The songs return!
And the soloists, the ensembles, the sunsets on the deck, the concerts on the Island Queen cruises. the old music, the new music, any music! Welcome back to the Festival of the Sound, for the first time since 2019!
It would be hard to overestimate the excitement and buzz in the lobby prior to the concert, even though capacity was still reduced and people were still urged to wear masks (out of an abundance of caution). It's been a long time indeed since we got to see some old friends.
The Grand Opening of this first Festival of the 2020s gives a welcome opportunity to hear, once again, the Elmer Iseler Singers, under the direction of Lydia Adams, a top-notch chamber choir which has been making regular appearances at the Festival for about as long as I can remember.
As usual, the programme opened with welcomes and tributes, primarily from Artistic Director James Campbell. Jim wanted to thank all the volunteers who had kept the fires burning during the two long years with no summer festival in the hall, and especially to thank Executive Director Michael Martyn who has led the team so effectively through all the many changes. Then Mayor Jamie McGarvey gave his customary welcome from the Town of Parry Sound, including some heartfelt words of welcome for the Ukrainians who have settled here.
It was a natural lead-on to then begin the concert with two national anthems, the Canadian and Ukrainian, followed by Leon Dubinsky's We Rise Again, a number with obvious resonances both for the Festival and for the people of Ukraine.
Later in the concert, we heard mezzo-soprano Andrea Ludwig as the soloist along with the choir in the Melodia by Ukrainian composer Myroslav Skoryk, a wordless vocalise of heart-tugging beauty.
Overall, the Iseler Singers presented a broad array of music of many types, from the robust Scottish folk tunes of the Celtic Suite to the serene, soaring lines of Healey Willan's Three Lady Motets, and the evocative harmonies of Eleanor Daley's Songs of Light: Stars and Moon to the shimmering soundscapes of Nur: Reflections on Light by Hussein Janmohamed.
In all these varying works, the Iseler Singers brought all their customary security of tone and blend of the individual voices into a single whole, a hallmark of their every performance.
The concert concluded with Srul Irving Glick's The Hour Has Come. Originally composed as a stand-alone number, it was later incorporated by Glick as the finale of a ten-movement choral symphony of the same title. The poem, by Carole Leckner, draws an important message of the need for humanity to rise above and beyond war, and Glick's music uses evocative melodic lines and harmonies to build the piece towards a resounding climax on the final line, "the hour has come to love." Pianist Shawn Grenke provided power and flair aplenty in the orchestral accompaniment, and the choir rose splendidly to the final lines, with such immense strength that for the moment it sounded like the 20 singers had just been joined by 20 more!
Thanks to the Elmer Iseler Singers, this year's Festival is off to a resounding start!
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