No matter the weather, ‘Raine or Schein’ promises to shed new light on rarely heard works of a German Baroque master and celebrate the singular stylings of a prairie songstress.
Winnipeg’s Baroque chamber choir Canzona opens their season by sharing the bill – and performing alongside – Raine Hamilton in a concert this weekend.
A clever title playing on two of the composers featured in the program – singer/songwriter/fiddler/musicologist Raine Hamilton and German Baroque composer Johann Hermann Schein – the concert marks the return of Elroy Friesen as artistic director, after unfortunate circumstances pulled him away from the group shortly after his first appointment nearly a decade ago.
“I love Baroque music,” says Friesen, who serves as director of Choral Studies at the University of Manitoba. “To work with an instrument (Canzona) – as it were – that really gets how Baroque music can work is really exciting.”
Though this first concert he leads is hardly a standard presentation of Baroque music.
Taking place at the Exchange Event Centre, the concert promises to serve up some rarely heard student drinking songs by Johann Hermann Schein, plus the otherworldly musical stylings of Raine Hamilton, all amidst a laid-back, comfortable atmosphere.
“This is not like your grandma’s baroque concert,” says Friesen, of the concert schemed by former artistic director Kathleen Allan.
The concert also features a number of collaborations between the two groups, including an arrangement of Hamilton’s “Over the Mountain” done by chorister and composer Scott Reimer which will be sung by Canzona.
“We often sing and perform in our baroque silo and to blow that open – and to try different things musically – that's what makes me most excited about this (concert),” says Friesen. “I think it’s the most unique Baroque collaboration I’ve ever been a part of.”
Raine or Schein takes place Sunday, November 5 at the Exchange Event Centre. Doors open at 7 p.m.
Visit: www.canzona.ca to learn more.
Find a little sneak peek at rehearsal below!