A newsletter for choral pedagogues

Dear choral colleagues

Over the last 12 months, we have stayed in touch with many of you through our weekly newsletters. Once we started scheduling our editions, we realized we have a lot to share about our organization, about our performances, our guests and about choral music in general. Also, since I don’t see you regularly at concerts, writing on a weekly basis has become a great way for me to engage with you, and I appreciate your personal responses and comments on various editions.

Our website now hosts ALL of our newsletters, and you can find them at procoro.ca/newsletter. It is a great resource for anyone wanting to revisit the season, learn about the choir’s history or simply listen again to ‘the piece you shared last year at Easter’. You will find our weekly general newsletters and EAR newsletters in a chronological list, but also grouped thematically in:

Daily Christmas Radio 2020

Moonshot: New Choral Works 2020

Mother’s Day Dailies 2020

Daily Musical Reflections Through Holy Week 2020

I invite you to share the newsletter archive with other music lovers and choral leaders. We have an exciting series Meet The Team coming up soon in our general newsletter where you can get to know our staff and production team.

You can also share the link to our Subscribe Page if you know someone in your community who might be interested in signing up for one, or both, of our weekly newsletters. And don’t forget to check out our Blog section where you can find even more in depth writings about choral works and performances!

With my best wishes,

Michael Zaugg

Season-Planning-Mode with Mark Vuorinen

Mark Vuorinen holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Toronto and Master of Music degree from Yale University’s School of Music and Institute of Sacred Music. A well-known Canadian conductor, Mark is the artistic director of Kitchener-Waterloo’s Grand Philharmonic Choir, and the director of the Elora Singers.

A recipient of many awards, Mark was named the E. Stanley Sedar Scholar at Yale University’s Institute of Sacred Music, the 2016 Laureate of the Ontario Arts Council's Leslie Bell Prize in Choral Conducting, and is a recipient of the Elmer Iseler National Graduate Fellowship in Choral Conducting.  

Mark’s research interests include the study of contemporary choral literature from the Baltic states, and in particular, the music of Arvo Pärt and Veljo Tormis. He has given first performances and Canadian premieres of works by many composers, including John Burge, Timothy Corlis, Barbara Croall, Jonathon Dove, and Reena Esmail.