Keeping the Passion Alive

December 17, 2024

Honouring 13 Years

This Sunday, December 22, we will perform The Little Match Girl Passion for the 13th consecutive year. Since his first season with Pro Coro Canada, our Managing and Artistic Director, Michael Zaugg, has included this timeless story as part of our annual Advent tradition.

Two of our singers, Adrienne Sitko and Michael Kurschat, have been part of every performance since the very beginning — a testament to their dedication to this powerful work.

Our ongoing commitment to the tradition of performing The Little Match Girl Passion inspired its composer, David Lang, to write a new piece for us last season: Northern Lights.

Watch The Little Match Girl Passion

Adrienne Sitko

Adrienne Sitko holds a Bachelor of Music in Pipe Organ from the University of Alberta, where her passion for choral music began. She has sung with many of Edmonton’s top chamber choirs, including the U of A Madrigal Singers, Da Camera Singers, and Pro Coro Canada. Adrienne has studied vocal performance with Eva Bostrand and Beth Turnbull, performs actively as a soloist, and sings with the First Baptist Church choir.

Michael Kurschat

Recognized for his versatility across musical genres, his musicality, and the clarity and vibrancy of his singing, baritone Michael Kurschat has performed as a soloist for audiences in Edmonton and across Canada. He is in high demand for his interpretations of Handel, J.S. Bach and Mozart, among others.

The Little Match Girl Passion

Sunday, December 22, 7:30 PM

All Saints’ Anglican Cathedral

Purchase tickets

Behind the Music

“With his winning of the Pulitzer Prize for the little match girl passion (one of the most original and moving scores of recent years), Lang, once a postminimalist enfant terrible, has solidified his standing as an American master.”

— The New Yorker

David Lang is one of the most frequently performed composers in America, known for his music’s intellectual depth and artistic vision.

His extensive catalog spans opera, orchestral, chamber, and solo works, characterized by their ability to evoke emotions ranging from urgency to hypnotic intensity. Lang’s compositions often redefine musical virtuosity, with deceptively simple pieces posing significant challenges that require immense focus from both performers and audiences.

His work The Little Match Girl Passion, commissioned by Carnegie Hall and premiered by Paul Hillier and Theatre of Voices, was recognized by The Guardian as one of the “top 25 works of classical music written in the 21st Century.” The piece earned Lang the Pulitzer Prize in 2008, and its recording won a Grammy Award in 2010.

Learn more about David Lang

We’re almost there!

Thanks to a community of supporters including Russ & Johann Mann, Ed & Leona Bridges, and Alan & Valerie Fielding, Harmony for the Holidays is close to reaching its $20,000 goal! We can get the rest of the way with your help.

As Pro Coro Canada’s Treasurer Nakita Edwards tells us, music brings us joy, laughter, and a sense of belonging. This holiday season we need these more than ever.

Will you help us reach our Harmony for the Holidays goal of $20,000 by the end of the year? Your gift will help provide a vibrant future for Canada’s professional choral arts.

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