This recording traverses Canada, America and the British isles in music that has helped define the culture of those nations. England is represented by two of its most celebrated composers, Holst and Vaughan Williams, and the iconic Scottish Auld Lang Syne is traditionally sung to greet each New Year. Celebrated Canadian songs include Jimmy Rankin’s Juno Award-winning Fare thee well love. Eric Whitacre’s distinctive harmonic clusters can be heard in Go lovely rose, and Gordon Lightfoot counts Bob Dylan among his many fans, Dylan once declaring that when he heard a song such as Pussywillows, cat-tails he wished ‘it would last forever’.

Noel Edison admits that such an album tackling the extensive realm of folk song can only ever be “a brief snapshot of somte of the conductors’ favourite pieces.” His particular focus was to select mainly Canadian arrangements as the ensemble’s country had just celebrated its sesquicentennial anniversary. “There are a good number of Canadian songs here from coast to coast from local lore. England has a rich treasure trove of folk songs and I could not complete this compilation without including a few that I love. Finally, and maybe the odd choice, Billy Joel’s And so it goes”; an American classic has always touched the conductor personally.

The Elora Singers, formerly known as the Elora Festival Singers, founded in 1980 by artistic director Noel Edison, is an all-professional Grammy- and twice Juno-nominated chamber choir known for its rich, warm sound and clarity of texture. The Elora Singers is also renowned for its commitment to Canadian repertoire and for its collaborations with other artists from across Canada and around the world. Through its regular concert series, recordings, broadcasts and touring, the Elora Singers is widely praised as one of the finest chamber choirs in Canada, contributing to the musical life of our local communities throughout the country as well as on the international stage. The choir is the principal choral ensemble of the Elora Festival and, since 1997, has been the professional core of the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir.