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news
Westminster Abbey Organist to Perform with Elora Festival Singers
Organist and Master of Choristers of Westminster Abbey, James O’Donnell, will perform with the Elora Festival Singers on Sunday, October 26 at 2:30 p.m., St. John’s Church in Elora.
Born in Scotland in 1961, O’Donnell won a junior scholarship in organ and harpsichord from the Royal College of Music while still at school, and was elected organ Scholar of Jesus College, Cambridge, where he studied the organ with Peter Hurford, Nicolas Kynaston and David Sanger on an open scholarship.
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Elora Festival and Singers Announces Change in Management
September 15, 2008 - Joanne Grodzinski, who has served as General Manager of the Elora Festival and Singers since 2006, is leaving her position with the organization the Board of Directors announced today.
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Audiences in the Gambrel Barn at this year’s Elora Festival will be much more comfortable thanks to a $36,000 grant from the Ontario Trillium Foundation (OTF). Ted Arnott, MPP for Wellington-Halton Hills joined OTF representative Martin Bosch in congratulating the Festival at the Opening Night of the 29th Elora Festival.
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previews
The Record - A royal treat for Elora
Thana Dharmarajah, April 16 2008
Noel Edison has helped nurture the Elora Festival for almost 30 years, watching it grow from a small music festival to one that attracts international stars, including one who performed at the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana.
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Guelph Mercury - Elora homecoming for soprano Sarah Kramer
Jessica Smith, July 5 2008
For a local singer who has been studying in Europe, competing in the Elora Music Festival is a homecoming. "I'm here specifically to reconnect with the Canadian music scene," said Sarah Kramer, "and this is a really fantastic opportunity for me to do that."
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Guelph Mercury - Bringing the world to Elora
Joanne Shuttleworth, July 5 2008
The Village of Elora hosts the world this year as the Elora Festival brings in some big-name international artists to join its cadre of Canadian performers. Not the least of which is Kiri Te Kanawa, the New Zealand-born soprano who launched her career in 1971 and who is now making a year-long farewell tour before retiring. Elora is one of just three stops on the North American leg of the tour.
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The Record - 'The barn' lands world class voice
Valerie Hill, July 9 2008
At age 15, she was but a slip of a girl in New Zealand, singing in a choir under the tutelage of Sister Mary Leo, a Catholic nun with a special gift for music. It was here, within a choir of 20 girls that Kiri Te Kanawa found her remarkable voice and an international super star was born.
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The Globe and Mail - She's Dame Folksy
Colin Eatock, July 12 2008
'I'm never going to retire," states opera star Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, emphatically, in her distinctive New Zealand accent. "Some people might like me to - but I won't."
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reviews
The Record - Elora gives new voice to old favourites
Stephen Preece, October 27, 2008
It was a dreary, rain-chilled October day for the Elora Festival Singers to start yesterday afternoon's concert entitled Lift Up Your Heart (the first in their Winter Series) -- but by the end the sun shone brightly as did the spirits of those in attendance.
The concert featured an interesting mix of secular and religious choral pieces from the British tradition, as well as an eclectic range of organ numbers, performed by featured visiting artist James O'Donnell.
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Guelph Mercury - Barn all dressed up for Elora Festival
Rob O'Flanagan, July 12 2008
Never has a barn sounded quite so divine. George Frideric Handel's "Solomon" rose to the rafters of Elora's fabled Gambrel Barn last night, as the Elora Festival soared into its 29th edition.
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The Globe and Mail - A finely responsive Handel
Ken Winters, July 14 2008
A gorgeous performance of George Frideric Handel's singular oratorio Solomon - albeit a seriously bowdlerized one - opened the 29th annual Elora Festival Friday night before a cheering audience.
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The Star - magic in Elora
John Terauds, July 14 2008
Nestled comfortably in the pastoral dales north of Guelph, the Elora Festival is a reliable cradle for fine midsummer musicmaking.
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Fergus Elora News Express - Pomp and ceremony in the barn
Francis Baker, July 16 2008
When they applaud the rehearsal, you know the show’s something special. The introduction to Part 2 of George Frideric Handel’s oratorio Solomon drew enthusiastic applause from an afternoon crowd in the Gambrel Barn during Friday afternoon’s open rehearsal.
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The Record - Nothing 'lesser' about this Bach
Amy Fuller, July 14 2008
The crowd filing into an Elora church with one bathroom and no air-conditioning had good reason to forego the balmy outdoors for hard pews. Conductor Noel Edison, his Elora Festival Singers and the Elora Chamber Players brought a near-perfect rendition of two of Bach's lesser-known Lutheran masses to St. Mary's Church.
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The Record - Soprano soars from the rafters
Stephen Preece, July 15 2008
Once in a great while, rare musical performances can put you in the hands of an unequivocal master. Sunday evening at the Elora Festival Barn was just one of those.
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The Globe and Mail - An intimate voice done violence by the piano
Ken Winters, July 21 2008
Franz Schubert's song cycle Die schöne Müllerin - The Pretty Millermaid - is one of the pinnacles of the vocal repertoire. Its 20 songs are not merely gorgeous music, though they are certainly that.
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The Record - Smaller gems shine at Elora Festival
Stephen Preece, July 21 2008
While some of the bigger, snazzier Elora Festival shows are grabbing much of the attention, this year's smaller classical music gems should not be overlooked.
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Fergus Elora News Express - Composer’s ‘Early Influences’ Highlighted in
Festival’s Second Week
Francis Baker, July 23 2008
The heat got near-top billing at last Thursday’s Elora Festival chamber concert. Greeted by a crowd wafting fans and programs, violinist Julie Baumgartel came out with, “You poor people, you must be so hot.”
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Fergus Elora News Express - Hot night at the Gambrel Barn
Gail Martin, July 23 2008
It is unlikely that there was anywhere in Elora that exuded more energy than the Gambrel Barn on Saturday night.The evening was called Hot Fusion, and hot it was — giving the audience everything from the fevered violin of Vasyl Popadiuk to the rich, powerful voice of Justin Hines.
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Fergus Elora News Express - A night at the Festival
EDITORIAL - Gail Martin, July 23 2008
Working at the Elora Festival can’t be for the timid. Saturday night’s performance, Hot Fusion, was an amazing show that brought incredible talent to the Gambrel Barn — and its success is largely due to the efforts of Festival staff to keep the show going, in spite of some very trying circumstances.
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Guelph Mercury - The joy of youth
Dawn Stevenson, July 25 2008
The amber lights and vaulted ceilings of St. John's Church were deceptively mellow Wednesday night, refusing to betray the intensity of competition they would soon house.Of 48 applicants, seven musicians between the ages of 17 and 27 were featured in the final round of the Elora Festival's TD Canada Trust Young Performers Competition; two pianists, two flutists, two vocalists (soprano and counter-tenor) and a harpist.
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Fergus Elora News Express - Flautist wins young performers competition
Francis Baker, Pub. August 6 2008
A young flute player from Toronto has won a future engagement with the Elora Festival. Alberta Brown won first prize in the TD Canada Trust Young Performers Competition, held during this year’s Elora Festival.
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Fergus Elora News Express - Jazz Dive brings stories, music to Barn
Francis Baker, July 29 2008
Elizabeth Shepherd brought her trio and some stories to the Gambrel Barn last week. “I like to talk – I hope you don’t mind,” was one of her first comments. Musicians who like to talk can be deadly – not so with Shepherd, who sprinkled her two-hour concert with anecdotes about her life and music at just the right proportion to add another dimension to the music.
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Fergus Elora News Express - Ron Sexsmith - in conversation
Kelly Waterhouse, July 29 2008
I would like to thank everyone who attended the Saturday night performance of Ron Sexsmith at the Gambrel Barn, as part of the Elora Festival’s Jazz and Popular series. I thank you because it was very nice of you all to show up just to witness one of the best Canadian songwriters as he took to the stage to serenade me personally. Though the place was packed with attentive fans on a glorious summer’s eve, I am completely confident when I say that Ron Sexsmith was singing specifically to me.
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Guelph Mercury - If it ain't baroque...
Dawn Stevenson, July 29 2008
With music and nature saturating the area this past festival weekend, the twittering bird sounds of Vivaldi's duetting virtuoso recorders seemed a natural selection for the Elora Festival.
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The Record - Soprano's angelic voice and Vaughan Williams' music delight audience
Amy Fuller, August 2 2008
The music filling an Elora church Thursday evening sounded heavenly enough to transport the whole place skyward. Not a few people claim they saw -- and heard -- angelic beings, though skeptics insist the Elora Festival Singers staged a celestial prank at Knox Presbyterian Church.
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Guelph Mercury - All Broadway lineup a pleasant surprise
Dawn Stevenson, August 6 2008
To be completely honest, before Saturday's show, I wasn't exactly looking forward to an all-Broadway program. The thought of a kitschy pirouetting dancer with a plastered-on smile shouting "Mambo, mambo!" makes me grimace.
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Guelph Mercury - Japanese drummers have rhythm
Dawn Stevenson, August 5 2008
Instead of settling for one big bang, the Elora Festival ended with a thundering hour and a half of them. If you've never seen Japanese Taiko drumming before, consider the experience a combination of music, martial arts and dance choreography.
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The Record - Drummers of volume, viruosity
Stephen Preece, August 5 2008
Remember when it was time for the extended drum solo? Finally the percussionist in the band got to show his stuff -- fancy licks, syncopated tempos, fascinating rhythms, and just plain heavy thumping sounds. Of course then the crowd goes wild, whooping and hollering, jamming with the sound, and finally sending up a rousing, mass wail of pleasure.
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