Meet our Guest Conductor From the Vancouver Chamber Choir

March 28, 2023

Kari Turunen was appointed Artistic Director of the Vancouver Chamber Choir — one of Canada’s premier professional choral ensembles — in 2019. Before moving to Vancouver, he played a major role in the choral music scene in Finland as a conductor, singer, clinician, administrator, adjudicator, and lecturer, and toured extensively across Europe and Asia. His choirs and ensembles have been awarded numerous national and international awards. In addition to his artistic activities, Kari is also an active festival administrator.

Kari was the Artistic Director of the annual Aurore Renaissance Festival in Helsinki from 2015-2022, the Finnish-Swedish Song Celebration in Helsinki in June 2022, and will be the Artistic Director of the Tampere Vocal Music Festival in June 2023.

Kari Turunen holds a doctorate in early music performance practice from the University of the Arts, Helsinki, and an MA in choral conducting from the Sibelius Academy.

Kari served as chair of the Finnish Choral Directors’ Association (FCDA) for almost 20 years, and was a founding member of Lumen Valo, an eight-member mixed voice vocal ensemble performing classical and early music, appearing with them in over 250 concerts and nine critically acclaimed recordings.

Join us with our guest conductor Kari Turunen, and organist Tammy-Jo Mortensen, at this year’s Good Friday concert on April 7, at 7:30pm, either in person or online on ProCoroTV.

Purchase tickets here

Meet Pro Coro Singers

Sable Chan is a Speech-Language Pathologist specializing in voice therapy, and sings with ensembles such as Pro Coro Canada, The Edmonton Opera Chorus, The Canadian Chamber Choir, and is co-founder and performer with FEMME Vocal Ensemble. She is the author of The Choir Girl Blog, where she publishes articles and interviews with choral entusiasts across Canada. In 2019, Sable was named a Top 40 Under 40 by Edify Magazine.

What is your major musical influence?

My significant early musical influences included works by Taiwanese and Hong Kong singers such as Teresa Teng, Anita Mui, Faye Wong, and Sally Yeh, who all showed the power of lyrical ballads and poetic text. They often switched the language they would sing in, such as Mandarin, Cantonese, and Japanese.

What are your favourite Pro Coro Canada performances?

My favourite performances are ones that have a close emotional resonance with me, one of them being Jane Berry’s “Mass for Recovery.” Berry is a Pro Coro singer and she wrote the mass for her mother, Marilyn Berry, as she was recovering from having a brain tumour removed. It is really powerful for a community of singers to share the music of someone close to us all.

Which performance should people come and hear, and why?

Check out Pro Coro’s final concert this season, “The Tower and Garden,” where Pro Coro will be joined by the #connect emerging artist choir and the Vaughan String Quartet.

It is always a pleasure to work with other artists, and #connect is such an exciting group of emerging professional singers in our city

The Tower and The Garden

Our annual choral concert commemorating the Passion of Christ with a cappella works spanning 250 years will be happening on April 7 at Robertson-Wesley United Church. Experience these great works, and more:

Es ist genug, by Sandström
Salve Regina, by Pärt
Jesu, Meine Freude, By Bach
Stabat Mater, by Praulins

You can also watch the concert via livestream on ProCoroTV.

Experience Good Friday with Pro Coro Canada

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