Canada’s premiere chamber choir, the Elmer Iseler Singers, performs a special concert at St. Mary Magdalene church in Picton this weekend. The program was specially designed by conductor and artistic director Lydia Adams.

“I like to try and tune the program to the building and the audience,” she explains. Ms. Adams has led the choir for 26 years. “This beautiful building has acoustics which are going to be fabulous for ‘a cappella’ work.” The church’s excellent Casavant Frères organ will accompany the choir in some pieces.

There are also some special social connections in the program. “Composer Eleanor Daley, who has recently received the Order of Canada and an Honorary Doctorate from Queen’s University, her alma mater, is coming to the concert,” notes Ms. Adams, “so I decided to put a set of Eleanor’s remarkable compositions on the program in honour of her achievements and of her special connection with the area.”

Adam Innes, co-chair of the concert organizing committee along with Janet Howes, says of the program, “it’s such a mix of new and old: new Canadians, old Canadians, featuring First Nations, Hindu and Muslim, and Christian themes, not to mention Robbie Burns, so it’s very much a Canadian kind of thing.” Ms. Adams describes the work by Canadian composer Hussein Janmohamed, “Sun on Water,” as “a gorgeous piece, complete with Tibetan bowl, describing the sunrise over Lake Ontario from the Scarborough Bluffs.”

”St. Mary Magdalene Church is a musical treasure that hosts many top-notch musical events like this one,” said Mr. Innes. And for Ms. Adams, “it is a mix of glorious music that I believe the Picton audience will really enjoy!” 

Tickets are $35 and available at Books and Company or on Eventbrite.