The Elora Singers, formerly known as the Elora Festival Singers, founded in 1980 by artistic director Noel Edison, is an all-professional GRAMMY^®- and twice JUNO-nominated chamber choir known for its rich, warm sound and clarity of texture. This is achieved by holding annual auditions for current and aspiring choristers, which fosters and ensures the preservation and integrity of this trademark sound. The Elora Singers is also renowned for its commitment to Canadian repertoire and for its collaborations with other artists from across Canada and around the world.

Through its regular concert series, recordings, broadcasts and touring, the Elora Singers is widely praised as one of the finest chamber choirs in Canada, contributing to the musical life of our local communities throughout the country as well as on the international stage. The choir is the principal choral ensemble of the Elora Festival and, since 1997, has been the professional core of the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir.

Photo: Sophie Hogan

An accomplished composer and conductor, Eric Whitacre has quickly become one of the most popular and performed composers of his generation. The Los Angeles Times has praised his compositions as “works of unearthly beauty and imagination, (with) electric, chilling harmonies”; while the BBC raves that “what hits you straight between the eyes is the honesty, optimism and sheer belief that passes any pretension. This is music that can actually make you smile.”

Though he had received no formal training before the age of 18, his first experiences singing in college choir changed his life, and he completed his first concert work, Go, Lovely, Rose, at the age of 21. Eric went on to the Juilliard School, earning his Master of Music degree and studying with Pulitzer Prize- and Oscar-winning composer John Corigliano.

Many of Whitacre’s works have entered the standard choral and symphonic repertories and have become the subject of several recent scholarly works and doctoral dissertations. His works Water Night, Cloudburst, Sleep, Lux Aurumque and A Boy and a Girl are among the most popular choral works of the last decade, and his Ghost Train, Godzilla Eats Las Vegas, and October have achieved equal success in the symphonic wind community. His work has received thousands of performances, with sheet music sales of over one million copies worldwide. He has received composition awards from the Barlow International Composition Competition, the American Choral Directors Association and the American Composers Forum. In 2001, Whitacre became the youngest recipient ever awarded the coveted Raymond C. Brock commission by the American Choral Directors Association.

As a conductor, Whitacre has appeared with hundreds of professional and educational ensembles throughout the world. In recent years he has conducted concerts of his choral and symphonic music in Japan, Australia, China, Singapore, South America and much of Europe, as well as dozens of American universities and colleges where he regularly conducts seminars and lectures with young musicians. Over the past few years, these loyal fans and supporters have moved online, spreading Eric’s popularity to an ever-expanding worldwide audience. Other commissions include works for Chanticleer; The King’s Singers; Conspirare; and the London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus.

His music has been featured on dozens of commercial and independent recordings. His first recording, The Music of Eric Whitacre, was hailed by American Record Guide as one of the top ten classical albums of 1997. In 2006, a full collection of his a cappella music, Cloudburst and Other Choral Works, was released on the renowned British classical label Hyperion Records. The album quickly became an international bestseller, appearing in the top ten of both Billboard’s and iTune’s Top Classical Albums charts. Two years after its début, the critically acclaimed release continues to be a topseller. The collection earned a 2007 GRAMMY nomination for Best Choral Performance.

Whitacre has received acclaim for Paradise Lost: Shadows and Wings, a cutting edge musical combining trance, ambient and techno electronica with choral, cinematic, and operatic traditions. Winner of the ASCAP Harold Arlen award, this musical also gained Whitacre the prestigious Richard Rodgers Award for most promising musical theater composer. Following its sold-out run, the production earned 10 nominations at the 2007 Los Angeles Stage Alliance Ovation Awards, including one for Best World Premiere Musical.