Arts and Entertainment

Caledon-based Elmer Iseler Singers present concert ‘The Earth Sings’

April 9, 2026   ·   0 Comments

By Constance Scrafield

Lydia Adams, conductor and artistic director of the Elmer Iseler Singers, is looking forward to their upcoming concert, The Earth Sings.

This concert will be staged at Eglington St. George’s United Church in Toronto on Sunday, April 12. The Caledon-based choir, now 47 years in the singing, performs in Toronto, across the country, and locally as well.

In an interview with the Citizen, Adams began by offering background on the choir’s life.

“When we bring a singer in, we offer the entire season,” she said. “This is normally a fixed choir of 20 to 21 members.”

A season can be somewhat flexible, since the choir is frequently invited, as she put it, “to do other stuff.”

The all-important funding to cover at least travel expenses and the workshops they do comes from the Canada Council of the Arts, plus donations from other sources and privately.

Wherever the Elmer Iseler Singers travel, they include a workshop with local choirs. Adams related how profoundly interesting and beneficial these workshops are, as evidenced by the enthusiastic letters they receive from the communities they have visited.

For the upcoming The Earth Sings concert, Adams had plenty to tell. Always ready to bring stunning music without being intimidated by the inclusion of other languages, the music of this concert keeps the standards high.

“The program for Sunday, May 12 is fabulous,” was her promise. 

“We focus on the Earth, with an unspoken but clearly implied call for the Earth’s preservation. The language of the music written around the beautiful poetry is inspiring,” said Adams.

There are two songs of particular interest for their originality, both by R. Murray Schafer. Text for The Epitaph for Moonlight came in 1966, when he asked a class of grade seven pupils for suitable synonyms that would convey the sound of moonlight.

That became a free composition, in which the singers must improvise from given indications of pitch, intensity and duration. Accompanied by percussive instruments like glockenspiels, triangles, and cymbals, their vibrations can “produce luminous effects” that picture moonlight on the water. Here, there are no musical notes, as such. The score is written graphically.

Schafer’s second is Sun or A Day in the Life of the Sun. refers to Pythagoras discovering the mathematical correspondence between the ratios of harmonics in a sounding string, while noting that the planets and stars also appeared to move with perfect regularity. He united this discovery with intuition and conjectured that the two types of motion were both expressions of a perfect universal law, binding music and mathematics.

“Pythagoras is reported to have been able to hear the celestial music,” Schafer notes.

The text for Sun consists of words for “sun” collected from around the world, travelling west from the Far East to the Americas.

The piece takes the form of a day in the life of the sun, from Dawn’s soft light to the great energy of the noon heat, then cooling to end quietly in Twilight.

A remarkable history for Sun, Lydia Adams recalled, “This was used at the opening of Roy Thompson Hall in 1982. Elmer [Iseler] conducted it.”

There are two World Premiers during the concert. It is always a thrill and a responsibility to be the first to perform a world premiere, setting a precedent to be followed or revised by other voices.

Following The Earth Sings Concert is Strawberries and Champagne, the EIS annual spring fundraiser. Set for May 31, it will be held at the beautiful Toronto Hunt, 1355 Kingston Road, Toronto.

“It really is a spectacular setting,” Adams said. ”Last year, it was raining but still gorgeous.”

The traditional event offers fine champagne, sweet and savoury delights and rounds of music from the EIS. A silent auction offers the opportunity to purchase something special and support the choir.

EIS is more than a choir, and the Order of Canada was presented to Lydia Adams in 2023, which she declared includes the Choir, speaks to the value of the beneficial influence the choir and their conductor have had on other choirs, emerging conductors, composers and choral singers over the many years. 

For tickets, go to www.elmeriselersingers.com.

Readers Comments (0)