The new recording of Zachary’s oratorio When There is Peace has been nominated for a JUNO Award for Best Classical Album of the Year: Vocal or Choral. The album features performances by Chor Leoni Men’s Choir, soprano Arwen Myers, tenor Lawrence Wiliford, the Borealis String Quartet, and percussionists Robin Reid and Martin Fisk. Erick Lichte, who co-wrote the piece’s libretto with Peter Rothstein, conducts.
The awards ceremony will take place on March 15, 2020 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.
Commemorating the 100th Anniversary of the WWI Armistice, When There Is Peace is a bold reflection on the time when guns fell silent and hope bloomed once more.
When There Is Peace: An Armistice Oratorio by Chor Leoni Composer-in-Residence Zachary Wadsworth is Chor Leoni’s first recording since winning the prestigious Margaret Hillis Award for Choral Excellence from the professional organisation, Chorus America.
Told in the words of Great War-era poets and the found writings of infantrymen in the trenches, When There Is Peace draws the listener in to experience the journey from war through that tenuous moment when word of the Armistice first broke, and finally to the delirious ecstasy when the guns fell silent, and hope bloomed again.
Joining Chor Leoni to tell this compelling story are the renowned Borealis String Quartet, noted Canadian tenor Lawrence Wiliford, soprano Arwen Myers, and percussionists Martin Fisk and Robin Reid.
Commissioned and premiered by Chor Leoni, When There Is Peace marks the first work for the choir by Zachary Wadsworth. Premiered on the 100th anniversary of the Armistice of World War I, When There Is Peace was recorded live at Vancouver’s St. Andrew’s-Wesley United Church and broadcast across Canada by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation on Remembrance Day, 2018.
Zachary is delighted to have been awarded second place in the 2019 Art Song Composition Awards from the National Association of Teachers of Singing. The award is for his Parlo(u)r Songs, commissioned and premiered by Tony Boutté and the New American Voices Project at Sam Houston State University.
Philip Lasser won first place in the Awards for his piece “Elemental Earth.”
CBC Music has made a recording of Zachary’s When There Is Peace available on their website. This premiere performance includes Chor Leoni (directed by Erick Lichte), the Borealis String Quartet, soprano Arwen Myers, tenor Lawrence Wiliford, and percussionists Martin Fisk and Robin Reid. Click here to listen to the piece, and click here for a program book with the piece’s libretto by Peter Rothstein and Erick Lichte.
Click here for a CBC Music guide to Zachary’s new armistice oratorio, When There is Peace. The piece will be premiered on November 10 and 11 by Chor Leoni, and it will be nationally broadcast in Canada on CBC Radio’s Choral Concert on Sunday, November 11 at 9am.
The libretto for the piece can be found here.
During the National Choral Awards banquet on July 4, Luminous Voices’ album of Zachary’s music, The Far West, was named the Outstanding Choral Recording of 2018. Click here for more information about the awards, and to read about past winners and winners in other categories.
