"The performances are of the highest quality." American Record Guide review of the Naxos recording Psalms For The Soul with Noel Edison conducting the Choir of St. John's, Elora.
Born in Toronto, Noel Edison wanted to be a conductor from an early age.
In his youth, he received his practical choral education singing in the choir of St Simon's Church in Toronto. After graduating from the music programme at Wilfrid Laurier University in Kitchener, Waterloo in 1985, he moved to the village of Elora to continue his piano studies with Victor Martins. Noel Edison also studied conducting with Robert Shaw, Helmuth Rilling, Sir David Willcocks, Wayne Riddle and John Aldis.
In the churches of Elora, Edison already found a strong musical tradition. Together with musically inclined citizens and professors from nearby Wilfrid Laurier University, he organised the first Elora Festival in 1980, with the newly formed Elora Festival Singers as the professional choir-in-residence. The festival now attracts capacity audiences to the village every summer.
For his artistic services to the community Noel Edison received the Prime Minister's Young Canadian Achiever's Award in 1982. In 1984 he became Organist and Choirmaster at the Church of St. John the Evangelist in Elora, one of the few all-professional church choirs in Canada, and was appointed Director of Choral Studies at Wilfrid Laurier University. In 1997, he was appointed conductor of the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, Canada's oldest and largest symphonic choir. Noel Edison is also a frequent guest conductor of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.
With the Elora Festival Choir and the Choir of St. John's in Elora, Noel Edison has recorded three volumes of carols and psalms for Naxos which have been consistently praised for their quality of performance. He has also conducted an acclaimed recording of Berlioz's Requiem with the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir and the Toronto Mendelssohn Youth Choir.
