Winner of the 2022 Composition Competition – Stuart Beatch

Those of you who have followed i Coristi over the years will know that the choir has run a Competition in Choral Composition for several years, which has given us the opportunity to bring you new works from several Canadian composers. From our 2022 competition, we are happy to announce that we are commissioning a new piece next season from Edmonton composer Stuart Beatch.

Notably, in 2022 we reimagined this program from the ground up. We no longer ask composers to submit a piece written on speculation, essentially asking them to work for free; now we ask them to submit a proposal for a piece they'd like to write for us, along with some examples of existing work. We no longer pay an honorarium that works out to be less than standard commissioning fees; now we enter into a proper commissioning arrangement at Canadian League of Composers rates. We've also eliminated application fees and other barriers to entry.
This year we received 11 proposals from composers across Canada, with entries that showed the incredible depth of talent across this country, and with jaw-dropping creativity. It was an extremely difficult process to narrow the field down to one winning proposal. The selection committee fell in love with the sample works Stuart provided and with his vision for a new commission, and we know that this new piece will be one that the choir will really enjoy singing and that our audience will love listening to as well. We will premier this new work at the first concert of the 2023-2024 season, and you can watch our website and social media for more details about the piece.

Call for Commission Proposals

2022 Competition Now Open

In an effort to improve access and to better provide fair compensation to composers, i Coristi Chamber Choir has re-imagined its biennial “Competition in Choral Composition” as a Call for Commission Proposals. Interested composers are invited to submit proposals to the choir according to the guidelines below prior to December 31, 2022.

Find full competition and submission details on our Composition Competition page.

Should i Coristi's live stream option continue in 2022-2023?

Tell us if you want i Coristi to continue offering a live stream option for the 2022-2023 concerts.

Your opinion is valuable! Please let us know what you think in our short, anonymous survey.

Click here to go to the survey.

From i Coristi's 2021-2022 live stream recordings.
Top left: Pawns square off in "The Summary of the Pawns" from An Hour to Dance (G. Walker) during A Time to Dance, Nov 13 '21; top right: Performing The Blue and the Sun (N. Kelly) during In Darkness, Light, a live stream-only performance, Feb 26 '22; bottom: playing tuned glasses in Stars (Ē. Ešenvalds) during Meeting Places III: Space, May 28 '22. All performances recorded at Holy Trinity Anglican Church, Edmonton.

Upcoming Concert – Meeting Places III: Space

Learn about the planned space explorations you'll enjoy when you join i Coristi for "Meeting Placess III: Space", on May 28, 2022 at Holy Trinity Anglican Church, Edmonton.
Watch for ticket and live stream details on i Coristi’s concert page.

In Darkness, Light - Concert Update

To support our goal of creating transporting choral experiences that are also safe and comfortable for audiences and singers alike, and out of an abundance of caution, i Coristi will be offering this performance as an exclusively live-streamed concert.

For those listeners who are able to view the performance live, you'll be able to send questions or kudos during the performance from the live stream webpage, and we'll do our best to answer them live as time permits.

In addition, your live stream ticket will give you access to a recording of the performance for one week afterward—so if you don't want to miss the show but you have other plans on Saturday night, or if you're a fan in a time zone that puts the live concert at an inconvenient time, you're still covered. Best of all, you can attend in your pajamas and nobody will bat an eye!

Although we're grateful for the opportunity to share our performance in this new format, we will miss seeing your smiling faces and being able to chat with you at the concert. We are hopeful for a swift return to our regular concert routine; more details about our May concert will be available later this season. Thank you, as always, for your continued support.

An i Coristi concert update

Dear friends of i Coristi,

Thank you for your support of i Coristi over the past months and years as we have learned new ways of making choral music and being a choral community in the midst of the pandemic. Whether you have tuned into our live streams, or attended our recent live performance, or even if you are simply keeping room in your calendar for us with an eye on your inbox for when things settle down, you are an important part of why we love rehearsing and performing, and we're grateful for your continued support.

I'm writing to provide an update on the preparations for our upcoming concert, "In Darkness, Light", scheduled for February 26. Because of the current public health situation, the choir has paused all in-person rehearsal at least until February. This is one small way that we as an ensemble can help to keep our larger community safe. Our hope is still to be able to present our February concert as planned, but at this point we don't have enough information to be able to make a decision regarding its form (a combination of in person and live stream, or live stream only), and there's also a possibility that we may need to postpone. We hope to be in a position to make these decisions in early February; please check our website or watch your e-mail for more information. Normally, we'd have tickets and live stream passes available by now, but we will be holding off on making tickets available until we have a better sense of what will happen with the concert.

Choral music is inherently about community, and our thoughts are with you amid the uncertainty that the current wave is bringing. We hope that you and yours are healthy, and we look forward to being able to celebrate choral music with you again soon!

Best regards,

Rob Curtis
Artistic Director, i Coristi Chamber Choir

Enjoy A Christmas Visit! - free online event, launching Dec 19 '20

This Christmas, we’ll all be celebrating differently. Staying safe might mean staying home. We’ll all be reimagining what our holiday gatherings look like, and many of us might not be able to have the Christmas we imagined. 

And so, i Coristi Chamber Choir planned a special event to bring a little extra cheer into your Christmas this year by dropping by during the holidays – virtually, of course! Join us on December 19 at 7:30 PM MST for the launch party of our holiday concert video; or tune in later, when it best fits into your holiday plans.

Follow the YouTube link in our website’s main menu to join us for an intimate Christmas evening!

Still enjoy our May 30, 2020 livestreamed event!

Post-event note: Even if you missed the live event, you can still enjoy the music! The YouTube Live link goes to the video that persists. Learn more about this innovative project in the letter below from our Artistic Director, Rob Curtis.

May 22, 2020

Dear friends of i Coristi,

Back in September, I imagined that right about now the choir would be gearing up for concert week, getting ready to present the second concert in our Meeting Places series—Meeting Places 2: Space. Needless to say, the conclusion of our season looks a bit different, but we're still getting ready for something new, and it's still a Meeting Places concert! I'd like to invite you to join us on YouTube Live for Meeting Places: Singing From Home Edition on May 30 at 7:30 p.m. (MDT).

The choir has been hard at work exploring different ways to use technology to continue to create despite being physically apart. We've been using a software platform called Jamulus, which allows us to collaborate in real time. On May 30, we'll be performing three pieces for you:

• William Albright's An Alleluia Super-Round, which the choir will perform live, from their own homes. This unique piece requires the choir members to avoid being synchronized with each other—something which performing over the internet actually makes a bit easier!

• Michael McGlynn's Jerusalem. This piece involves some synchronization and some solo performance, with a beautiful chorus that is unsynchronized in the same vein as the Albright piece.

• Gordon Lightfoot's Song for a Winter's Night, arranged by Robin Salkeld, which speaks deeply to the challenges of being separated from the ones we love. Both this piece and Jerusalem will have been pre-recorded in real-time online, and the recordings will be premiered live on May 30 during the live stream.

We wish we could have the chance to sing for you in person, but we're looking forward to being able to sing for you live, at least! Please join us for this free, online event at https://youtu.be/d7RG1ozqXWU on May 30 at 7:30 p.m. MDT.  

Stay well,
Rob Curtis
Artistic Director, i Coristi Chamber Choir

i Coristi Launches a YouTube channel!

I Coristi’s first recording released on YouTube: The Moving Finger Writes

On April 30, 2020, we released our first video on our new YouTube channel: a recording of The Moving Finger Writes, recorded live in November 2018 at our first Meeting Places concert. We were incredibly lucky to share the stage with the world-class sarangi artist Dr. Deepak Paramashivan, and this piece was a wonderful collaboration. The choral sections are a study in different styles of choral improvisation (with the sarangi taking on the role of a solo voice), and the sarangi improvisations were invented by Deepak on the spot.

We're excited to be able to share this first recording, and we plan to share more of our recordings over the coming months.
Please note: that released recordings can also be found on our website, by selecting Listen from the Music drop-down menu.

Information re: Ticket refunds, exchanges, or donations

As part of i Coristi’s response to COVID-19, we made the decision to cancel both our March 14, 2020 concert, “Passiontide”, and our May 30, 2020 concert, "Meeting Places II: Space".

If you have a ticket for our cancelled March and/or May 2020 performances, you have several options:

• Refund: If you purchased your ticket through Tix on the Square and would like a refund, please use the refund process on their website.
  If you purchased tickets directly from a choir member, please contact that choir member directly, or e-mail contact@icoristi.com.
  If you hold a season subscription and/or purchased through Eventbrite, please e-mail contact@icoristi.com for details.
  We will honour refund requests received by September 15, 2020.

• Exchange: We will honour tickets for these cancelled performances at our 2020/2021 season concerts. Simply bring your existing ticket to the door the evening of the concert, and we will exchange it for a ticket to that performance.

• Donate: Many organizations have received inquiries about the possibility of donating back the cost of unused tickets, rather than refunding or exchanging them. If you would like to do so, please email contact@icoristi.com for the process to receive a tax receipt (we will honour tax receipt requests received by September 15, 2020); if you do not require a tax receipt, simply dispose of your existing tickets.

• Subscribers: In addition to the options above, season subscription holders have another option: we would be happy to offer you a subscription to our 2020/2021 season for $20. Please retain your existing tickets and email contact@icoristi.com for details.

Thank you for your support of i Coristi Chamber Choir!

Stay well,

Rob Curtis

Winner of 2019 Competition in Choral Composition

Composer nicholas Kelly, winner of the 2019 Competition in choral composition.

i Coristi Chamber choir is pleased to announce Nicholas Kelly as the winner of the 3rd biennial Competition in Choral Composition. His new work The Blue and the Sun will be performed at a future i Coristi mainstage concert in 2020.

i Coristi thanks all competition participants, each of whom submitted high quality works. The choir also thanks Timothy Shantz and Laura Hawley who served as external panelists in the selection process.

Dr. Debra Cairns Legacy Scholarship

To recognize Debra Cairns's valuable contributions to the choral community in our city, province and nation, i Coristi Chamber Choir has established a legacy scholarship in her honour.

Dr. Debra Cairns
i Coristi Chamber Choir Scholarship

Donations made to the fund will be disbursed through Choir Alberta to support four Alberta singers - assisting them in participating in Canada's National Youth Choir.

Donations made be made on-line, by going to CanadaHelps.org, or by mailing a cheque to i Coristi Chamber Choir.

All donations will receive a tax-receipt.

i Coristi is proud to support Alberta singers in Canada’s biennial National Youth Choir. The 2020 National Youth Choir delegates from Alberta: Christina Sawchuk, soprano; Elsie Hoover, alto; Jackson Berry, bass; Nathan Bootsma, tenor; and Graeme Climie, tenor.

i Coristi Chamber Choir releases its new CD, "Paths"

Featuring Trent Worthington's "Jag vill möta" - commissioned by i Coristi

With choral works by Malcolm Forsyth, Jonathan Dove, Ralph Vaughan Williams, James Macmillan, Paul Mealor, C.V. Stanford, Edward Elgar

$20 Canadian

Available through

For more information about the CD, and i Coristi's previous CDs, visit our CD page.