Friday, October 28 at St. Thomas's Anglican Church

Concert & CD Launch

For Immediate Release: Toronto, September 28, 2005 – Exultate Chamber Singers launches its 25^th anniversary season with a striking program of Canadian choral gems, entitled All Around The Circle. Travelling coast to coast, the musical journey comprises Andrew Ager’s sensitive setting of poetry by James Joyce, Invisible Harps – featuring the celebrated Penderecki String Quartet as special guest - and folk songs arrangements by Stephen Chatman, Derek Healy and Ward Swingle. This program is largely inspired by Exultate’s new recording also entitled All Around The Circle, which will be released on the occasion.  Recorded last summer at Glenn Gould Studio (CBC) in Toronto, Exultate’s fourth CD spotlights the group’s clear sound, impeccable ensemble and fine musicianship – qualities that have earned John Tuttle and his award-winning choir superlative reviews and accolades over the years.

Canadian Choral Gems

From the light hearted melody of the Quebec folk song À la volette and the Manitoba folk song O Prairie Land, praising the beauty of the untouched prairie, to the poignant song from Newfoundland She’s Like the Swallow, Stephen Chatman’s Five Canadian Folk Songs are evocative and compelling.  Derek Healey is known for his “remarkable sense of musical drama”. His Six Canadian Folk Songs are among his most frequently performed works. In this particular song cycle, the English-born composer – who moved to Canada in 1969 - captured the Canadian spirit with remarkable mastery. In 1963, the American conductor and arranger Ward Swingle founded the Swingle Singers, who were best known for scat-singing the instrumental works of J.S. Bach. All three songs in the Suite Québécoise are typical of Swingle’s arranging style, the melody passing from one voice part to another while the accompanying voices imitate various instruments. Invisible Harps, by Canadian composer Andrew Ager, was commissioned and premiered by the Exultate Chamber Singers in 2000.  Written for chamber choir and string quartet, the work uses poetry by James Joyce. The impression of the music is that of shifting and changing moods, reflecting the varied nature of the texts, which move through tenderness, loneliness, fear, rapture, and a host of various states of mind.

Exultate [egg-zool-TAH-teh] has established a reputation for performing a broad range of fine music – sacred and secular, ancient and modern – at a very high standard. "This is a serious choir with a serious director", commented John Terauds in The Toronto Star (May 17, 2004). Praised for its sensitive, precise and seamless performances, the group has produced three previous recordings. A Choral Flourish; Make We Joy!; and The Present Time. In April 2004, Exultate repeated its 2000 triumph at the CBC Competition for Amateur Choirs, taking TOP HONOURS in the Chamber Choir category and also being awarded the Canada Council's Healey Willan Grand Prize for the best performance of the competition across all categories.

Conductor John Tuttle founded the Exultate Chamber Singers in 1981. He is also organist and choirmaster of Saint Thomas's Anglican Church in Toronto and adjunct associate professor of organ at the Faculty of Music, University of Toronto.  In September 2005, John was awarded an honorary Doctor of Sacred Letters degree from Trinity College, University of Toronto.

ALL AROUND THE CIRCLE

Concert & CD Launch

Exultate Chamber Singers with the Penderecki String Quartet

John Tuttle, conductor

Friday, October 28 at 8PM

St. Thomas's Anglican Church: 383 Huron Street

Tickets: Regular $25; Senior $20; Student $15

Tickets may be ordered by calling 416-971-9229

or purchased at the door on the night of the concert.

www.exultate.on.ca

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Source:           Francine Labelle/FRANCINE LABELLE INK

                      416 654-4406