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Echo Women's Choir

The Echo Women's Choir is a community choir from Toronto, for women's voices. We sing music from community traditions around the world, in English and also many other languages. Echo is dedicated to diversity, inclusivity and social justice. This channel is for videos of our performances, at the Church of the Holy Trinity and other locations around Toronto. New videos released weekly!

Echo Women's Choir
Founded in 1991, Echo is a non-auditioned community choir, open to women of all ages from a diversity of cultural, racial and religious backgrounds. We sing an eclectic repertoire, including world music, Canadian compositions, and songs that address social justice, the environment, and world peace. Echo presents two concerts each year, featuring guest artists who have worked with the choir to introduce new skills, insights and songs. In September 2023, the multi-talented Andrew Craig offered a dynamic workshop for choir members. Echo welcomed members of the Toronto Children’s Concert Choir (TC3), with whom we’ve collaborated in past years. This was part of a pandemic initiative by Echo to expand its engagement with a diversity of communities in Toronto and the GTA. The video is part of the ECHO!! Revived project, funded by a Canada Council for the Arts Digital Now grant. We are deeply grateful for this government commitment to Community Music and the Arts in Canada; and we acknowledge ongoing support from the Toronto Arts Council. Directed, filmed and edited by Carlos Coronado, https://www.coronadofilms.ca/ Connect with the Echo Choir: https://www.echochoir.ca/
Founded in 1991, Echo is a non-auditioned community choir, open to women of all ages from a diversity of cultural, racial and religious backgrounds. We sing an eclectic repertoire, including world music, Canadian compositions, and songs that address social justice, the environment, and world peace. Echo presents two concerts each year, featuring guest artists who have worked with the choir to introduce new skills, insights and songs. In October 2023, Echo hosted a visit by South African choral composer and teacher Bongani Magatyana. In conjunction with the Toronto Children’s Concert Choir (TC3), our choir shared workshops with Chief Dan George Public School and Sistema Toronto, besides an evening workshop for our own choir and a full-weekend public workshop. This was part of a pandemic initiative by Echo to expand its engagement with a diversity of communities in Toronto and the GTA. The video is part of the ECHO!! Revived project, funded by a Canada Council for the Arts Digital Now grant. We are deeply grateful for this government commitment to Community Music and the Arts in Canada; and we acknowledge ongoing support from the Toronto Arts Council. Directed, filmed and edited by Carlos Coronado, https://www.coronadofilms.ca/ Connect with the Echo Choir: https://www.echochoir.ca/
On Mothers' Day, May 14, Echo hosted Annabelle Chvostek as our special guest, for a concert that celebrated many classic songs from before our years of isolation, as well as some of her songs we'd sung over Zoom. What a grand feeling it was, to re-awaken in public harmony, with a warm and lively audience. Special thanks to the Canada Council for the Arts which encouraged us by sponsoring a number of our workshops, and video production plans during this special period of rebuilding. 00:16 Father James’s Song 4:50 I’ll ay ca’ in by yon town 10:42 These Times (words by John Krumm) 12:49 Hay una mujer 19:18 Bridget’s Fire 23:35 Grey Funnel Line 26:47 Earth Chant 30:09 Skagit Valley Forever 33:10 Erdő mélyén, esti csendben 38:32 Ia mtazeda (with Michelangelo Iaffaldano) 44:46 Firefly (Annabelle Chvostek, with Rachel Melas) 48:37 Walls 53:30 String of Pearls 1:01:11 Now Is the Cool of the Day 1:06:53 Enough is Enough 1:13:56 Greenbelt Blues (words by Susan Daly and Joyce Hall)
Music by Malvina Reynolds, Ontario words by Susan Daly and Joyce Hall, for the Echo Women's Choir. Alan Gasser, Artistic Director & Becca Whitla, piano. Audio recorded at The Tranzac Club, Toronto, Apr 20 2023. Lyrics here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bkuLnNcNP6j1KNtu2E_ii0DUk9LcWlQP/view?usp=sharing
On Dec 4 2022, Common Thread Community Choir joined Echo Choir as special guests, almost exactly 3 years after we sang as their guests at Eastminster Church. In-between was an extended break from public singing, and a re-awakening. Special thanks to the Canada Council for the Arts which encouraged us by sponsoring a number of our plans for this season and next, including workshops, and video production. 0:00 Thula (Echo and Common Thread) 5:00 Where ARE we? (A Land Acknowledgement) 9:26 She’s Like the Swallow (Common Thread) 11:15 Oshwitsate 14:11 You Are My Sister 16:41 We Were There 21:55 Log Driver’s Waltz 24:32 Talkin’ ’Bout a Revolution 29:21 What Happens When a Woman (both choirs) 32:12 Quiet 35:20 Sholem, Sholem, Sholem (Echo) 42:30 Merisuli 46:40 Those Gambler’s Blues 50:28 To My Old Brown Earth 52:24 Beautiful Fools 1:00:04 Grandma 1:02:29 500 Miles 1:08:42 Hope (both choirs) 1:11:44 Joyful Banner Blazing
Singer songwriter Maria Dunn, fresh off her 2022 Juno win for Traditional Roots Album, came to Toronto in November 2022 to work with Echo and Common Thread Community Chorus. It was a joy to work with Maria to learn some of her songs, arranged for choir. This video features Maria talking about her music, the story behind the song “Joyful Banner Blazing,” and her relationship with Echo Women’s Choir. It also documents the process of Echo learning "Joyful Banner Blazing", the title piece from Maria's latest album. The video is part of the ECHO!! Revived project, funded by a Canada Council for the Arts Digital Now grant. We are deeply grateful for this government commitment to Community Music and the Arts in Canada. Directed, filmed and edited by Carlos Coronado, https://www.coronadofilms.ca/ Connect with the Echo Choir: https://www.echochoir.ca/ Buy Maria Dunn's music and learn about upcoming concerts and events: https://www.mariadunn.com/
A Song For Michael Words and music by Vera Johnson, © Oct 29, 1969 Vera Johnson’s songs and recordings are overdue for a comeback. She was born in 1920 and there was a time in the 60s and 70s, when she circulated in all the right company: she met Malvina Reynolds in Vancouver for a peace conference, and taught one of her songs to a busload of Canadian protestors; she had a record deal with Stompin’ Tom’s company Boot Records; and audiences and music-business people loved her singing on the folk circuit. She wrote 274 songs, as well as lots of stories; she supported the co-op housing movement and was a freakishly fast typist. There were homespun songs, crafted into great stories, with gorgeous tunes and cheerful energy: the Do-It-Yourself Divorce, the song about Trudeau-mania, love songs, the history of her dad who was a railway engineer, and the Women’s Liberation Blues. But what caught our eye first was a fabulous dream song lullaby for her grandson, A Song for Michael. She somehow knits together the modernity of the moon landing, and the tenderness of a kitten landing on its feet, in the wish for her boy’s healthy development. Spoiler alert: he did OK, and we found him on Facebook! March, 2022 Echo started a new season online, and then a new year, still longing almost feverishly for the joys of singing together in the same place. We do have energy for those Zoom meetings and the feelings of connection, but we’re really ready to sing together. How happy we’ll be to celebrate International Women’s Day this year, with a hybrid in-person AND online rehearsal, as well as this new song gift we give to the world. Many thanks to the Echo Alumnae, guest artists and other singer friends who have joined us, virtually every week. Recording © 2022, The Echo Women’s Choir Audio and video editing: Peter Turner Echo 4th-Wave Pandemica Singers Alan Gasser, Artistic Director (and choral arranger) Susanne Maziarz, accompanist (and arranger) Thanks also to section leaders Alida Doornberg and Susanne Maziarz Lyrics: This is a song for Michael, now that you’re nearly three; You’re too young to get the message, but you’ll grow older and you’ll see The reason I say I’m sorry that I can’t do more. Wish that I could shield you from the cold and the rain, Keep you always laughing, free of sorrow and pain, Hide you deep in your nest, but I know it’s in vain – Maybe you’ll understand when you’re four. This is a wish for Michael, may you stay warm and kind, Keep on reaching out for answers with groping fingers of your mind, May you never finish learning and wondering why – Why a little kitten always lands on its feet, Why the streetlights glisten in the rain on the street, Why in lands far away they have nothing to eat And why soldiers are sent off to die. This is a hope for Michael – we’ll build a world that’s new; Hopes are sometimes pretty futile, but we can help them to come true, So we who still hope are trying to let people know: We have reached the moon and left our prints in its dust, It’s an age of marvels and we have to adjust, We can leap to the stars, but before that we must Make a world where a boy can just grow. Echo Pandemica Singers Videos 1) Do Not Carry a Heavy Heart, by Alison Burns -- https://youtu.be/Poay7rLwtpQ 2) Fount, by Malcolm Dalglish -- https://youtu.be/52GRxvlMNAQ 3) Bird Song, by Heather Masse & Nicky Mehta -- https://youtu.be/5SowPDbmqEk 4) Big Sky, by Seth Houston -- https://youtu.be/vnpuc-5afto 5) Hope, by Alex Bevan -- https://youtu.be/o1jq9V0SHyQ 6) Better Times Will Come, by Janis Ian -- https://youtu.be/Cee4H6VoTfg 7) Holding You in the Light, by Kathy Reid-Naiman -- https://youtu.be/pAUF6nHw-9U 8) Green Shadows, by Malvina Reynolds -- https://youtu.be/Kh9xIGfchM4 9) My Rainbow Race, by Pete Seeger – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8pJBjJruyU 10) A Song for Michael, by Vera Johnson -- https://youtu.be/-h9obbDbEQM
My Rainbow Race Words and music by Pete Seeger, © Sanga Music Inc., 1970 https://www.peteseegermusic.com/ https://www.discogs.com/artist/239937-Pete-Seeger Any paragraph that tried to describe Pete Seeger’s influence on his communities’ songs would fall apart from its own immensity, so let’s restrict ourselves to this one tune, from Chapter 4 (the love songs) of Pete’s book “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?” He wrote it in 1967, and mailed it to a Yamaha song contest; in return, he says, he got “a prize – a song I’ve sung ever since.” Somewhere else, Pete claimed that almost all songs are love songs, but this one is specific. And timely: “How do you separate love of home, country, kids, love of O.F. (Old Forever)? The last song in this chapter is another kind of love song. A love song for the earth.” Rainbow Race was translated into Norwegian by Lillebjørn Nilsen as the hit song Barn av regnbuen in 1973. More recently it was sung in the public square of Oslo, on April 26, 2012, to rebuke a mass murderer who thought it was a bad, communist song which corrupted the youth of Norway. We have been singing it in Echo for many years, usually including the extra verse adapted from a Findhorn song, about living together in harmony. www.echochoir.ca Art Work: Anne Stanley Audio and video editing: Peter Turner Echo 4th-Wave Pandemica Singers Alan Gasser, Artistic Director (and choral arranger) Thanks also to our piano accompanist Susanne Maziarz and section leaders Alida Doornberg and Susanne Maziarz Fall, 2021 – Echo Women’s Choir continued its “new fall season” still at home on Zoom, holding regular virtual meetups that are almost the same as a rehearsal, and which remind us of the camaraderie of singing together. We keep learning how to present our work in virtual video form, to show our audiences; and we try to learn from teachers far and near. We’re very proud to know our voices are still sounding together … though with fewer singers, and all of us widely separated. Many thanks to the Echo Alumnae, guest artists and other singer friends who have joined us, virtually every week. We have enjoyed many singing dates outdoors and are beginning hybrid rehearsals. Looking forward to when we can all be together again. Lyrics: One blue sky above us, one ocean lapping all our shore One earth so green and round, who could ask for more And because I love you, I’ll give it one more try to show my Rainbow Race it’s too soon to die. Some folks want to be like an ostrich And bury their heads in the sand. Some hope that plastic dreams Can unclench all those greedy hands. Some try to take the easy way: Poisons, bombs. They think we need ’em. Don’t you know, you can’t kill all the unbelievers? There’s no shortcut to freedom. Go tell all the little children Tell all the mothers and fathers too Now’s our last chance to learn to share What’s been given to me and you. Let’s sing songs together Growing food to share Living lightly on this Earth With the ones that we hold dear Echo Pandemica Singers Videos 1) Do Not Carry a Heavy Heart, by Alison Burns -- https://youtu.be/Poay7rLwtpQ 2) Fount, by Malcolm Dalglish -- https://youtu.be/52GRxvlMNAQ 3) Bird Song, by Heather Masse & Nicky Mehta https://youtu.be/5SowPDbmqEk 4) Big Sky, by Seth Houston -- https://youtu.be/vnpuc-5afto 5) Hope, by Alex Bevan -- https://youtu.be/o1jq9V0SHyQ 6) Better Times Will Come, by Janis Ian -- https://youtu.be/Cee4H6VoTfg 7) Holding You in the Light, by Kathy Reid-Naiman -- https://youtu.be/pAUF6nHw-9U 8) Green Shadows, by Malvina Reynolds -- https://youtu.be/Kh9xIGfchM4 9) My Rainbow Race, by Pete Seeger -- https://youtu.be/Y8pJBjJruyU
Green Shadows, by Malvina Reynolds, © Schroder Music Company, 1969 all rights reserved; used by permission. Website: http://www.sisterschoice.com/malvinamain.html Malvina has always been something of a hero to me (Alan), starting with Pete Seeger's introductions of her songs, by singing them and including them in his song-autobiography. Still though, her reputation is limited by the overwhelming popularity of Magic Penny and Little Boxes. But check this out: a song that sounds like a numinous meeting of Emily Carr and Joni Mitchell, fashioning a mystical scene in the Forest Primeval Recording © 2021, The Echo Women's Choir www.echowomenschoir.ca Audio and video editing: Peter Turner Bloor-Avenue Chiropractic: your downtown Toronto chiropractors Celebrating community sponsorship, even during the Pandemic, from our loyal friends at BAC, 208 Bloor St W #603, Toronto, ON M5S 3B4, 416-920-2468 https://www.downtowntorontochiropractor.com/ -- for current locations on Spadina and Kingsway-Junction Congratulations, on staying open in the new locations throughout our city’s public-health crisis. And thanks so much for your continuing support of Echo. Echo 3rd - Wave Pandemica Singers Alan Gasser, Artistic Director (and choral arranger) Thanks also to section leaders Alida Doornberg and Susanne Maziarz Introducing our special guest, Emma So, Dancer Spring, 2021 – Echo Women’s Choir continued its “new season” at home in isolation, and holding regular virtual meetups that are almost the same as a rehearsal, and remind us of singing together and camaraderie. We keep learning how to present our work in virtual video form, to show our audiences; and we try to learn from teachers far and near. We’re very proud to know our voices are still sounding together … though with fewer singers, and all of us widely separated. Many thanks to the Echo Alumnae, guest artists and other singer friends who have joined us, virtually every week. Looking forward to outdoors singing over the summer, and … the future. Lyrics: You walk into this room The trees are all around you Green shadows kiss your head The gentle sounds surround you Your soul lies down on the piney bed The walls are random walls You do not feel them press you Green shadows touch your eyes Their silent welcomes bless you Your dreams come singing from the skies You are no longer one But all that breathes beside you You are the craggy bark The leaves that move and hide you Green shadows and the rising dark You walk into this room The trees are all around you This is a living day No hostile sounds will wound you The chain saw’s cry is far away Echo Pandemica Singers Videos 1) Do Not Carry a Heavy Heart, by Alison Burns -- https://youtu.be/Poay7rLwtpQ 2) Fount, by Malcolm Dalglish -- https://youtu.be/52GRxvlMNAQ 3) Bird Song, by Heather Masse & Nicky Mehta https://youtu.be/5SowPDbmqEk 4) Big Sky, by Seth Houston -- https://youtu.be/vnpuc-5afto 5) Hope, by Alex Bevan -- https://youtu.be/o1jq9V0SHyQ 6) Better Times Will Come, by Janis Ian -- https://youtu.be/Cee4H6VoTfg 7) Holding You in the Light, by Kathy Reid-Naiman -- https://youtu.be/pAUF6nHw-9U 8) Green Shadows, by Malvina Reynolds -- https://youtu.be/Kh9xIGfchM4
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