From 12–18 June, Ēriks will be joining Steven Sametz, the Ronald J. Ulrich Professor of Music at Lehigh University and Artistic Director of The Princeton Singers, as mentor-composer for the 2023 Lehigh Choral Composers Forum at the Zoellner Arts Center, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA. The Lehigh Choral Composers Forum, in association with the ACDA, offers composers an opportunity to work on their compositional ideas during a weeklong intensive seminar and have their works rehearsed, performed and recorded in the 900-seat Baker Hall by The Princeton Singers. Ēriks will co-lead seminars in the morning and offer one-on-one time in the afternoon.
LIVE from London summer festival 2021
The LIVE from London festival returns in July and August!
Sprinkling ‘Stardust’ through a summer festival celebrating cycles of renewal and regeneration in nature and spirit, VOCES8 leads an internationally renowned cast joyfully exploring the yin and yang of our existence and looking forward to ‘A New Day’.
Appearing in every main festival performance, VOCES8 unites an exclusive line-up featuring new festival invitees The King’s Singers, Chineke!, Suzi Digby’s ORA Singers, a star quartet of Julian Bliss, Jack Liebeck, Sheku Kanneh-Mason and Katya Apekisheva, Mary Bevan, Zeb Soanes, the London Contemporary Orchestra and Robert Ames. Special concerts coming from the International Choral Biennale ‘Live From Haarlem’ include Cappella Amsterdam and the Doelen Ensemble, Consensus Vocalis, Laurens Collegium, Efterklang and the South Denmark Girls’ Choir. Returning favourites include I Fagiolini, Apollo5 and the English Chamber Orchestra.
From Kirkland Snider’s Mass for the Endangered, Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending, Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time, a Mozart piano concerto, through to music by David Lang, Eriks Ešenvalds, a cappella and choral favourites, world premieres by Taylor Scott Davis, Afrodeutsche, Donna McKevitt, Paul Smith, Joanna Marsh and Ken Burton; voices, instruments and dance create a summer adventure to fuel community and give wings to one’s soul. Join us “singing till his heaven fills, ‘Tis love of earth that he instils,” (Meredith – The Lark Ascending).
Click here to see more and to buy tickets.
Both Esenvalds albums Gramophone Magazine choral recordings of the month
Gramophone Magazine has named albums of Eriks Esenvalds music for consecutive Choral Album of the Month awards. The rare honour is the result of 2 performances from choirs on the west coast of the USA.
There Will Come Soft Rains, performed by Pacific Lutheran University Choir of the West under the direction of Richard Nance is on the Signum label.
Translations, performed by Portland State Chamber Choir under the direction of Ethan Sperry is on the Naxos label.
New Ešenvalds album by Portland State Chamber Choir on Naxos
Translations, the new Ešenvalds album by Portland State Chamber Choir and Ethan Sperry has been released on the Naxos label and is available for purchase, download, and streaming now. The album is the sequel to The Doors of Heaven (Naxos 2017) and features seven works, including the world premiere recording of Translation (2016) on a text by Oregon’s poet laureate Paulann Petersen.
The album explores the idea of ‘translation’ or the transformations that occur within us when we encounter the power of nature, legends, or the divine. PSCC conductor Ethan Sperry: ‘Each piece of Ešenvalds’ music addresses our essential nature — from the frustrations at our limitations to our desire to touch the divine — and translates this into musical language that moves us to our very core, deepening our understanding of what it means to be human.’
Listen to previews and order, download, or stream Translations.
Watch a release video on YouTube here.
Tracklist:
1. O salutaris hostia
2. The Heavens’ Flock
3. Translation
4. My Thoughts / Мысли мои
5. Vineta
6. The Legend of the Walled-In Woman
7. In paradisum
Translations was recorded in 2019 at St Mary’s Catholic Church in Mount Angel, Oregon, with producer Erick Lichte, and engineers John Atkinson and Doug Tourtelot.
New all-Ešenvalds album released by Choir of the West
There Will Come Soft Rains is the new all-Ešenvalds album by Pacific Lutheran University’s Choir of the West and Richard Nance, released on Signum and is available for purchase or streaming now.
See a short clip on the collaboration and recording process on PLU’s website and listen to Spring Rain, Stars as well as the title track There Will Come Soft Rains.
The tracklist represents some of Eriks best-loved works:
There Will Come Soft Rains
New Moon
Long Road
Rivers of Light
Northern Lights
Only in Sleep
O, She Doth Teach The Torches To Burn Bright
A Soldier’s Mother’s Lullaby
Spring Rain
My Little Picture Frame
Evening
My Luve Is Like A Red, Red Rose
Stars
Amazing Grace
The Choir of the West is the premier choral ensemble of the Department of Music at Pacific Lutheran University, located in Tacoma, Washington. The choir was founded in 1926, and was the third Lutheran college choir to tour extensively throughout the United States. Choir of the West has toured to Europe, Scandinavia, Japan and China, and has been selected to appear at several regional and national conferences of the National Association for Music Education and the American Choral Directors Association. In November of 2015 the choir was a featured ensemble at the National Collegiate Choral Organization Conference, held in Portland, Oregon, performing with renowned conductor Simon Carrington. During the summer of 2011, Choir of the West competed among choirs from 47 nations at the prestigious Harmonie Festival in Lindenholzhausen, Germany, winning two gold certificates and one silver. In 2015 the choir competed in the Anton Bruckner Choir Competition, held in Linz, Austria.
Eriks Esenvalds music featured in Latvia 100 Celebrations
Latvia 100
Latvia’s centenary celebrations culminated on 18 November at the Proclamation Day of the Republic of Latvia. Among the major cultural events was a large-scale performance on the embankments of the river Daugava in central Riga. Experienced by more than 100,000 people and broadcasted live on national television, ‘Saules mūžs’, which translates as ‘Lifetime of the Sun’, combined music and a choreography of lights and pyrotechnics and told the story of the Latvian state, from its foundation to the present day. The music score was composed by Ēriks and Kristaps Krievkalns and included fragments of Latvia’s musical history as well as arrangements of Ēriks’ own works. See the full 25-minute coverage of the event by Latvian Public Broadcasting.
On the eve before Latvia’s Independence Day, Ēriks’ new work ‘Arirang’ was premiered by the Camarata Chamber Singers and conductor Dr Ryan Goessl at Spazio Luce Art Hall in Itaewon, Seoul. It was commissioned on the occasion of Latvia’s centenary for the Latvian Embassy in Seoul by Kyung-Hoon Kwon, Honorary Consul General of Latvia in South Korea. The Camarata Chamber Singers were joined by Latvia’s Emīls Darziņš Mixed Choir and conductor Nora Kalniņa, who are in South Korea for a tour of five concerts in Seoul and Pyeongtaek. The new work quotes two folks songs: the ‘Arirang’ from the Korean Peninsula and Latvia’s ‘Stāvēju, dziedāju’ or ‘Singing I Stood’. Dubbed the unofficial national anthem of Korea, the Arirang is estimated to be more than 600 years old and to have about 3,600 variations of 60 different versions. It is inscribed on UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage list with local variations from both South and North Korea.
Eriks Esenvalds BBC Proms premiere
Eriks Esenvalds has his debut Proms premiere today in front of a sell-out Royal Albert Hall. The concert features the Proms Youth Choir and Academy, conducted by Simon Halsey who will start the concert with “A Shadow”, a piece for a cappella choir. The concert continues with music by Britten and Beethoven.The picture shows Eriks and Simon Halsey in rehearsal with the Proms Youth Choir.
A Shadow will be available to purchase after the premiere, published by Musica Baltica.
Eriks Esenvalds premiere at the Grant Park Music Festival
The Pleiades, commission for orchestra and chorus
Eriks is in Chicago this week to hear his new work The Pleiades, commissioned by the Grant Park Music Festival. Performed by the Grant Park orchestra and chorus and conducted by Carlos Kalmar, the multi-movement work takes the Pleiades star constellation as its theme, and uses stories and myths from native American culture. See more about this at Eriks own website here. It is not the first time the stars and sky have fascinated him: the piece called Stars has become a staple of many choirs concert programmes, and in recent years the Nordic Light multimedia symphony has enjoyed success.
The Grant Park Festival coincides with this year’s Chorus America convention in Chicago, and Eriks will take a seat as panellist on a discussion entitled Creating Music in Challenging Times. Following his time in Chicago Eriks will go on to St John’s Newfoundland, Canada to be part of the Podium on the Edge: Singing from Sea to Sea to Sea convention.
Eriks website is www.eriksesenvalds.com
Two Eriks Esenvalds Premieres on same day
Washington National Cathedral, USA and the Gewandhaus, Leipzig
Two premieres of different works on the same day is unusual, even for a composer as prolific as Eriks Esenvalds. On Sunday March 4th the Cathedral Choral Society, Washington DC, conducted by Donald Nally, will premiere “85: When the Leaves Hang Trembling”, a work for choir , organ and solo cello. Find out more about the piece and the full programme here.
On the same day “Dreams Under Your Feet”, a 30 minute work for the Gewandhaus Choir and Children’s Choir accompanied by musicians of the Gewandhaus and all conducted by Gregor Meyer, will premiere at the iconic Gewandhaus. More details here.
The next premiere is only a fews days away. On March 10th the large-scale multimedia Volcano Symphony will be performed by the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Maris Sirmais. Click here.
Follow what Eriks is doing at www.eriksesenvalds.com
Eriks Esenvalds: Nordic Light Festival and Canada tour
At the end of February, Ēriks will be travelling across the Atlantic for a ten day tour in Canada, visiting Toronto, Montréal, Ottawa, and Kitchener-Waterloo. The tour includes the Canadian premieres of his multimedia symphony Nordic Light and the accompanying documentary film Nordic Light: A Composer’s Diary, as well as seminars and workshops. For more information and tickets, including a joint pass for the gala concert, film screening, and conversation with Ēriks on February 24 in Toronto, please visit the website of Orpheus Choir Toronto.
— Toronto • Seminar & Workshop
For choirs, conductors and fans of choral music
Feb 21 / 7:00–10:00pm
St John’s Latvian Lutheran Church, Toronto
In partnership with St John’s Latvian Lutheran Church Vocal Ensemble and conductor Brigita Alks
— Toronto • Nordic Light: A Composer’s Diary docu film screening and Ēriks Ešenvalds in conversation
Feb 24 / 3:00–4:30pm
Metropolitan United Church, Toronto
— Toronto • Nordic Light Multimedia Symphony Gala Concert
Feb 24 / 7:30pm
Metropolitan United Church, Toronto
Orpheus Choir, That Choir, Orpheus Concert Orchestra, and conductors Robert Cooper, Craig Pike, and Ēriks Ešenvalds
— Kitchener-Waterloo • Seminar & Workshop
For choral singers and conductors
Feb 26 / 7:00–9:30 pm
Conrad Grebel University College, Kitchener-Waterloo
In partnership with Conrad Grebel College choirs, Grand Philharmonic Choir, and conductor Mark Vuorinen
— Montréal • Seminar & Workshop
For choral composers and conductors
Feb 27 / 3:00–5:00pm
McGill University, Schulich School of Music, Montréal
In partnership with the McGill University Music Department and Prof Dr Jean-Sebastien Vallée
For choirs, conductors and fans of choral music
Feb 27 / 7:30–9:30pm
McGill University, Schulich School of Music, Montréal
In partnership with conductor Andrew Gray and The Montréal Choral Institute
— Ottawa • Seminar & Workshop
For choral composers and conductors
Feb 28 / 3:00–5:00pm
University of Ottawa, Faculty of Music
In partnership with Prof John Armstrong
For choirs, conductors and fans of choral music
Feb 28 / 7:00–9:30pm
St Joseph’s Parish
In partnership with the Capital Chamber Choir and conductor Jamie Loback
The Nordic Light Festival and Ēriks’ Canada Tour are organized and presented in partnership with The Adlers Agency, the Orpheus Choir, That Choir, and Musica Baltica. The events are kindly supported by the Embassy of Latvia in Canada, the Ministry of Culture of Latvia, LV100, Kravis Travel, Inese and Greg Flude, the Latvian sorority Spidola, and Latvian Relief Society of Canada Daugavas Vanagi. Orpheus Choir of Toronto’s 2017–18 Season is kindly supported by the Toronto Arts Council, the Jackman Foundation, and the Ontario Arts Council.
Eriks website is www.eriksesenvalds.com