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Phoenix Choir rises in song

Phoenix Chamber Choir
Phoenix Chamber Choir
Phoenix Chamber Choir

Graeme Langager, artistic director of Phoenix Chamber Choir (PCC), has the greatest job in the world, he told the audience at a Coast Recital Society (CRS) concert on Nov. 19. He leads many choirs, but is clearly committed to the Phoenix Chamber Choir, a 34-member, Vancouver-based vocal ensemble that has earned awards and placement in competitions and during tours.

The audience learned the volunteer choir is semi-professional in that all members carry on with their day jobs, including professional music teachers.

Langager looks for passion in his chosen vocalists rather than technical accuracy.

“I can fix a wrong note,” he said, but the passion to sing is more important.

The Choir showed their passion more in the second half of the concert. The first selections on the programme were soft spoken as in There is No Rose, a choral piece by Colin Britt celebrating Jesus and the Holy Trinity. The alleluias were too gentle, not triumphant. In the second half, piano accompaniment from choir member Carolyn Shiau gave Ballads to the Moon a richness and fullness missing in some previous selections.

Jake Runestad, an award-winning composer, worked with the PCC for months as a composer in residence. The choir sang Let My Love Be Heard with music by Runestad – an excellent piece that builds into a mountain of voice.

The choir closed with a preview of their Christmas concert, an upbeat Jamaican-style Da King is Born Today.

The next CRS concert features the Pacific Baroque Players and Alexander Weimann on harpsichord on Jan. 21, 2018.