Foto by Mike Grandmaison

Elektra & Shelagh Rogers: Kindred Spirits

Date and Venue 30 April & 1 May 2011 | Ryerson United Church
2195 W 45th Ave., Vancouver

Reviewer Ed Farolan

I was impressed by the singing of this choir of 40 women, from all walks of life, singing songs of praise ("Gloria in Excelsis Deo"), friendship ("Friend in Me"), the Canadian landscape ("Winter Sky"), and life ("Solitude", "Changed Forever"), reflecting the thoughts, impressions, and personal confessions of Shelagh Rogers, an icon of Canadian broadcasting and a friend of the choir.

Artistic Director and Conductor Morna Edmundson matched Rogers' thoughts with musical selections, using as a visual backdrop images of Canadian landscape photographed by Mike Grandmaison. Joining the choir were secondary school students who are participating in the Mira mentoring programme.

There was a touching poem read by Lilian, a native aboriginal from the Arctic region who narrated the pains and struggles of her people when children were separated forcibly from their parents and put in residential schools. There wasn't a dry eye in the audience after she spoke.

A standing ovation during the Sunday matinee performance was well-deserved for this exquisite choir, as the singers, surrounding the audience, standing along the church aisles, joyfully sang the encore number, "Friend in Me".

.© 2011 Ed Farolan