mount Lehman Rd, Abbotsford and at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 4 at Langley Canadian Reform Church, 21804 52 Ave., Langley.
Tickets are $10 each from Eventbrite.
