PROFILE
The Phoenix Chamber Choir strives to promote an appreciation of a wide range of music and styles. Its commitment to contemporary and Canadian works, together with a strong mandate to assist in the training of young choral composers, allows Phoenix to fill an important role in Canada’s vibrant choral life. Phoenix can be heard regularly on CBC and has also been broadcast on the national radio stations of Croatia, Denmark, Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Romania and the United Kingdom.
Founded in 1983, the Phoenix Chamber Choir has established itself as one of Canada’s finest amateur vocal ensembles. It has amassed an exemplary list of awards and honours, including twelve first place wins in the CBC National Choral Competition for Amateur Choirs. The most celebrated choir in the contest’s history, Phoenix swept the 2006 competition by placing first in both the Contemporary Music and Chamber Choir categories, as well as receiving the Canada Council Healey Willan Grand Prize for Best Choir Overall. As a result of these successes, Phoenix was entered as the only Canadian adult choir in the European Broadcasting Union’s prestigious international 2007 Let the Peoples Sing competition. Phoenix competed against 70 choirs from 24 countries and, in live-to-air finals heard by over one million listeners in October 2007, Phoenix ranked among the four best amateur choirs in the world.
Phoenix celebrated its 25th Anniversary Season last year with a special concert in November 2008 involving alumni and world premières of three specially commissioned works by Kelly-Marie Murphy, Eric North and Kathleen Lee. On May 30, 2009 Phoenix presented the North American première performance of Joby Talbot’s Path of Miracles, a stunning a cappella work describing the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. Activities around this concert included a lecture-presentation by Dr. Conrad Rudolf, a Professor of Medieval Art History from the University of California (Riverside), who himself has made the pilgrimage.
A tour to Germany and Prague in 2007 was rewarded with wonderfully enthusiastic audiences and press coverage. A reviewer in the Rhein-Zeitung wrote: “Phoenix Chamber Choir’s concert was a Gesammtkunstwerk of crystal-clear voices, precise intonation and a stupendous cosmos of sounds...” Highlights include singing in the newly-restored Frauenkirche in Dresden and participating at Mass in Germany’s oldest church, the cathedral in Trier. The best of the live performances have been compiled on the choir’s latest recording entitled The Road Less Travelled.
Highlights of past seasons include the privilege of serving as Choir-in-Residence at both the Banff Centre for the Performing Arts Millennial Choral Festival (2000) as well as the Copenhagen Choral Festival (1996), sharing the stage with Canadian astronaut and photographer Dr. Roberta Bondar in a still-talked about concert entitled Lost in the Stars, and encouraging and training over 20 young composers through its biennial Young Choral Composers Development Programme.
Phoenix’ performance of Aulis Sallinen’s Beaufort Scale (To Music: 10th Anniversary Album), has also gained in popularity, due to its inclusion in a recently released book, Defining the Wind: The Beaufort Scale by Scott Huler. The group’s recording was also recently broadcast on national American radio, NPR, as part of a special on the Beaufort Scale.