Passion and Resurrection

A co-production of Elektra Women’s Choir & Chor Leoni Men’s Choir in partnership with the Chan Centre

Two of Canada’s top choirs, Chor Leoni and Elektra, come together to present a program of powerful choral masterpieces from the past decade that view the traditional Passion story through a modern lens.

David Lang’s Pulitzer Prize-winning The Little Match Girl Passion draws its text and inspiration from the unlikely pairing of Hans Christian Andersen’s tale of The Little Match Girl and J.S. Bach’s St. Matthew Passion. In this emotionally charged work, the pain and longing of a homeless girl is transfigured into a human Passion story for our own time and place. Rising young choral star Ēriks Ešenvalds’ Passion and Resurrection is a fiery, sumptuous, and ecstatic setting of the Passion for choir and string orchestra with soprano soloist. In this work, Ešenvalds has combined texts from Byzantine traditions as well as the Old and New Testament and has created one of the most powerful and immediate choral works ever written.