Elizabeth MacIsaac currently directs Ensemble Laude, a women’s choir in Victoria, Canada, and the University of Washington Chorale in Seattle, USA, where she is completing a DMA in Choral Conducting. MacIsaac will also teach conducting and choirs this summer at the University of Victoria for the Kodaly Institute of Canada. In addition to her conducting, MacIsaac is a musicologist, pianist and singer. She lived in Paris for many years, performing as a vocalist specializing in early music. Upon her return to Canada in 1996, she joined the music faculty of the Victoria Conservatory of Music, and Brentwood College School. Her choirs have won provincial and national accolades. MacIsaac is a recent recipient of the prestigious Herbert Drost Award, for “Distinguished service and support of choral music in B.C”, from the British Columbia Choral Federation. Profoundly committed to new music projects, MacIsaac has regularly commissioned new compositions by contemporary composers (Canadian, British, Korean, and American). She is also recognized for her work in bringing medieval song repertoire into the realm of community choirs.
Leading the following workshop in EUROPA CANTAT Pécs:
The music of Canada reflects the influence of its vast geographic realities, its multi-national heritage, and other aspects of its history and nature.This reading and listening session will begin with music from the earliest days of Canada’s colonization (from the Ursuline nuns in Quebec), choral music which is just now beginning to be published. Canadian repertoire which already has an established presence will not be featured. The second focal point will be new currents in Canadian choral music, and both French and English works will be represented.A handout will include excerpts, repertoire suggestions, links to composer pages and publishers, and resource materials from the Canadian Music Centre.
