Choir, jazz ensemble team up for Christmas cantata

It's virtually unheard of for a professional, classically trained chamber choir to join forces with a sophisticated jazzy big band.

The styles of music are polar opposites. One is precisely structured. The other is loosely charted with lots of energetic, free-flowing improvisation.

However, Edmonton Pro Coro Chamber Choir and Edmonton Jazz Orchestra (EJO) have burst through those boundaries in Pro Coro Christmas tomorrow at the Winspear Centre. Together with the Edmonton Youth and Children's Choirs they perform Nils Lindburg's A Christmas Cantata.

“We often partner with non-profits and playing with Pro Coro was a no-brainer. It's a cool piece of music that's very accessible. It's intricate and on the level of the symphony and pushes us to play our best,” says EJO conductor Kent Sangster.

Some of the loosely constructed jazz charts will give Sangster, also a saxophonist, along with Bob Tildesley on trumpet and Wayne Feschuk on piano an opportunity to show off their free-form improvisation.

Little known in North America, this cantata has only been performed three times on this continent and it's the second mounting in Canada.

“It's a tricky work to put together. It's written for big band and choir and it might be overlooked because of the instrumentation,” says Pro Coro's associate conductor Trent Worthington.

Also written for two vocal soloists, the 14-movement work is a mixture of English carols, Swedish folksongs, harmonies of classical music and jazzy rhythms that tell Jesus' story from the first prophecy to his birth.

“In among the Christmas cantata, we've pieced together several works that help tell the Christmas story,” says Worthington adding that the Edmonton Youth and Children's Choir under the direction of John Wiebe will sing those numbers.

For the St. Albert-based Worthington, one movement that captures the essence of this work is when an angel appears to Mary and informs her of the pregnancy sung by the 95 blended voices of Pro Coro and the youth choirs.

“A children's choir has a certain purity of sound, an innocence of sound. When combined with the more mature choir and when children are allowed an equal stake, there is a wonderful new sound created. The artistic quality is very high and we are in for a unique experience.”