Thirty years ago, Elizabeth MacIsaac started a choir birthed out of her passion for highlighting women’s voices. Today, that choir, Ensemble Laude, is well known in Victoria and has performed worldwide. And now, they are releasing an album of choral music for upper voices, Vox Femina. The album is significant as it’s been 10 years since their last and showcases how far the choir has come while emphasizing a feminist lens.
In the last decade, the choir honed their sound while performing in places like France and Newfoundland. Since the choir first started as an ensemble of 10, MacIsaac has seen it grow to over 60 singers. She’s expanded its repertoire to go beyond medieval music and now emphasizes selections by female composers worldwide. Vox Femina will be a curated collection of these pieces, with an emphasis on Canadian composers such as Sarah Quartel, Marie-Claire Saindon, Katerina Gimon, Sherryl Sewepagaham, and Laura Hawley.
Ensemble Laude has also expanded its identity to include people of fluid gender, so long as they are in the upper range of vocals and can sing soprano or alto.
“One of the big questions people always ask me is why did you decide to make it a women’s choir?” said MacIsaac. “And it’s because there’s a sound that you can have when all of the voices are of a particular register.”
There’s actually a musical term for it.
“It’s called heterophony,” MacIsaac said. “It’s intense. Can you imagine a group of violins? All playing together in harmony. That’s very different from a bunch of violins with cellos and double basses.”
MacIsaac described her journey into feminism starting with her charismatic father who had four daughters and three sons.
“He wanted his daughters to be just as empowered in their life’s work as his sons, so there was a bit more pressure put upon the daughters to not take up roles that were, I don’t know, less active, less self-fulfilling than the sons’. That was the first realization I had that I could do what I was inspired to do.”
“I’m in my 60s now… feminism was emerging just as I was a small girl,” she said. “You start looking around you, and say, okay so women can do anything, then why are almost all of the conductors in the world men?”
From there, MacIsaac’s commitment to representing women in music as composers, performers or conductors grew. Apart from Ensemble Laude, she also teaches choral pedagogy at the University of Victoria. In the music world, she is seeing a wave right now bringing forth female composers and marginalized voices, so she said it’s a bit ironic that they have their album Vox Femina coming out. (The album had actually been in the works for a few years after receiving funding from CRD but was put on hold due to the pandemic.)
The choir is showcasing and selling the album at two concerts titled Bloom! This will be the last concert series under MacIsaac’s artistic direction before she takes a year’s sabbatical, a much-needed time for her to recover from the burdens that came from the pandemic.
“It’s an opportunity to regroup, to dream again,” said MacIsaac. “I’m like an artist with a canvas and I have the opportunity to determine what is going to be painted on that canvas? How will I curate the programming and what will this choir mean to its audiences? What is our intention when we reach out and sing for others, not just for ourselves?”
Vox Femina will be released on digital platforms soon.
Ensemble Laude performs Saturday, April 27, at 7 p.m. at St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, and Saturday, May 4 at 7 p.m. at St Mary’s of the Incarnation in Metchosin. Tickets to both shows are available on eventbrite.ca and at the door.
Tickets: $25 in advance; $30 at the door; $15 students with valid ID; and free for children 12 and under.