THE VANCOUVER BACH CHOIR AND THE VANCOUVER INTER-CULTURAL ORCHESTRA PRESENT “WORLD OF MUSIC” May 18

Blogger Elke April 24, 2024 3 min read

Vancouver, BC – written April 23, 2024 – Joining together with the Vancouver Inter-Cultural Orchestra, the Vancouver Bach Choir is excited to close a vibrant 2023-24 season with a choral concert featuring contemporary world music.

Photo Credit: Alistair Eagle

About the program:

The VICO originally commissioned and recorded the two major pieces on this concert, Ani Ma-amin (I Believe) by Moshe Denburg and Asheghaneh by Farshid Samandari, with Laudate Singers on an album they released in 2016 called “Mystics & Lovers” (available on Spotify, on iTunes, or directly from the VICO).

Ani Ma-amin and Asheghaneh share central themes: both draw on the poetic best of many cultures to build bridges between them. Both strive for unity in diversity, expressing a longing for peace and understanding, and seeking connection between personal love and spiritual devotion. Both are major works that use the human voice and instruments from many countries (including traditional instruments from China, Iran and India as well as Western European/North American strings and winds) to highlight both the commonality and contrasting expressions of these deeply human sentiments, communicated through centuries-old texts (by a 12th century Rabbi/philosopher in Ani Ma-amin and an 11th-c. Persian poet/philosopher in Asheghaneh) that still resonates with us today.

Asheghaneh features the vocal talents of Iranian-Canadian tenor Jamal Kurdistani.

Also on the bill: the world premiere of a new composition by Niel Golden for intercultural orchestra and solo tabla.

FEATURING

The Vancouver Inter-Cultural Orchestra

Vancouver Bach Choir

Leslie Dala | Conductor and Music Director of the Vancouver Bach Symphonic Choir

Jamal Kurdistani | Tenor soloist

Niel Golden | Tabla

Quotes:

The Vancouver Inter-Cultural Orchestra has been described as “the United Nations of music” (CBC Radio), and “…Music that sounds like Vancouver looks.” –The Georgia Straight

“The VICO is honoured and excited to be collaborating for the first time with Vancouver Bach Choir. We are excited to bring choral/orchestral pieces by Moshe Denburg and Farshid Samandari to new listeners through this concert, and also to share the world premiere of a new work commissioned from Canadian composer and tabla player Niel Golden.” – VICO Artistic Director Mark Armanini

“We will be presenting one piece composed in Hebrew and one in Persian. The Audience can expect to see instruments from different parts of the world, which brings different sonorities to the music. This concert will offer a fresh perspective to choral music. “ – Cathie Yuen (Associate Conductor of VBC)

“This is a special concert as we are partnering with the Vancouver Inter-Cultural Orchestra. We have the opportunity to collaborate with musicians with whom we don’t usually work together. We will also be exploring pieces that are outside the Western tradition.” – Cathrie Yuen

“There are a lot of fantastic repertoires from many cultures. It is important to diversify our choral music selection, so that we can bring great music to our audience. More importantly, the inclusion of music with various cultural significance fosters a safe environment for singers from different cultural backgrounds.” – Cathrie Yuen

“This is not VBFC’s first venture into presenting and performing non Western music, they collaborated with the Orchid Ensemble in 2018 in a program which consisted entirely of non Western music and in 2019 performed the premiere of Ahmad Peyman’s Resurrection and collaborated with celebrated vocalist Alireza Ghorbani in A Persian Night at the Orpheum. The video has over 1 million views on YouTube! https://youtu.be/29oAkPxzg-Y?si=56nahvmmDywXCv-M “ – Les Dala

TICKET INFO:

Tickets: $20-40

To purchase accessible seats for this concert, please contact the Vancouver Bach Family of Choirs office: INFO@VANCOUVERBACHCHOIR.COM

BUY TICKETS https://www.showpass.com/world-of-music/

Learn more about Vancouver Inter-Cultural Orchestra: https://vi-co.org/

Learn more about Vancouver Bach Family of Choirs: https://vancouverbachchoir.com

Facebook event: https://fb.me/e/3kZrP1icA

SOCIAL MEDIA HANDLES

Name	IG	Facebook	Twitter
Vancouver Bach Choir	vanbachchoirs	vancouverbachchoir	vanbachchoirs
Vancouver Inter-Cultural Orchestra	VICOrchestra	VancouverInterCulturalOrchestra	VICOrchestra
Leslie Dala	lesdala	@leslie.dala.1	lesdala