This is a very special collaboration, featuring the premiere of Suba's Indo-choral composition entitled Kannamma, commissioned by the Jubilate Singers. This concert features the Autorickshaw Trio (Suba Sankaran, Ed Hanley and Dylan Bell).

Caroline Spearing, conductor

Sherry Squires, piano

and special guests

Suba Sankaran and Autorickshaw

The Jubilate Singers delves into the many musical traditions of East, Southeast, and South Asia to present Sounds of Asia on March 27, 2010. Special guests will be Toronto-based composer and performer Suba Sankaran and her award-winning world-music ensemble Autorickshaw. Suba is well known in Toronto and internationally for her innovative fusion of traditional south Indian music with contemporary jazz. In celebration of Jubilate’s 40th anniversary season, the choir has commissioned a new choral work from Suba, which will receive its premiere on the March concert.

The new work, “Kannamma,” is an adaptation of a love poem by the Tamil poet Bharathiar, set to a garland of traditional ragas. The choir will perform three more songs by Suba: “Kamalajadhala” (O merciful one with lotus-like eyes); “Vara Sapta Swara,” an invocation to the seven swaras, or scales; and an arrangement of the Bobby McFerrin song “Freedom Is A Voice.” All of these works fuse ancient Indian melodic modes and intricate rhythms with contemporary North American choral sound.

Also from India is “Dravidian Dithyramb” by mid-twentieth century Indian composer Victor Paranjoti, a fast and frenzied song of rhythmic intensity. “Gate Gate,” by Canadian composer Brian Tate, is a setting of a Buddhist chant that celebrates the entire community going over to the other shore of enlightenment.

The concert will also feature contemporary settings of four Chinese folk songs. “Kang Ding Love Song” and “Looking for Plum Blossoms in the Snow,” arranged by Canadian composer Jon Washburn, and “Molihua” and “Diu Diu Deng” arranged by Chinese-American composer Chen Yi.  In all four songs, images of love, flowers, and nature blend with onomatopoetic sounds of sleigh bells and trains.

From Southeast Asia, the choir will present two songs from Indonesia and two from Samoa. “Janger” is a lively Balinese song with boisterous rhythms. “Gamelan,” by Canadian composer R. Murray Schafer, uses voices to imitate the sounds of the instrumental gamelan ensemble. The Samoan folksongs, “Minoi, Minoi” and “La’u Lupe,” arranged by New Zealand composer Christopher Marshall, combine love songs with images of nature and of food.

The Jubilate Singers, founded in 1969, is a mixed-voice chamber choir dedicated to enriching the cultural life of the Toronto region. Under the musical direction of Isabel Bernaus, the choir specializes in international music. Recent performances have included African, Latin American, Eastern European, and Finnish music, as well as the standard classical repertoire and works by Canadian composers. The Jubilate Singers is winning increasing recognition for the high standard of its performances, the variety of its musical repertoire, and its contributions to the community. The choir is delighted to welcome Caroline Spearing as its conductor in 2009–2011 while Isabel is on maternity leave.

Toronto-based musician Suba Sankaran is a Dora-award–winning and Juno-nominated composer, arranger, vocalist, and instrumentalist trained in jazz, European classical and south Indian classical music. She tours internationally with world-music ensembles Autorickshaw and Trichy’s Trio and is in demand as a choral director, arranger, educator, and composer. She has composed, recorded, and produced music for theatre, film, radio, and dance, including collaborations with Oscar-nominee Deepa Mehta. In Autorickshaw, Suba is joined by tabla player Ed Hanley, bassist Rich Brown and exotic percussionist Patrick Graham. Formed in 2003, the ensemble has won JUNO nominations and a Canadian Independent Music Award for its innovative blend of contemporary jazz with the classical and popular music of India. 

The Jubilate Singers, with its specialty in eclectic international music, and Suba Sankaran and Autorickshaw, with their unique fusion style, make a perfect combination to express the diversity and cosmopolitanism of Toronto.

27 March 2010 at 8:00 p.m.

Eastminster United Church, 310 Danforth Avenue

Tickets: $20, $15 seniors, $10 students