The Elmer Iseler Singers
Lydia Adams, Artistic Director & Conductor Shawn Grenke, piano/organ
The JUNO Award winning Elmer Iseler Singers (EIS), conducted by artistic director Lydia Adams since 1998, is singing its 44th Concert Season in 2022/23. Founded in 1979 by Dr. Elmer Iseler, the 20-voice professional chamber choir is honoured to receive invitations to collaborate with many major musical organizations, including Esprit Orchestra, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Gryphon Trio, and the Canadian Brass. The EIS has also received a number of honours, most recently a 2018 JUNO Award and GRAMMY nomination for the Chandos recording of works by Ralph Vaughan Williams, featuring the Toronto Symphony under the baton of Peter Oundjian.
The Elmer Iseler Singers is dedicated to performing the works of Canadian composers in Toronto and on its many tours across the country, on many CDS and in its concerts and workshops with community singers, emerging artists, composers and conductors. In 2020, the choir initiated an Educational Mentorship Program with the VIVA Singers Toronto as Associate Choirs, to share skills and to provide mentorship in performance artistry, vocal music education, inclusion, and leadership. The EIS ensemble also recently performed the world premiere and concert tour of Timothy Corlis’ meditational work, Om Saha Nãvavatu, inspired by Vedic texts and the poetry of Hindu and Buddhist spiritual masters. Spring programming will include three world premieres of works by emerging and established Canadian composers, and we look forward with great anticipation to a busy summer of concerts at major Music Festivals throughout Ontario.
The Singers have been honoured to work with Indigenous creators in the premiere performance and multiple tours of the first opera in the Cree language, Pimooteewin: The Journey, with music by composer Mellisa Hui and text by Tomson Highway; and with Richard van Camp and Elder Rosie Mantla of the Tlicho people of the NWT. Today, we sing grandmother moon, with music by Eleanor Daley, and the stunning text by Mary Louise Martin, from Millbrook Mi’kmaq First Nation, NS. Thank you, Mary Louise, for your beautiful words.
The Elmer Iseler Singers organization is honoured to sing this concert tour in Mi’kma’ki, the ancestral and traditional lands of the Mi’kmaq people. We express our gratitude and respect to Indigenous peoples across Canada for being stewards of the land on which we live and make music.
We are absolutely thrilled to return to the Maritimes once again to sing with and for friends and family! We look forward to sharing our music with you!
