Elektra Women’s Choir: The First Twenty Years
by Maggie Burr, former Elektra singer
[note: Maggie wrote this article for the concert celebrating Elektra’s twentieth anniversary, held on April 14, 2007. Covering twenty years of history, this is not a short read - but it is highly personal and entertaining. Enjoy!]
Mandate:
To inspire and lead in the choral artform through excellence in performance and through the creation, exploration and celebration of women’s repertoire.
Elektra leapt onto the Vancouver music scene on October 25, 1987 creating a blaze of excitement from the beginning. Our premiere concert was at the Unitarian Church, and we sang to friends and family, offering them cookies and coffee afterwards. They came away enthralled with this amazing choir of women who stunned them with their glitz, their glamour and their gorgeous singing. Instructions for our concert outfit read: “Any combination of black, gold and silver. The more glitz the better.” And we went for it! Each woman was able to present her own personality, be it modest, chic, or ‘way out there.’ This disparate group had been molded and refined by our two skilled conductors, making us into a cohesive singing whole. Between them, they managed to blend the high sweet sound of the sopranos with the warm depth of the second altos, fill with the luscious voices in between, and create the “Elektra sound”, which has literally become known throughout the world.
Earlier in 1987, Morna (Russell) Edmundson and Diane Loomer, friends from UBC School of Music days, had confided to each other that they had each been thinking of starting a women’s choir. Rather than competing with each other, they decided to do it together. Over many kitchen table conversations, they contacted their favourite singers, chose music they had been longing to perform, and set a date and place for a fall concert. Of course, this new choir needed a name, so the singers were called together for a name brainstorming session. As soon as we heard the word “Elektra” we knew that was who we were, but we weren’t to know then that we were going to re-define the meaning of “women’s choir’ and “elektrify” a worldwide audience.
Through the last 20 years, over 150 singers whose ages have ranged from 17 to 79 have been members of Elektra. There are usually about 40 singers in Elektra and we are divided into four voices. From the highest to the lowest voices we are: 1st and 2nd sopranos, and 1st and 2nd altos. Each of these sections can be divided into two or even three parts, so that at times we could be singing in 12 part harmony. Many travel long distances just to come to weekly rehearsals. For most of us, Monday nights have become time to be together with other women who want to work hard and produce something beautiful and meaningful. Some stay for a year or two, others much longer, and five of us have been with the choir from the very beginning. Singers have been teachers and students, arts administrators, lawyers and police officers, an architect and a pharmacist, choir directors and band leaders, organists, a flutist, a harpist, guitarists and pianists, dancers and a stiltwalker, accountants, office workers and a financial planner, a sales manager and a preacher. One of our singers has composed several pieces for Elektra, which we have been honoured to premiere. We are typical 21st century women – we have careers, homes, families, but even more - each of us has a strong passion for singing.
We have had the privilege of working with several excellent pianists during our first 20 years. The inimitable Joyce Maguire accompanied our first two concerts. When it came time to find a permanent accompanist, Eric Hominick delighted us for over a decade with his quirky sense of humour and excellent musicianship. When Eric decided to move on, one of Vancouver’s finest, Steven Smith, took over and is still with us, smilingly attending each rehearsal, helping us with notes, knowing exactly where the conductor wants to start, arranging and composing several pieces for us, and adding colour and complexity to our music through his mastery of the piano.
In 1992, armed with encouragement from our friends at Skylark Music, we recorded our first CD, Elektra Women's Choir, which was nominated for a Juno award, was reviewed the week it was released on the front page of the arts section of the Globe and Mail, and is still my favourite of all our eight CDs. Included in the package is a photograph of the choir, dressed in our gold and silver glitz. Imagine our surprise when, on tour, we met an Australian choir that had modeled itself on us. They sang our CD repertoire and dressed exactly like us. We were absolutely thrilled by the compliment.
Unbeknownst to us, over the next few years, that first CD was making the rounds of choral conductors in the United States and elsewhere who were looking to elevate women’s choir music from something often considered second rate, to an art form on a par with a mixed choir. Elektra’s “big break” came nine years into our story in the form of an invitation to represent Canada at the fourth World Symposium on Choral Music in Sydney, Australia in the summer of 1996. Delegates from all over the world embraced Elektra’s rich tone and began to perform our Canadian repertoire in Japan, Korea, Australia, England, Germany, Spain, the US and beyond.
Less than a year later, we were honoured to perform for the National Convention of the American Choral Directors Association in San Diego, where we were treated like rock stars and sold $14,000 worth of CDs in four days at our trade show booth. And so it has continued. Elektra has struck a chord throughout the choral world. Our conductors have been overwhelmed by requests for copies of our music and invitations to lecture and conduct. Since the San Diego debut, we sang again for the ACDA National Convention in New York City in 2002 and in Edmonton for ISME, the International Society of Music Educators. We have performed for conferences of both the Association of Canadian Choral Conductors and the BC Music Educators’ Association. We have had the thrill to sing in some of the most prestigious halls in the world – Benaroya Hall in Seattle, the Sydney Opera House in Australia and Carnegie Hall and Avery Fisher Hall in New York City.
One of the attendees of the WSCM in Sydney was Gunther Graulich from Carus Publishing in Germany. He was so taken with Elektra’s rendition of Josef Rheinberger’s Wie lieblich sind deine Wohnungen that he determined to have us record a whole CD of Rheinberger’s works for women’s choirs, the result of which was our first European release, the CD Josef Gabriel Rheinberger: Missa et Hymni.
Over 20 years, Elektra has won eight First Prizes in the CBC National Competition for Amateur Choirs, and in 1993 we had the honour of being forwarded by the CBC to the European Broadcasting Union for the Let the Peoples Sing competition. We won first prize for women’s choirs at Kathaumixw in Powell River. We have often been recorded and broadcast on the CBC and can be heard regularly on National Public Radio in the United States. We have been invited guests at the Women in View Festival, Vancouver’s First Night Celebrations, YWCA Women of Distinction Awards and Music in the Morning, and have performed as guests of the Seattle Men’s Chorus and Americafest in Seattle.
Part of the joy of being internationally connected is that we have the good fortune to work and perform with illustrious and wonderful choral conductors from all over the world: Javier Busto from Spain, Maria Guinand from Venezuela, Patricia Hennings from California, Robert Sund and Eric Ericson from Sweden to name a few. In the late 1980s, when he arrived to lead a workshop with Elektra, Ericson, arguably one of the most influential choral conductor of the last century, informed Diane and Morna that he had never worked with a women’s choir in his fifty years as a professional conductor. The next couple of hours were full of discoveries on all sides, and Ericson later told us “Before tonight, I thought a women’s choir was like a string quartet with all first violins. But tonight has changed my mind.” He fell in love with the gorgeous, rich sound from Elektra’s second altos. This is true - I am not exaggerating (even though I am a second alto myself.)
Much of our repertoire is sung a cappella, but sometimes we will decide to offer a different quality of sound in a concert or explore a different repertoire. We have been accompanied over the years by piano, organ, a string quartet, French horn, harp, flute, a chamber orchestra, oboe, a dulcimer, and different exotic percussion instruments. Usually, vocal soloists are chosen from the choir, but occasionally we will ask a professional singer to sing with us. Familiar names of those who have musically collaborated with us are: Andrew Dawes, Judith Forst, Sal Ferreras, Rita Costanzi, Sergiu Comissiona, Nancy DiNovo, Ramona Luengen, Mario Bernardi, Leon Bibb, the Borealis String Quartet, and Dame Kiri Te Kanawa.
Many times, the choir has been invited to sing with Bramwell Tovey and the VSO. We have loved being fairies in Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, we have shivered ecstatically while singing the haunting Neptune in The Planets by Gustav Holst, and have joyfully danced around the stage in Gilbert & Sullivan numbers or harkened back to the days of the infamous Rat Pack. Another thrill was sending an Elektra contingent to be part of the 2004 CBC Easter Sunrise celebration broadcast live on CBC TV and Radio. We have sung several memorable performances with Chor Leoni Men’s Choir, which is also conducted by Diane Loomer, and had an unforgettable evening of d-e-e-e-p Country with the Vancouver Men’s Chorus. We have joined in Vancouver’s love affair with the Bard tent at Vanier Park, and have become, through many different performing opportunities, part of the fabric of Vancouver’s musical life.
It was odd in those early years, as we were planning the trip to the Sydney Opera House, to realize that Elektra had never been further east than Mission, BC, nor further south or west than Victoria, BC in its first eight years. Touring with women who have so many demands on their daily lives is not easily accomplished, and we consider ourselves fortunate to have been able to spread our music through recordings and broadcasts where we could not yet travel in person.
Elektra has been fortunate to be able to mentor and support other musicians. We have commissioned or premiered over forty works by Canadian composers and arrangers. Three times in recent years, Elektra has hosted Tapestry concerts, bringing together a variety of invited women’s choirs, some of whom have come up from the United States to sing with us. We have invited the young singers from Coastal Sound, another of Morna Edmundson’s choirs, to participate with us in concerts. Our conductors lead a mentorship program for young conductors, using the choir as a practice tool. We have biennial reading sessions where composers are invited to hear their new music read by the choir, and to receive feedback from the singers as well as the conductors. At this year’s session, we sang works submitted by five composers including a composition submitted by one of our very own singers, as well as a piece from a musician who traveled from Toronto to hear her composition sung and to receive her critique in person.
We have recently developed a web site – www.elektra.ca - that serves as a welcome resource for conductors throughout the world. Its new “Thirty Top Picks” section gives descriptions, texts and translations, sound bytes and score examples of outstanding Canadian repertoire for treble voices. Again, technology is making it possible for Elektra’s influence to go beyond our own presence.
Approximately midway through our 20 years, we had to make an assessment of where Elektra was going. We were popular and successful, receiving many requests to sing at festivals, concerts, and conferences, not just in our home province of British Columbia, but all over the world. But the choir felt pulled in too many directions. We had to make the hard decision that it just wasn’t possible, either monetarily or time-wise, for most of the women to commit to a large number of concerts and trips. So we clarified our priorities and looked hard at everything we were doing to make sure our energies were going to the most meaningful projects. The result was programming with an average of two self-produced concerts per season, irresistible guest performances for other local arts organizations, occasional trips where we share our music while also learning from other musicians, performing outreach concerts in support of good causes, being there for each others’ special events and milestones, and recording CDs. To date Elektra has recorded eight CDs, all of which are still commercially available.
We are an amateur group, meaning none of the singers are paid; rather, we are levied a yearly membership fee, which goes towards buying music, and paying the conductors, our accompanist, and our part-time manager, as well as towards the expenses of mounting concerts and paying honoraria to our guest artists. We have had wonderful support from all levels of government: federal, provincial and municipal; from private donors; and from charitable foundations. Since1995, when we incorporated as a non-profit society, we have relied on a Board of Directors. Largely made up of members of the choir, the board has bravely and expertly organized tours and fundraising galas, as well as overseeing the budget and the administration.
Elektra has matured. We no longer astonish or aggravate our audiences with our over-the-top glitzy clothes, but have cultivated a more uniform, elegant, 21C look. Even though over 100 voices have come and gone from our ranks, the Elektra “sound” has become well-defined and consistent. Our audience has grown in numbers and we sing for more than just friends and family now. Sadly, we no longer offer post-concert cookies and coffee. Our sophisticated listeners come, expecting to hear and be moved by the consistent, high quality performances to which they have grown accustomed, and Elektra proudly strives to live up to their expectations.
