Halifax Camerata Singers’ Announces First Composer in Residence
Halifax Camerata Singers is thrilled to announce that composer Laura Hawley will be the choir’s first Composer-in-Residence for their 35th anniversary year (2021-22 season).
Camerata’s Artistic Director Jeff Joudrey said, “We’re so excited to kick off our 35th anniversary year by working with Laura. She is an up-and-coming star in the Canadian choral world, and we’ll premiere a major new work by her in the spring of 2022. We are looking forward to her being able to come to Nova Scotia then, to work with us and other Nova Scotian choirs.” Camerata will introduce Laura’s work to their audiences with Mary called it an angel, written by Laura for the choir.
Canadian Laura Hawley is an internationally-recognized composer, with works having been commissioned, performed and recorded by many of Canada’s finest ensembles including Elektra Women’s Choir, Pro Coro Canada, Inuksuk Drum Dancers, the Canadian Chamber Choir and many others. Her music is published by Oxford University Press, Silent Dawn Music Publishing Cypress Choral Music and Rhythmic Trident Music Publishing. Her piece, Alhamdoulillah, became internationally famous when it went viral on YouTube with the title “Welcome to Canada, Syrian Refugees” in December of 2014. Her five-movement work, In Song, was the main feature of the JUNO Award winning Canadian Chamber Choir’s new recording, Seasons of Life and Landscape. Watch a performance of Alhamdoulillah here.
Laura is artistic director of the Da Camera Singers and conductor of ChandraTala in Edmonton, and is founding artistic director of Hypatia’s Voice Women’s choir of Ottawa. She is active as a clinician and collaborative pianist and is on the teaching faculty at Concordia University Edmonton. She teaches piano, theory harmony and history in her studio. In 2019, she received the Roberta Stephen Award from the Association of Canadian Women Composers.
Founded by Artistic Director Jeff Joudrey in 1986, Halifax Camerata Singers includes performers from many parts of Nova Scotia, and is Atlantic Canada’s leading chamber choir. Supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, the Lloyd Carr-Harris Foundation, the SOCAN Foundation, the Province of Nova Scotia/Arts Nova Scotia, Halifax Regional Municipality and individual donors and corporate supporters, the choir has distinguished itself by performing exciting choral repertoire from many periods and styles, with special attention to Canadian music. Winners of Music Nova Scotia’s Best Classical Recording in 2016, and nominated for an ECMA in the same category in 2017, the choir also won the Healey Willan Grand Prize in the 2010 National Competition for Canadian Amateur Choir. Camerata often collaborates with chamber ensembles, Symphony Nova Scotia and other musicians. Their five recordings are for sale at the Symphony Nova Scotia Boutique, Taz Records, online and through iTunes, and are distributed through Naxos of America, Inc. through Halifax’s Leaf Music catalogue. Halifax collaborative pianist Lynette Wahlstrom accompanies the choir.
Camerata is collaborating in a cross-Canada non-traditional Messiah recording project with Toronto’s Against the Grain Theatre, premiering on December 13.
Halifax Camerata Singers thanks its donors and funders, the Canada Council for the Arts, Arts Nova Scotia, Halifax Regional Municipality and the Lloyd Carr-Harris Foundation.
Information: contact1986@halifaxcamerata.org, find us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or www.halifaxcamerata.org.
Information: Peggy Walt, General Manager (902) 422-5403; peggy@culturalaffairs.ca