We invite you to an album launch and celebration of Brett and Krista Scott’s “You are Illuminated” an album of choral works by R. Murray Schafer. The evening will include listening to excerpts from the album along with thoughts from Brett, Krista, and Eleanor James followed by a reception.

The event will take place:
April 23rd at 7:30pm
@ the Canadian Music Centre
20 St. Joseph St.
Toronto ON
M4Y 1J9

“You Are Illuminated is a labour of love, the outgrowth of a personal friendship with Raymond Murray Schafer that began over twenty years ago. In 2000 I was a nervous doctoral student who, with some trepidation, reached out to this national icon with questions about his choral music. Over the next two decades I was allowed into the professional and personal life and work of Murray and his partner Eleanor. I had the pleasure to see Murray work as a clinician and teacher at two institutions where I taught. I was privileged to premiere two of the compositions on this recording – “Make Room for God” with CCM Chorale and “Landscapes and Soundscapes” with my professional ensemble Coro Volante (then called the Windrush Ensemble). With Murray and Eleanor’s permission and help I completed and published the authorized biography “R. Murray Schafer: A Creative Life”. As part of that project, I spent many hours in the basement of the farmhouse where Murray and Eleanor lived, diving into archival records and discovering many manuscripts. As I reviewed Murray’s choral output, I began to generate a list of compositions that had not been recorded or, in some cases, performed. These compositions reflect over forty-five years of creative work in the choral field. We see serial techniques in “Four Songs on Texts of Tagore”, strong romantic influences in “Tristan and Iseult”, graphic notation and aleatoric techniques in “Landscapes and Soundscapes” and “Make Room for God”, formalist approaches in “The Death of the Buddha”, and simple lyricism in “You Are Illuminated”. With Krista Cornish Scott, my Coro Volante co-director and partner in everything, I dedicate this project with love to Murray and Eleanor. Thank you for opening your lives to us, thank you for your legacy. I hope that this effort adds to the appreciation of what you have given us as lovers of the choral art.”

– Brett Scott