Nationally recognized for his work as composer, Enns writes choral works performed regularly by school, church and community choirs, as well as by professional chamber choirs such as the Elmer Isler Singers and the Winnipeg Singers. Enns's choral symphony, "The Silver Cord", has just been published, and was most recently performed in February of this year by the Kitchener-Waterloo Philharmonic Choir and Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony Orchestra (KWSO) at the Kitchener Centre in the Square this February. The Kitchener-Waterloo Record commented
The Silver Cord represents what good modern music is all about.
As the founder and conductor of one of Canada's top-rated amateur choirs, the DaCapo Chamber Choir, Enns spends a significant amount of his free time working with this choir. The choir of twenty is comprised mainly of Waterloo graduates, the vast majority of whom have sung under Enns in the Conrad Grebel Chapel Choir. Stacey Vandermeer, a University of Waterloo graduate and member of DaCapo says that she considers it
a privilege to be singing under Len in DaCapo. He encourages his singers to go beyond the notes on the page, to a higher level of musicianship. He also truly cares about the choir; about the end product we create, and each individual singer.
[The Record ranks DaCapo] among the finest choirs singing at present, [and claims that] clearly, the DaCapo singers are an ensemble to track. The pure, melded sonorities they produce are right up there with the best of contemporary Canadian choirs.
In affirmation of The Record's accolades, DaCapo is currently a national finalist in the 2004 CBC Radio Choral Competition for amateur choirs in the contemporary music category. The choir will be in Toronto on April 28 to present an eight minute a cappella program at St. Andrew's Church in a live-to-air performance. The concert will be broadcast around 8:00pm (the show starts at 7:00pm) on CBC Radio Two as part of the finals. The judging will take place that night, and DaCapo has a chance of winning one of several cash prizes, plus a special broadcast show by CBC Radio Two. Mainly, though, the advancement to this step in the competition is an affirmation of the exceptional quality of the group.
Preparing for this competition has been a lot of work for Enns, but he thinks it has already been worth it.
The singers are very excited and so am I [says Enns.] It's a great experience just to be finalist and it's a good point to have reached with the choir.
For the competition, the choir will be performing pieces by Barrie Cabena, Stephen Chatman, and Enns, himself. While he expresses concerns that it might seem self-serving to be singing one of his own pieces, he sincerely believes that
it's the piece in our repertoire that best represents the spirit of contemporary music.
To complete this busy season, DaCapo has just finished a recording project. Their CD, entitled "Still" will include music by local composers such as Timothy Corlis (a Waterloo graduate), Jeff Enns, Leonard Enns, and Barrie Cabena. Guests on the CD include principal cellist of the KWSO, John Helmers, KWSO's harpist, Lori Gemmell, and Stephanie Kramer who is the voice instructor in Waterloo's Music department and member of Tactus vocal ensemble. This recording has received major funding from the Waterloo Regional Arts Foundation. "Still" will be released at the end of May.
Besides composing and conducting, Enns recently began background reading for a big project he has in mind - a concert length oratorio dealing with the themes which arise out of the story of the Russian Mennonite Diaspora. While he may not focus specifically on the details of that particular story, it forms the inspiration for his project. He is particularly interested in the themes of disruption, alienation, loss, resettlement, hope, faith, and especially the theme of final assimilation and celebration in a new context. These are themes common to countless people throughout the world today. Enns hopes this will be a project for his next full year sabbatical.
As a major undertaking on his last sabbatical, Enns completed some commissioned compositions for two Grebel music sessionals. In addition to his first piano sonata, written for pianist Catherine Robertson (piano instructor in the Waterloo Music department, and member of also a member of Tactus), Enns completed a song cycle for soprano Stephanie Kramer, entitled "In the End". This series of five songs is in a palindrome format with the first and last songs containing texts from the Anglican burial service, the second and forth setting tombstone epitaphs, and the central and longest song using the text of John Donne's sonnet "Death be not proud." It will be premiered at the Sound in the Land Festival at Conrad Grebel, May 28-30, 2004.
Enns is just completing his role as Chair of the Music department after "many many years." He looks forward to devoting more time to composing and teaching. Students and audiences will have the good fortune to experience and hear the results of his work.