News

Toronto, December 7, 2016 – The Ontario Arts Council (OAC) today announced Mark Vuorinen as the recipient of the 2016 Leslie Bell Prize for Choral Conducting. He will receive the award at the Grand Philharmonic Choir’s Christmas Homecoming concert at Kitchener’s Centre In The Square on Sunday, December 11 at 3:00 p.m.

The UW Chamber Choir, directed by Dr. Mark Vuorinen, has released a new CD entitled A New Song.  It includes pieces by James MacMillan, Jeff Enns, and other well-known composers.  Available for $15 in the Music Office at Conrad Grebel, Room 1103.

Dr. Mark Vuorinen, Assistant Professor of Music at Conrad Grebel University College, director of the University of Waterloo Chamber Choir, and Conductor of the Grand Philharmonic Choir, has been nominated for the Ontario Arts Council’s 2016 Leslie Bell Prize for Choral Conducting. This is a prestigious award; the nomination alone is wonderful recognition of Mark's skills and gifts as a conductor. The winner will be announced later this fall. 

On June 9, a Concert of the Global Mennonite Peacebuilding Conference and Festival, will feature choirs, gamelan, and an original composition titled “Earth Peace” by Carol Ann Weaver, Professor Emerita of Music.  See event page for details. 

See this new video from the last Jazz Ensemble concert.  It will whet your appetite for the next concert on April 3rd at 2pm, in the Great Hall.

This weekend there will be 2 concerts featuring the music of Arvo Pärt, both directed by Grebel professor Mark Vuorinen.  Pärt, the most often performed living composer in the world, celebrated his 80th birthday this fall.  The concerts this weekend together celebrate the living legacy of this deeply spiritual and prolific composer.

Every year the University of Waterloo celebrates International Education Week.  For the past two years, the Grebel Gamelan Ensemble has been pleased to be part of the celebration.  See the interview with I Dewa Made Suparta at Waterloo International.

"As we listen more clearly to the music of our planet, we can seek to create music that celebrates not only the sounds of the earth and the larger universe but the silences from which these sounds emerge."

 -- CA Weaver

More than twenty choristers with ties, past and present, to Conrad Grebel University College’s Music program joined a cast of nearly 1000 for the Luminato Festival’s epic production of R. Murray Schafer’s Apocalypsis at Toronto’s Sony Centre on June 26-28.  

Musicians in Waterloo Region have joined together to raise funds for earthquake victims in Nepal.

Under Grebel/UW professor Mark Vuorinen's baton, the Grand Philharmonic Choir, together with many community partners, including Grebel students, is organizing a free concert Sunday May 24th, 4 p.m. at St. Peter's Lutheran Church, 49 Queen St. N., Kitchener.

At the concert, audience members will be invited to donate to Mennonite Central Committee's Nepal earthquake relief fund. The federal government will match any donations made at the concert.