The Vancouver Chamber Choir will present a premiere performance of Gerda Blok-Wilson’s new choral composition, “I Had No Time to Hate” (poem by Emily Dickinson) at their TOGETHER concert Friday, September 24, 7:30pm, Pacific Spirit United Church. The choir will also premiere a work by Canadian composer, Don MacDonald. The program consists of an amazing line up of contemporary composers. Mostly Canadian!
Though
Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) spent most of her life in seclusion, she wrote
powerful poems that have a universal application even today. In “I Had No Time
to Hate” Dickinson has a strong message that is particularly poignant for our
times and focuses on choosing love over hate in our brief life on earth.
A small
amount of love, “The little Toil of Love” is “large enough for Me” and better
than the large amount of time it takes for “Hate” or
“enmity.” The very notion of spending our short life consumed by hate
is decidedly not her choice even though there’s very little time for love as
well.
Artistic
Director Kari Turunen and the VCC singers read through the piece at the
Vancouver Chan Centre and workshopped the piece at their first ever virtual
INTERPLAY session last June. During Interplay, participating composers
connected through Zoom. This innovative technological event proved to be a
great way to share new compositions from across the country. With Covid 19, the original April 2020
“in-person” Interplay session was canceled. Originally, Gerda planned to use a
newly composed choral piece “Sing to Us Cedars” but since then the piece was
recorded by Daniel Shaw and the New York Virtual Choir so she wrote “I Had no Time
to Hate” for the recent session.
A
wonderful concert that celebrates being TOGETHER! Hope you can come!
Recent compositions by Gerda Blok-Wilson include:
Mixed voice choir
The Flute of Spring
A Kangaroo Sat on an Oak
Sing to us Cedars
If I May Hold Thy Hand
Lullay My Liking
Mixed Voice Choir & Men’s Choir
O Little Rose, O dark Rose
When the Fishing Boats Go Out
Soon May the Wellerman Come
Treble Choir
White Butterflies
The Water is Wide
#concert, #choir, #choral, #choralsinging, #choralmusic, #choralperformances, #vancouvermusic, #cansing, #vancouverchamberchoir, #gerdablokwilson, #emilydickinson, #cypressmusic, #sheetmusicplus
Cypress Music Publishing
Sheet Music Plus