i Coristi Chamber Choir - About the Choir

i Coristi was formed in the fall of 1994 by Dr. Debra Cairns and is a community based choir of 18 to 22 singers. The name i Coristi comes from Italian and means "The Choral Singers". Auditions are held annually, and membership encompasses a broad cross section of the Edmonton community.

Focusing on choral masterpieces from the Renaissance to the twentieth century, the choir has performed such repertoire as Byrd's Mass for Four Voices, Vivaldi's Magnificat, Bach's Jesu, meine Freude, Haydn's Salve Regina, Mozart's Vesperae sollennes de confessore, Ravel's Trois Chansons, Rautavaara's Suite de 'Lorca', Watson's Missa Brevis, and Mozart's Requiem.

An important aspect of our concerts is collaborating with a guest artist. Past ventures have included initiatives with harpist Nora Bumanis, organist Marnie Giesbrecht, pianists Janet Scott-Hoyt, Joachim Segger and Roger Admiral, guitarists Carl Lotsberg and Trevor Sanders, the Renaissance instrumental ensemble Musica Transalpina, the Celtic artists Sheela-Na-Gigh, Alberta Ballet, the Edmonton Chamber Orchestra (ECHO), and Cantilon Childrens Choir. In addition to i Coristi's own concerts, the choir also regularly appears as a guest artist in concerts of other Edmonton choral and instrumental ensembles, and often gives the gift of music to help local charities with various fund raisers and other initiatives.

i Coristi is honoured to have achieved a second place finish the 2006 CBC National Radio Competition for Amature Choirs after having been regularly chosen as national semi-finalists in the chamber choir category for the past few years. The choir is also honoured to have been one of only 13 Canadian choirs selected to perform at Podium (the national biennial conference of the Association of Canadian Choral Conductors) in Toronto in May 2002, and at the Podium conference in Winnipeg in May 2004.

Director Dr. Debra Cairns

A native of London, Ontario, founding and current director, Dr. Debra Cairns is a graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She is a Full Professor in the Department of Music at the University of Alberta where she co-supervises the graduate program in choral conducting, teaches undergraduate conducting, and directs the University of Alberta Concert Choir. i Coristi was national finalists in the 2006 CBC Radio Amateur Choir Competition, winning second place in the "Chamber Choir" category. i Coristi was also a national semi-finalist in the 2000, 2002, and 2004 Competitions. U of A Concert choir was also a semifinalist in the 2004 and 2006 Competition.

Maintaining an interest in research, Debra Cairns has had articles on the music of the Renaissance composer, Palestrina, published in the Choral Journal and Anacrusis, and has had her edition of Palestrina's Missa Ave Regina Coelorum published by Carus-Verlag of Stuttgart, Germany. Increasingly active as a conference presentor both nationally and internationally, she has given several sessions on her current area of research interest, the relationship of gesture to sound. She serves on many committees both at the university and within the Edmonton community and is active as a clinician and adjudicator in Alberta and other parts of Canada. In 2002 Debra Cairns was honoured to have been nominated for the Syncrude Canada Award for Innovative Artistic Direction in recognition of her work with i Coristi.

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