Vancouver Chamber Choir with Kari Turunen
This leading professional choir survived the choir apocalypse, floods, pandemics and the departure of its longtime founder. You're going to want to watch this one.
The Vancouver Chamber Choir was founded by Jon Washburn in 1971. Today it ranks with the best professional choruses in North America. Noted for its diverse repertoire and performing excellence, the choir has presented concerts to audiences around the world, including the USA, Europe, the Far East and Latin America.
This elite Choir has received numerous awards including the Margaret Hillis Award for Choral Excellence by Chorus America and has released 36 recordings. Over the years, VANCC has sung over 4,000 performances of works by Canadian composers of which many you can enjoy on their digital on-demand platform VANCC DIGITAL
The choir has an award-winning educational program and offers many on-tour workshops and residencies.
Kari Turunen began leading the Vancouver Chamber Choir in September 2019, its 49th concert season.
“You’re probably not going to become rich by conducting choirs. But follow your heart! I’ve made quite a few U-turns in my life and every time I’ve done it, the result has been an added layer of happiness in my life.”
What are the challenges of taking over a successful choir?
Jon Washburn founded the choir in 1971 and it has become an amazing success story. Of course, the choir has been drilled in his way of making music, and anyone who comes along will make music in a different way.
It’s important to show respect to the history of the choir. You must first understand the dynamics of what you are dealing with. Get the lay of the land first before making any adjustments to how the choir runs.
In this case Jon has been very discreet but also very supportive which has been a major factor in our success.
What differences have you noticed as a European artistic director working in North America?
Both Europe and North America are home to so many different cultures, so it's difficult to make generalizations. However, to understand where the priorities are, it's a case of “follow the money”.
For example in Singapore, there is a culture of competition between high schools based on a point system. When they added Arts to the school competition, alongside sports, suddenly students and the administration became very focused on supporting choirs. They started employing professional conductors from outside the schools and as a result, raised the level of the school choirs exponentially.
In Finland, the money has gone to music education outside of the school as well as music classes in schools. In England, it's the Anglican church that has put money into choirs through their system of choir schools, such as Westminster Cathedral Choir School.
In Canada, there are quite a few professional choirs for a country with such a small population. Church choirs also are known to employ professional singers as a core of their choir and so on.
So it's not just about culture breeding culture but more about what is being supported. Hence “Follow the money”.
What can Canadians do to encourage more support from the federal and provincial governments?
The support here is actually already pretty good. It's a positive social and cultural activity that delivers a high return on investment. Choral music is more diverse and accessible than classical music and it’s popular and worthwhile supporting.
During the pandemic it was wonderful to see governments working to keep cultural institutions alive. The Canadian government deserves accolades for that. The VCC is supported by the British Columbia Arts Council as well as numerous community partners and other individuals and organizations.
How best to keep a connection to audiences in the digital age?
The pandemic accelerated the trend to connecting with audiences through digital platforms. At the Vancouver Chamber Choir we use something called VANCC DIGITAL, a video-on-demand digital platform.
Audiences are able to purchase access to our concert videos in addition to free content such as educational material and never-before-released footage from our archives. New videos are uploaded regularly, which is important in today’s competitive digital environment.
“The silver lining of the pandemic was to help us focus on creating and nurturing a wider audience through the internet. Even internationally! It’s a global audience now.”
How does it work financially?
Understanding the financial implications of the online experience is a work in progress. The costs of production can be high but the views can be limited. On the other hand, the concert lives forever online so costs may be covered over time.
Which means it's really up to us to make the platform more available and more attractive. And that is all about marketing. And repertoire!
The possibilities are almost endless, but the problem is that our resources are not endless at all.
How do you make decisions about repertoire?
The most important consideration is whether this is feasible for us? No point in choosing a piece which is written for 48 voices. And then the next one is, is it appealing? There might be seasonal considerations. Also, is there an opportunity to reach out to different audiences? Recently, we did a concert series aimed at the Chinese community in Vancouver. If you are considering a youth event, it's important to consider music where the themes of the pieces reverberate with young people.
Looking for repertoire is an ongoing process. If I hear something I like, I follow it up on Spotify or YouTube and see if the same composer has different pieces that I like as well. There are certain choirs that I like and I can follow what they're doing. I also get a lot of suggestions from composers.
An individual concert can start from one piece and then all the rest fits in. Or sometimes there is a theme and I start looking for pieces which fit the theme.
It’s important to stay in contact with composers because they're the people who are giving us the voice. So if any composers are listening, I'm really happy to get your suggestions. Don't be afraid to approach me.
What advice would you give your 20-year-old self to stay on track for success in this business?
You have to define success pretty narrowly because you're probably not going to become rich by conducting choirs. But I'd probably say to myself “follow your heart”. I've made quite a few U-turns in my life and every time I've done it, the result has been an added layer of happiness in my life.
Try and get yourself a choir to conduct and then just learn from what you're doing. Every day you’ll learn something. You’ll never ever know enough. Music is a companion that will challenge you to always strive to be better.
What’s next for the VCC?
Head over to vancouverchamberchoir.com. We have a season of inspiring choral music presented in collaboration with some fantastic guest artists and collaborators. You’ll be treated to music from across the centuries, including a number of exciting premieres of newly commissioned works.
There is also lots of educational content that I think a lot of choral singers would be really interested in.
The opinions expressed in this program are those of the guests and contributors. They do not necessarily reflect the opinions of ChoirGenius Inc.