Elmer Iseler Singers

Dear EIS Friends! With the coming of Passover, Ramadan and Easter 2021, we now see the signs of renewal in the earth. We are watching the sprouting of the daffodils in the garden and have seen our first red-winged blackbirds of the season in the nearby marsh. Now, we are listening and waiting for the sound of the frogs in the nearby pond, a welcome choral cacophony after the melting of the snow.... To celebrate the coming of Spring, the Elmer Iseler Singers send you this musical gift from a wonderful CD the Singers recorded with the Canadian Brass, our long-time friends and colleagues. For our musical gift today, we would like to send you ‘Sheep May Safely Graze’ from the ‘Birthday’ Cantata (BWV 208) by J.S. Bach. This is an arrangement of a well-known soprano solo from this cantata, a birthday present for the 31st birthday of Duke Christian of Saxe-Weissenfels, and this arrangement for choir and brass quintet was made by Canadian Brass trombonist Eugene Watts. Please enjoy! Lydia Adams, Artistic Director Jessie Iseler, General Manager EIS Board of Directors, James T. Chestnutt, Chair the Singers and staff of the Elmer Iseler Singers Happy Spring to you all! https://youtu.be/R8vJjcTaF30

A note from Artistic Director Lydia Adams: Top of the Morning to you all! Today, we are celebrating St. Patrick’s Day, and we hope that everyone is wearing some green for the occasion! ... To celebrate, the Elmer Iseler Singers are bringing you a musical gift from our November 2018 concert with the Toronto Children's Chorus and the Toronto Youth Choir. This is a première performance of Stuart Calvert’s arrangement of this famous WWI marching song, written in 1912 by Harry Williams and Jack Judge. The audience is joining along in this performance, and why don’t you as well, as we celebrate everything Irish. Wear the green! Play the tin whistle! Drown the shamrock! Walk with your shillelagh! Play the Irish harp and sing along with baritone Michael Thomas, the Elmer Iseler Singers, the Toronto Children’s Chorus, the Toronto Youth Choir, instrumentalists and Elise Bradley, conductor, to brighten your day! Spring is on the way, and we can’t wait for the time when we can all join together once again in friendship and music, surely our own ‘pot of gold’ waiting for us just around the corner! Enjoy! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrVyMjKrkAo (Photos of Tipperary by Irish Fireside)

A note from Artistic Director Lydia Adams: Elmer Iseler Singers Celebrate International Women’s Day! Dear Friends of the Elmer Iseler Singers, Today, March 8th, 2021, the world marks International Women’s Day, and the Elmer Iseler Singers wish to celebrate by honouring all the incredible women composers worldwide, and especially those here in Canada.... We want to bring you a special musical gift for this occasion the women of the Elmer Iseler Singers in a performance of Ruth Watson Henderson’s uplifting ‘Cantate Domino’. On this recording, we hear the virtuosic, unique and unmistakeable sounds of Ruth Watson Henderson’s resplendent writing and her outstanding talent. Our pianist for this performance is the brilliant Claire Preston; the trumpeters are the magnificent Robert Venables and Robert DiVito, and our soloists the always luminous Kimberley Briggs, Carrie Loring, Linda Tsatsanis and Carolyn Kirby, all joined by the women of the Elmer Iseler Singers. Listening to this work of Ruth Watson Henderson’s always transports me with its exuberance and joy. We hope that you will enjoy it also. https://www.elmeriselersingers.com/2021/03/cantate-domino/

We are excited to be guests of the Houston Chamber Choir's Music Mondays podcast presenting the stunning ‘Ave Verum’ of Peter Togni. Please click on the link below to listen now.

Dear Friends of the Elmer Iseler Singers- We are excited to be featured as guests of the Houston Chamber Choir on Monday, Feb. 22nd, 1:00 p.m. Eastern time, on their YouTube channel. https://youtu.be/z9gscL3llEU The Houston Chamber Choir is a Grammy Award winning choir, under the distinguished baton of Founded\Artistic Director Robert Simpson, who started this online series during the health emergency, to feature some of the professional choirs across the U.S. We were thrille...d to be invited onto their series. Please click on the link below to hear the Houston Chamber Choir YouTube episode featuring the Elmer Iseler Singers. https://youtu.be/z9gscL3llEU

Listen to the interview on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/7eLesBjMHfGlY5kqcYcY0b Or your favourite podcasts app https://houstonchamberchoir.org/woa-music-mondays

Congratulations to our dear colleague and friend, Laura Adlers, on her appointment as an Officer of the Cross of Recognition by the Republic of Latvia. We are thrilled that Laura has been so honoured for her many years of promoting Latvian artists throughout the world.

Congratulations to our dear friends, composers extraordinaire Carmen Braden and Stephen Chatman, for sharing the "Classical Composer of the Year award at BreakOut West! 2020 held this year in Winnipeg. We have been honoured to sing the works of these wonderful composers many times, and we wish them both a hearty ‘Congratulations!’

Announcing the Elmer Iseler Singers' new Educational Mentorship Initiative with VIVA Singers Toronto Chamber Singers https://youtu.be/XrPPQLsfCts

Dear friends of the Elmer Iseler Singers: Thanksgiving is a time to remember and to be thankful for all the gifts in our lives. We have so much to be thankful for: family, friends, our beautiful country and music in all forms, especially the magic of singing together. We are told by the Encyclopedia Britannica that the first Canadian Thanksgiving was celebrated in 1578 in present day Nunavut by the Frobisher Expedition in search of the Northwest Passage, to give thanks for th...e safety of the fleet. As Thanksgiving 2020 promises to be somewhat different in that we may not be together with our family and friends, the Elmer Iseler Singers wish to celebrate with you by sharing this musical gift our recording of Gloria by the great Canadian composer Harry Somers. We were thrilled to sing this marvellous work in Ottawa at the Installation Ceremony of the Right Honourable Adrienne Clarkson as the 26th Governor General of Canada, and we have wonderful memories of that magnificent occasion and many others where we performed this work. In this performance, the Elmer Iseler Singers are joined by outstanding trumpeters Michael Fedeshyn and Bob Grim and the esteemed organist Ruth Watson Henderson. Please enjoy! Revel in the glorious colours of Canadian Autumn while listening to the glorious sounds of Harry Somers! Happy Thanksgiving from the Elmer Iseler Singers! We want you to know how important you are to us and we thank you for your wonderful support. Stay tuned for exciting new projects to be announced in the next few weeks! Yes, we will sing for you again, as soon as we can! Lydia, Jessie and the Elmer Iseler Singers Team Click here for our Thanksgiving musical gift for you: https://youtu.be/dE_L409BWDs