AURA is a registered not-for-profit society dedicated to the performance of fine choral music. Based in Vernon, BC, its 40 members come from throughout the Okanagan Valley and Shuswap area.
Under the direction of our conductor, Dr. Terry Pitt-Brooke, Aura presents its fall 2022 program at All Saints Anglican Church on Saturday December 3rd at 7.00pm and Sunday December 4th at 2pm. Tickets are available at Wentworth Music, from choir members and at the door.
The program of seasonal music features French composers Cesar Franck, Francis Poulenc and Guillaume Costeley along with Bright Angels Sing by Ukrainian composer Kyrylo Stetsenko.
The wonderful harmony of Hector Berlioz’s Shepeherd’s Farewell will bring a great smile to your face.
We will conclude the program, accompanied by a small chamber orchestra and Marjorie Close on the pipe organ, with Charpentier’s Messede minuit pourNoel. Composed in 1690, the editor H. Wiley Hitchcock says “… the mass is without question the most charming, especially since most of its music is based on noels or French Christmas carols” and “The carols … give the Mass its predominant character of tunefulness, simplicity and sweet jubilation.”
Don’t forget to bring your sing-along voice to enjoy four carols with the choir!
News alert ! Looking ahead to AURA Chamber Choir’s 2022 Fall Season – concerts are planned for December 3 (evening) and December 4 (afternoon) under the direction of Dr. Terry Pitt Brooke
Under the direction of interim conductor Dr. Terry Pitt-Brooke and accompanied by Alex MacArthur, AURA will present a varied program of choral music at Peace Lutheran Church, Vernon, BC on Saturday April 23, 2022 starting at 7:30pm and Sunday April 24, 2022 starting at 2:00pm. See the poster below for details.
The concert features choral selections of music ranging from Praetorius, Monteverdi, Mendelssohn, Vaughn Williams, Massenet, Hindemith and Barber to Eric Whitacre’s “Five Hebrew Love Songs”.
The choir is eagerly looking forward to performing once again for your pleasure after two years off stage, doing our part to keep each other Covid safe.
In this regard, AURA will continue to follow Public Health Requirements for Masking and Vaccine Cards to enter the concerts.
For further information, press the “Contact Us” button on our home page.
Well, it has been too long since we have posted to our public web site. Of course there have been no rehearsals and no concerts to inform you about and It doesn’t help that I’m not much of a talker.
But now it is different…. we do have something to talk about.
Over the last few months, about half the choir agreed to attempt the recording of a piece we had rehearsed before the Covid-19 virus began roaring through the country. This is not an easy process. It requires great attention to detail as each singer performs their part, individually recording it in a digital format. These individual recordings are then mixed together to form a complete piece. It is a very complex process to say the least.
So, attached is a link that will allow you to download our performance of The Rose – Ola Geilo.
We hope that with vaccinations ramping up and cases slowly declining that we will be able to talk with you again this fall about AURA’s plan for re-starting rehearsals so that we can enjoy fine choral music with you again in person.
AURA Chamber Choir Spring Concerts, April 3 and 4 – CANCELLED and POSTPONED
It is with deep regret that the AURA Spring Concerts scheduled for April 3 and 4 have had to be cancelled for now because of the COVID-19 health advisories. We do hope and plan to perform the music at a later date, probably not in June but in the fall. Check AURA’S Facebook and website for updates.
If you have already purchased a ticket, you may exchange it for a refund from the person who sold it to you.
This is going to be a wonderful experience for the choir and the audience!
Featuring our Youth Orchestra Chamber Ensemble in Vivaldi’s Gloria along with Marjorie on the All Saints organ and special guests the Seaton Honour Choir under the direction of Lana O’Brien joining us in Baba Yetu (a Swahili adaption of The Lord’s Prayer), we will present an amazing range of repertoire.
You might be surprised to hear AURA’s “cowboy side” flourish in Imant Raminsh’s lament Sunset or marvel at the rhythmic complexity of Jon Washburn’s Chinese Melodies written for the Vancouver Chamber Choir’s first tour to Asia.
The Seaton choir will perform two pieces on their own- Plasir d’Amour and The Piano.
And there is more……
See the poster below for details of location and time but please note the change of days.
AURA has traditionally performed on Saturday evenings and Sunday afternoons but we have now changed to Friday April 3 at 7:30pm and Saturday April 4 at 2:00pm.
We didn’t want to let the year slip away without wishing all of our friends of fine classical choral music a warm wish for peace, contentment and wonderful celebrations throughout this Christmas season.
While it doesn’t look like it through my window, spring will come! And in preparation for our Spring 2020 concerts, we have already had two rehearsals.
The program will feature Vivaldi’s Gloria with organ and chamber orchestra. We’ll round out the program with a piece by our founding director Imant Raminsh along with works by Jon Washburn, Jake Runestad, Don Mcdonald and Beethoven’s Hallelujah from the Mount of Olives.
The concerts will take place at Vernon’s All Saints Anglican Church on Friday April 3rd and Saturday April 4th, 2020.
Further details regarding ticket availability will be published in March.
This is a gentle reminder of AURA’s Remembrance Day program happening this weekend- Saturday evening at 7:30pm or Sunday afternoon 2:00pm.
Both concerts, under the direction of our new conductor Tami Harker, are performed at All Saints Anglican Church, 3205 27th Street, Vernon, BC.
The program reflects the themes of remembrance as well as hope and will include accompaniments with trumpet, harp and flute as well as piano and organ.
This fall AURA Chamber
Choir will be presenting the concert “In Remembrance” to honour those who
sacrificed their lives in the hope that we could live in a free country.
The first half of the
program consists of war poems set to music by modern composers as well as
famous hymns sung in the trenches. These include works such as Holst’s 8 part a
cappella I vow to thee my Country and Eleanor Daley’s For
the Fallen with solo trumpet.
The second half of the
program celebrates the “Joy of Remembering”. These musical arrangements
include Imant Raminsh’s setting of the war poem A Shining Peace,
Robert Shaw’s All Creatures of Our God and King, and
Lauridson’s On this Shining Night.
Highlights of the
program include two Ukrainian songs: Plyve Cacha is a
haunting Ukrainian folk song sung by the men. This piece has now become
an anthem song in Ukraine honouring those who died in Maidan in 2014. The
women then answer this piece with an uplifting song of Hope: Nadija,
music written by Larysa Kuzmenko and words by famous Ukrainian poet Lesia
Ukrainka. Hope is described both on a personal level and as the hope for
an independent and free nation. AURA will also be performing His Voice as the Sound an incredible
American folk song, with recorder, organ and Harp, as well as Biebl’s 8
part Ave Maria.
It’s a program sure to
please all with its intense beauty and classics such as Vivaldi’s Gloria, Healey Willan’s Gloria
Deo Per Immensa Saecula, and Mozart’s Italian Placido E Il Mar. Along
with these classics will come new settings such as In Remembrance by
Eleanor Daley and Abide with Me, a stunning new arrangement by
Greg Jasperse.
If you go to one
Remembrance Day Program this year, AURA invites you to come to this one.
Those attending will leave with a feeling of hope for a bright future, and a thankful heart to those who fought and died for the freedoms we enjoy today. Under direction from AURA’s new musical director Tami Harker, In Remembrance will be presented Saturday November 9th at 7:30pm, and Sunday November 10th at 2:00pm, at All Saints Anglican Church (3205 27th Street, Vernon). Tickets are $18.00, students free; available from choir members, at the Bean Scene, or at the door.
AURA Chamber Choir 