Winnipeg Male Chorus, Prairie Blend Men’s Choir holding concert reunion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 23/04/2016 (3683 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Flash back to the fall of 2002.

The Winnipeg Male Chorus is rolling into town and they would like a little warmup act to whet concertgoers’ appetites for the main choral feast.

The task of cobbling together the appetizer falls on Deanna Ginn, then the choir director at Trinity United Church. She lassoes two tenors and two basses from her choir, conscripts two tenors and two basses from Knox United’s choir, they sing a few songs at the concert and the Prairie Blend Men’s Choir was born.

The singers had fun, they were well received and Ginn recognized that such a group — made up exclusively of male voices — was unique to western Manitoba.

Flash ahead to the spring of 2016.

The Winnipeg Male Chorus is again rolling into town — this Sunday afternoon, to be exact. But this time, the concert is a joint choral venture as Prairie Blend is all ‘growed up,’ wily veterans of many concerts over their 14-year history.

“We are really looking forward to singing with you guys after all these years,” Terry Brownlee, a member of the Winnipeg choir, said of the choral reunion — a sentiment echoed by their Brandon colleagues.

“I’m so excited to see and hear the Winnipeg ensemble again,” Ginn said. “I don’t know that I ever had the nerve to tell them what a huge inspiration they were to me as a young conductor.”

Directed by Helen Bergen, the Winnipeg Male Chorus boasts a history going back to 1960. It is composed of up to 45 men from Winnipeg and surrounding communities, singing “a wide variety of music, from classical to folk, to show and to rock ’n’ roll, to fun and also religious numbers,” according to Brownlee.

“Each spring, we travel to communities outside Winnipeg singing in support of fundraising efforts in those communities,” he said.

Meanwhile, 14 years later, Prairie Blend remains a unique fixture on the Westman musicscape with its repertoire written especially for men’s voices. With close to 25 members, the choir’s music ranges from inspirational to ribald, mystical to tongue-twisting nonsense, the sublime to just plain fun.

For its portion of Sunday’s concert, Blenders have basically docked their testosterone-fuelled sea shanties (the lone exception being one involving pirates … in Saskatchewan) and odes to ale, and turned their attention to the rites of spring — namely (nudge-nudge, wink-wink) “courtship.”

A skipping through the meadows delight is certain to be “It Was A Lover and His Lass,” by the Rodgers and Hammerstein of naughty madrigal composers, Will Shakespeare and Thomas Morley.

After courtship, and sometimes marriage, comes parenthood, which leads to one of the most hauntingly beautiful songs of the concert, “The Seal Lullaby.”

“Oddly enough, Eric Whitacre was commissioned to compose this piece for an animated movie that was to be based on Kipling’s ‘The White Seal.’ In the end, the movie execs opted to make ‘Kung Fu Panda’ instead, and Whitacre was left with this gorgeous piece to publish as he saw fit,” Ginn said.

“The song brings Kipling’s poetry to life as we become the voice of a mother seal who gently reassures her pup.”

Elevating the Blend portion of the concert to the realm of the divine is Felix Mendelssohn’s “Beati Mortui,” featuring interplay between a wonderful quartet and the choir.

“The serenity of the message of eternal rest in the text from Revelation marries well with the smooth, largely homophonic choral writing.” Ginn said.

The choir has also resurrected Morten Lauridsen’s searing “Sure on this Shining Night,” a musical setting of James Agee’s poem about hope and wonder in the universe, tinged by resignation at the passage of time.

The music “often leaves us breathless in rehearsal,” Ginn said. “Every work of Lauridsen’s that we have tackled has immediately lifted our spirits and planted itself into our hearts.”

The concert will also feature two joint songs involving the combined men’s choirs.

Showtime is 3 p.m. on Sunday at Knox United Church — rather fitting in that the four Knox choir members at the original concert are still in Prairie Blend for this reunion.

Admission is $10 at the door.

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