ELORA – The Elora Festival has unveiled the lineup for the 2022 event this summer, the first traditional in-person festival since 2019.
In a March 23 Zoom meeting, artistic director Mark Vuorinen, joined by other organizers, announced the programming for this year’s festival, which will include more than 30 concerts over three weekends.
The festival, which welcomed about 7,000 viewers in pre-pandemic years, will run July 8 to 24.
“We’re really excited to be able to share with you a full program, a full three weeks of live concerts coming back to the village of Elora this summer,” Vuorinen said.
“It is such a thrill to have been spending the last six-eight months or so planning these concerts.”
Executive director Laura Adlers added, “It’s been three years since our last live festival so we’re very, very excited to reconnect with everyone again.”
With concerts booked throughout the village, this year’s line-up features choral and mainstream music, jazz and chamber ensembles, children’s programming, free concerts in the village, and world premieres of commissioned works and special presentations, states a March 24 press release.
Organizers have also invited back many artists booked for the cancelled 2020 festival.
“We have many exciting concerts planned, both featuring the home team, the Elora Singers, and plenty of wonderful guests from across the country and around the world,” Vuorinen said.
“We can’t wait to welcome our audience back into the concert experience.”
Elora Festival 2022 programming
The Elora Singers will kick off opening night in the Gambrel Barn with J.S. Bach’s B Minor Mass on July 8 at 7:30pm, featuring the Elora Summer Program Ensemble.
A July 9 performance of An Evening with Sarah Slean will feature Canadian singer-songwriter Sarah Slean and The Elora Singers. The concert begins at 7:30pm at the Gambrel Barn.
The following weekend kicks off July 14 with The Elora Singers in Baltic Voices, bringing to life choral music from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
On July 15, Canadian Brass will be joined by The Elora Singers in a program of classic Canadian Brass fun and arrangements of choral classics.
On July 16 at 7:30pm a performance featuring Autorickshaw, Penderecki String Quartet and The Elora Singers will come together in Kaleidoscope.
The final weekend of the festival begins July 21 at 7:30pm with Confluence Concerts presenting Themes and Variations: The Music of Nina Simone, which features singer Shakura S’Aida, pianist Alexa Belgrave and bassist Andrew Downing.
July 21 at 9pm will feature The Elora Singers at Twilight, which became an Elora Festival tradition in 2019.
Back by popular demand, on July 23 at 7:30pm, members of The Elora Singers will present The Elora Singers Unplugged, featuring the best of Stephen Sondheim and other Broadway classics.
On July 24 at 3pm, the festival concludes with a recent commission, On Love, by Tim Corlis, and American composer Jake Runestad’s The Hope of Loving.
For a full listing of the Elora Festival program and performance locations visit elorafestival.ca.
Tickets for the 2022 Elora Festival go on sale at noon on the website or by calling the box office at 519-846-0331 on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays between 10am and 3pm.
At this time, all ticket holders will be required to show proof of vaccination.
This year’s festival will also include “Music in the Village” where the community can join guest artists from the Elora Festival in a series of free public performances every Friday and Sunday in the Green Space at East Mill and Metcalfe Streets in Elora.
The Elora Singers will also sing at the Evensong and Sunday Services at St. John’s Elora during the three weeks of the Elora Festival.
“We are terribly excited, wonderfully excited, about the festival that lies ahead, about the concerts that we have planned and about bringing live music back to Elora,” Vuorinen said.
Visit the festival’s website or or Facebook page for more information on the festival, volunteer recruitment and an updated COVID-19 policy.
