ELORA – The 45th season of Elora Festival is underway with three weeks of musical magic.
From July 5-20, Elora’s Gambrel Barn, St. John’s Church in Elora, Melville United Church in Fergus, Sandy Hills Regional Forest, and Elora’s Green Space will be alive with the sounds of music.
Joseph Haydn’s The Creation was a celebration of song at the festival’s opening night gala at Gambrel Barn.
Even birds in the rafters with their uncannily timed birdsong seemed enchanted by the world-class performance.
The standing ovation for members of the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, the Elora Singers chamber choir, soprano Claire de Sévigné, tenor Isaiah Bell, baritone Tyler Duncan and conductor Mark Vourinen was spontaneous and sustained for several minutes.
The appreciative audience, including many of the over 100 volunteers at this year’s festival, lingered afterwards, mingling with each other and remarking on the quality and beauty of the performance.
Vourinen, who is also artistic director of The Elora Singers and Elora Festival, said the festival is jumping into the deep end after weathering the effects of the pandemic.
“It’s exciting. We’re back to full length for the festival with three weekends of events. Tickets are selling well.”
On July 3, the festival held an open rehearsal at St. John’s followed by a reception on the church grounds attended by festival singers, staff, supporters and Wellington-Halton Hills MPP Ted Arnott.
The village itself was lauded for its natural beauty. Festival manager of development and operations Alan MacDonald addressed the need for continued stewardship of the lands in his opening remarks at the reception.
“It’s a great privilege to gather and share music in this beautiful territory, which has been the site of human activity and therefore music making for many 1000s of years,” MacDonald said.
“The Elora Festival acknowledges that we are on the treaty lands and traditional territory of the Neutral, Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee. We wish to honor the ancestral guardians of this land and its waterways.”
MacDonald addressed the impact of a recent $127,400 Resilient Communities Fund Grant from the provincial governments Ontario Trillium Foundation the festival has received.
“This grant has been transformative for us and has allowed us to build our resiliency from the impacts of the pandemic, and to meet community needs here to Elora by increasing our capacity for strategic planning and resource management,” MacDonald said.
Arnott, while celebrating the grant, also thanked the Elora Festival for their contributions to the community.
“The incredible success of our spectacular Elora Festival that every summer makes our spirits soar. Visitors come first and foremost for the music, but they return again and again,” Arnott said.
“The Trillium grant is an investment that benefits not just our local community, but also the province as a whole.
“Since time immemorial, we have known that music nourishes the soul. This is the passion of the Elora festival,” Arnott said.
Vourinen said the reception was “a great occasion to thank many people including the province of Ontario for this incredible gift through the grant of the Ontario Trillium Foundation.”
Vourinen was excited about MacDonald taking on the roles of development manager and volunteer coordinator, positions made possible through the grant.
“But there are many other people to thank here and those of you who have come to hear this open rehearsal are here because you have been an integral part of the festival for many, many years attending, by volunteering, by giving of your resources and donations to help us succeed in our programming.
“Thank you for being here through the thick and the thin … It’s always very exciting. It’s always very exhausting, but exhilarating. And we’re glad that you’re here to be part of it.”
Elora Festival and Singers manager Christina Stelmacovich said “to create a festival, it really does take a village.”
Stelmacovich thanked all the volunteers, some of whom help year round, including for the annual book sale which this year brought in over $72,000.
“I’ve been singing with the choir since 2015. And it is truly in my heart and soul as it is for Alan (MacDonald) and as it is for every singer who is here.
“This type of support from our government, from our neighborhood, from our donors, our patrons, our singers – all of this is what makes our village. I thank you from the bottom of my heart. We’re looking forward to a fantastic festival.”
There are 22 singers in the Elora Festival and Singers choral choir. But on opening night, the choir was augmented by eight additional voices.
Vourinen explained this year, the festival held its second Vocal Academy for Young Professional Singers in late May.
The university graduates received voice lessons and were coached on “the ins and outs of ensemble singing, which is a different skill set than stepping on a stage as a soloist.”
The festival has been attracting world-class instrumentalists and singers that live around the corner and around the globe since 1980.
The Elora Festival celebrates music with everything from classical and jazz to a barn dance, to music in the wood, making it accessible for everyone. There are several free and family-friendly events during the three week festival.
Go to elorafestival.ca for a complete list of events and times.
