What would the earth say if it could sing?
That question sits at the heart of Unsung: If the Earth Could Sing, a compelling choral work by Canadian composer Katerina Gimon, featured in Elektra’s upcoming concert If the Earth Could Sing on March 28–29. Shaped by the realities of climate change, the piece doesn’t begin with warnings or statistics — it begins with listening: to land, weather, and the places we know and love.
Inspired by climate change, Unsung unfolds across five movements, each shaped by a different Canadian landscape. The music travels loosely from east to west, allowing place to guide sound and structure. Storms gather and pass. Water stretches wide and still. Grasslands breathe. Mountains ring and echo. Ice speaks with a stark, steady presence. Throughout, the landscapes themselves become the storytellers.
What emerges is vivid and immersive. Choral textures shift as terrain shifts, moving between intimacy and sweep, stillness and motion. Language changes, colour deepens, and momentum builds or dissolves as the music responds to the character of each place. Familiar landscapes begin to feel newly heard — not dramatized, but closely observed.
At its core, Unsung is about attention. It asks us to notice what we love, what we rely on, and what is fragile — and to consider how our choices shape the landscapes that shape us. The work resists easy conclusions. Instead, it creates space to sit with complexity, holding beauty and vulnerability in the same breath.
That perspective feels especially resonant in performance. Unsung is written for voices in motion and for listeners willing to lean in. Its power lies not only in what it depicts, but in how it asks us to listen: patiently, carefully, and with care.
About the composer
Katerina Gimon is a Canadian composer widely recognized for choral music that is emotionally direct, text-driven, and closely connected to the world around us. Her work is performed across Canada and internationally, and she has received numerous awards and commissions for her writing. Alongside her work as a composer, Gimon is also a member of Elektra, bringing a singer’s perspective to music that lives and breathes on stage. That dual lens — composer and performer — shapes Unsung from the inside out.
Unsung: If the Earth Could Sing is a central work in If the Earth Could Sing, our March concert that listens closely to the natural world and asks what it means to care for it now.
If the Earth Could Sing
Saturday, March 28, 2026 | 7:30pm
Sunday, March 29, 2026 | 4pm
Pacific Spirit United Church
2195 West 45th Ave (at Yew), Vancouver
Click here to secure your tickets!