With more than 90 people set to take the stage of its next production, Bow Valley Chorus gives new meaning to the word Mass.
Presenting The Armed Man: A Mass For Peace by Welsh composer Karl Jenkins, the performance takes to the stage at The Banff Centre on Sunday (May 5) at 8 p.m. and then a week later for a second performance in Calgary.
“It’s for choir, orchestra and soloists, and we’ll be assembling a 60-piece choir and 30-piece orchestra,” said John Goulart, Bow Valley Chorus’ music director.
“I really enjoyed listening to this piece when I first heard it and I wasn’t sure if we were actually going to be able to perform it because of the size of the orchestra, but we were able to secure the funds, and it just worked out,” he explained. “All the things came together for it. The choir really enjoys doing the music and are really happy to be able to do it.”
The mass is about war and peace, and the emotions they evoke, said Goulart.
“It’s really all encompassing in terms of an emotional content, there’s so many different emotions covered in this music, it’s issues that you would think about that all have to do with war,” he said. “There’s sections of the whole issue of soldiers preparing for war, there’s a battle scene, there’s thinking about going to war, the aftermath of war, and there’s a couple movements that cover the whole issue of what it would be like after a nuclear bomb has gone off.”
The Armed Man was commissioned by the Royal Armouries Museum (U.K.) for millennium celebrations in 1999.
“It’s a very cautionary thing in that it covers all of the aspects of war – there’s some very difficult and heart wrenching sections, and compassionate sections – it really takes you on a musical journey through all the different emotions,” he said. “That alone is something I find will move the audience, watching and participating in this performance.
“On top of that, there will be a visual element, images being projected as the music is played, to enhance the music and to give a greater emotional content to the performance.”
While the original piece was dedicated to the victims of the war in Kosovo, it is about war in general, said Goulart.
“There’s wars all over the world and all through history, and every part of the world is touched by war at some point or another,” he said. “Taking that into consideration when it comes to the images, there’s images of the world wars, of Vietnam and Iraq – all of these different wars are portrayed, because they’re all significant – and on top of that there are wars in Africa right now that involve children soldiers, so there’s sections that speak to that.
“Children are kidnapped and held against their will in an army that terrorizes civilians. These things are all part of reality and I think maybe people aren’t aware of that, so we’re making that the issue as well.”
The performance includes two soloists.
“Karen Minish is the soprano soloist and Jason Erhardt is our bass, and is also baritone,” he said. “They’ve both done solos for Bow Valley Chorus before, Karen is from Banff, and Jason is from Calgary – he sang in the Messiah this past December with us.”
As for the remainder of the choir, the singers are well-trained and are all very excited about performing this music, he said.
“Many of the members of the choir have been with us since we started in 2001 – this is our 13th year and we’re still going strong,” he said. “There are some new members and we’ve gotten a few other singers from Calgary to bolster our numbers up a bit to approximately 60 singers – that’s a fair size, we probably haven’t had that many since our anniversary in 2010.”
While the chorus’ Christmas concerts are performed in Banff and Canmore, it’s not uncommon for the group to present a show in Calgary, as they’re doing with Armed Man.
“Our spring concerts we usually perform in Calgary, we’ve been doing this for a number of years, so we’re looking forward to that as well,” he said. “We have some following in Calgary – we just did Calgary Sings, a major choral event that happens every two years, and we had an excellent showing, so we hope to get some people from that concert to come to ours as well.”
As for the orchestra, its members are coming from Calgary.
“The orchestra is quite large for us and involves strings, brass and percussion, as well as flute and organ, and we’re certainly going to make some amazing sounds – there’s a lot of drums, because of the military influence,” he said. “And there’s some amazing brass with the battle sections and I think it’s going to be very exciting.
“It’s going to fill the stage, for sure, but we’ve done it before. And there’s going to be a lot of sound.”
Tickets for The Banff Centre show are available from the centre’s box office only.
