Halifax Camerata Singers has announced a 35th anniversary season of three concerts and the company’s first artist-in-residence.
“The singers and I can’t wait to share with you this season’s music,” says founding artistic director Jeff Joudrey in a media release. “We have three really great programs that will take our audiences on a journey of healing, including Considering Matthew Shepard, an amazing work about the tragic murder of a young gay man, never before performed in Atlantic Canada.”
Joudrey also announced that Camerata is working with its first-ever composer-in-residence, Edmonton-based composer, conductor and educator Laura Hawley. Hawley will premiere her first work for the choir in November and be in Halifax early next year to work with the choir.
Up first for Camerata on November 6 is For the Love of Life, a Remembrance-themed concert celebrating life after lockdown. Along with other choral works, the in-person and online concert premieres two new works by Canadian women composers, including The Last Evening from Camerata’s composer-in-residence Laura Hawley and Stephanie Martin’s In Mortal Key, inspired by a Jewish prayer.
In March 2022, Camerata presents Stories and Mi’kmaq Legends, celebrating the art of Truro visual artist Leonard Paul. Nova Scotia school choirs will join Camerata virtually for this performance when another new work by artist-in-residence Laura Hawley will premiere.
Finally, the 35th anniversary season concludes in June next year with Considering Matthew Shepard, an artistic response to the 1998 anti-gay hate crime in which the 22-year-old was beaten, tortured, and left to die near Laramie, Wyoming.
In addition to its three-concert series, Camerata will be seen once again this holiday season as part of Toronto’s Against the Grain Theatre’s cross-Canada non-traditional Messiah recording project. Camerata will also join Halifax soprano Maureen Batt for the online concert Crossing Borders: Shifting the Lens, performing a new work by Nova Scotia composer Amy Brandon.
For tickets and more information on Halifax Camerata Singers’ 35th anniversary season visit halifaxcamerata.org.