Hailed as one of the world's finest professional chamber choirs by the press, the Elora Festival Singers was founded by Noel Edison in 1980 as the principal vocal ensemble for the Elora Festival. The Singers are the musical heart and essential artistic element of the Festival, performing several concerts over four weeks every summer, many of which are accompanied by a full orchestra. The choir also makes up the professional core of the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir and the Mendelssohn Singers.
Their winter programme includes a series of concerts in the Village of Elora at St John's Anglican Church, in Guelph at St George's Anglican Church, and in Toronto at Trinity College Chapel. The Singers' season also includes visits to various Ontario venues such as the Sanderson Centre in Brantford and the Festival of the Sound in Parry Sound.
The hallmark of the Singers is their rich, warm sound and clarity of texture. They are renowned for performing a wide range of music, including numerous commissions by Canadian and international composers. In 1997, the Singers' second CD, The Mystery of Christmas [Naxos 8.554179] was nominated for a Juno award. In 2004, the Singers released In Song, a twenty-track celebration of the Singers' Jubilee season. Their most recent recording, Arvo Pärt's Berliner Messe [Naxos 8.557299], is ranked number six on the BBC classical charts, and was nominated for the equivalent of a Grammy Award in Germany. The Elora Festival Singers provides educational outreach through its Conductors' Workshops and its Singers in Schools programmes, to encourage school-aged young people to continue musical training.
