| Members of the |
It’s getting to be a habit for Christ Church Cathedral’s choir. For the fourth time, they’ve won the national CBC contest for amateur choirs in the church choir category.
Directed by Rupert Lang, the group sang four pieces in a live radio competition May 2 and 3 broadcast by the Canadian Broadcast Corporation from Vancouver and other cities. They sang pieces by Quick, Sweelinck, Howells, and Poulenc.
The choir won a cash prize of $3,000, and another $1,000 award for the best performance of a Canadian choral work, the Jonathan Quick piece, “Angels from Heaven.”
The Cathedral Choir won in 1998, 2000, 2002 and now 2006. They had to sit out the competition in 2004, the CBC ruled, after they won three consecutive competitions. The competition is held every two years.
Meanwhile, the choir is raising money to go on a Mexican tour for ten days in July. Central Mexico is an area that rarely receives English-speaking choral groups, and this is an opportunity for the choir to share its music and language.
The choir will have the opportunity to participate in local services as well as sing concerts in some of the most spectacular Baroque-era cathedrals of central Mexico, in acoustics similar to those for which the choir’s repertoire was written. The tour repertoire will include examples of Mexican Baroque-era composers, and showcase Canadian composers including Lang’s own works.
The choir is launching a multi-faceted fundraising campaign called Rumbo a México (On the way to Mexico). Events include a rummage sale on May 13 (10 am – 2 pm) at Kerrisdale Presbyterian Church, and a concert at the Cathedral on June 3 at 8 pm. For information about the sale and concert, call 604.682.3848 or www.cathedral.vancouver.bc.ca/choirtour