A "vocalise" is a textless vocal exercise sung to one or more vowels. Rachmaninov's is undoubtedly the most famous example of this genre, performed frequently in both vocal and instrumental guises. This version for choir, clarinet and piano was specially arranged by Jon Washburn.

From: The JUNO-nominated "A Quiet Place: Music for Healing III"
Vancouver Chamber Choir, Jon Washburn, conductor
with Cris Inguanti (clarinet) and Linda Lee Thomas (piano)

Available now:
http://www.vancouverchamberchoir.com/A%20Quiet%20Place.htm

Vocalise, Op. 34 No. 14 [excerpt] (Rachmaninov, arr. Washburn)

"Tabula rasa" translates as "blank slate". The composer had a specific image in mind when composing this music: a quiet moment between a mother and child when the mother sees, as never before, the potential of the precious life she holds in her arms -- a silent acknowledgment of her child and every child as a blank slate with seemingly limitless potential.

From: The JUNO-nominated "A Quiet Place: Music for Healing III" 
Vancouver Chamber Choir, Jon Washburn, conductor 
with Cris Inguanti (clarinet) and Linda Lee Thomas (piano)

Available here:
http://www.vancouverchamberchoir.com/A%20Quiet%20Place.htm

Tabula rasa [excerpt] (Don Macdonald)

This poem by surrealist French poet Guillaume Apollinaire has been set to music by Lionel Daunais, one of the greatest contributors to French-Canadian choral music.

The Mirabeau bridge spans the Seine in Paris. Undoubtedly many disillusioned lovers, like the poet, have leaned over its railings and seen their own sorrows in the river's inexorable flow.

From: The JUNO-nominated "A Quiet Place: Music for Healing III" 
Vancouver Chamber Choir, Jon Washburn, conductor 
with Cris Inguanti (clarinet) and Linda Lee Thomas (piano)

Available here: 
http://www.vancouverchamberchoir.com/A%20Quiet%20Place.htm

Le pont Mirabeau [excerpt] (Lionel Daunais)

This arrangement of Akatonbo (赤とんぼ, Red Dragonfly) was composed by Jon Washburn for the Choir's third tour of Japan in 2009. It is a song for the autumn season -- the sunset and dragonfly remind the poet of his childhood and how he missed his sister, who married and moved away from her home and family.

From: The JUNO-nominated "A Quiet Place: Music for Healing III" 
Vancouver Chamber Choir, Jon Washburn, conductor 
with Cris Inguanti (clarinet) and Linda Lee Thomas (piano)

Available here: 
http://www.vancouverchamberchoir.com/A%20Quiet%20Place.htm

Akatonbo [excerpt] (Yamada, arr. Washburn)

Franz Biebl's setting of 'Ave Maria' exploits and expands the richly sonorous possibilities of double-chorus writing. The antiphon is sung by a four-part choir and answered by a three-part group of soloists. The result is an extraordinary blend of flowing melodies and Biebl's own rich multi-voice choral harmonies.

From: The JUNO-nominated "A Quiet Place: Music for Healing III" 
Vancouver Chamber Choir, Jon Washburn, conductor 
with Cris Inguanti (clarinet) and Linda Lee Thomas (piano)

Available here: 
http://www.vancouverchamberchoir.com/A%20Quiet%20Place.htm

Ave Maria [excerpt] (Franz Biebl)

French composer Claude Debussy was famed for his colouristic orchestral canvases and an uncanny facility for making the piano sound like an orchestra, too. In "Trois chansons de Charles d'Orléans", he created the same magical effects for an ensemble of unaccompanied voices, painting nearly tangible moods and textures. This one, "Lord! how lovely you have made her!", is as gentle and sensuous as the woman it describes.

From: The JUNO-nominated "A Quiet Place: Music for Healing III" 
Vancouver Chamber Choir, Jon Washburn, conductor 
with Cris Inguanti (clarinet) and Linda Lee Thomas (piano)

Available here: 
http://www.vancouverchamberchoir.com/A%20Quiet%20Place.htm

Dieu! qu'il la fait bon regarder! [excerpt] (Debussy)

American composer William Hawley was born in 1950 in New York and now makes his home on the coast of Maine. This chorus is set to a small but ecstatic poem by Emily Dickinson and comes from Hawley's 1995 cycle called "Four Reveries".

From: The JUNO-nominated "A Quiet Place: Music for Healing III" 
Vancouver Chamber Choir, Jon Washburn, conductor 
with Cris Inguanti (clarinet) and Linda Lee Thomas (piano)

Available here: 
http://www.vancouverchamberchoir.com/A%20Quiet%20Place.htm

My river runs to thee [excerpt] (William Hawley)

Ed Henderson is a Vancouver composer, arranger/orchestrator, guitarist, producer, music director and frequent collaborator of the Vancouver Chamber Choir in concert and on recordings. "Your fragrance" is an a cappella version of a movement from "Birdsong", a larger work for choir and tar based on the poetry of Rumi and premiered by the Vancouver Chamber Choir and Amir Koushkani in 2006.

From: The JUNO-nominated "A Quiet Place: Music for Healing III" 
Vancouver Chamber Choir, Jon Washburn, conductor 
with Cris Inguanti (clarinet) and Linda Lee Thomas (piano)

Available here: 
http://www.vancouverchamberchoir.com/A%20Quiet%20Place.htm

Your fragrance [excerpt] (Edward Henderson)

Franz Schubert was the all-time genius of the "Lied", or German solo song. This piece was composed in 1816 when he was just 19 years old. The poem is by 18th-century poet and philosopher Johann Georg Jacobi, and the arrangement for choral voices is by Jon Washburn.

From: The JUNO-nominated "A Quiet Place: Music for Healing III" 
Vancouver Chamber Choir, Jon Washburn, conductor 
with Cris Inguanti (clarinet) and Linda Lee Thomas (piano)

Available here: 
http://www.vancouverchamberchoir.com/A%20Quiet%20Place.htm

Litanei [excerpt] (Schubert, arr. Washburn)

A Dylan Thomas Christmas: A Child's Christmas in Wales

Our signature holiday event on CD!

To celebrate the 100th anniversary of Dylan Thomas' birth, this recording features a delightful reading of "A Child's Christmas in Wales" with appropriate carols suggested by the text interpolated by the Vancouver Chamber Choir under their longtime conductor, Jon Washburn.

With Russell Roberts, reader.

Order your copy here:
http://vancouverchamberchoir.com/DylanThomas.html


The Huron Carol [excerpt] (arr. Washburn)

Patapan [excerpt] (arr. Washburn)

Here we come a-caroling [excerpt] (arr. Washburn)

O little town of Bethlehem [excerpt] (arr. Washburn)

God rest ye merry, gentlemen [excerpt] (arr. Washburn)

O Christmas Tree [excerpt] (arr. Washburn)

Ding dong, merrily on high [excerpt] (arr. Washburn)

See amid the winter snow [excerpt] (arr. Washburn)

Fum, fum, fum [excerpt] (arr. Washburn)

Still, still, still [excerpt] (arr. Washburn)

In loving memory of our friend and colleague, Laverne G'froerer (1947-2018). This excerpt is the opening of the 'Agnus Dei' from Carl Maria von Weber's Mass in G, Op. 76 ("Jubelmesse") with Jon Washburn leading the Vancouver Chamber Choir, CBC Vancouver Orchestra and Laverne G'froerer, mezzo-soprano soloist.

Missa Brevis

Messe Nr. 2, Op. 76 "Jubelmesse"

In memory of Laverne G'froerer

The Vancouver Chamber Choir is Canada’s premier professional choral ensemble - 20 singers and a conductor - celebrating music and performance since 1971.

Vancouver Chamber Choir

Popular tracks