KUDOS

"Thank you so much for your kindness in sending me a copy of ORIANA Women’s Choir’s latest recording, Be Thou My Vision. I am listening to it as I type, and am up to No. 16, “The King of Love.”

The sound of the choir is a joy; it is so freely made. As you would know from our discussions, this is a choral rarity for me. Here the singing is very centred, and exudes feelings of relaxation, inner joy, and vigor. The arrangements you have chosen and commissioned are astounding in their effectiveness – every one of them!

That you recorded this live makes it all the more exciting. The enthusiasm and musical shaping is so spontaneous to the whole ensemble. 

You've even made “This Little Light of Mine” into a wonder – it’s a touching arrangement!

I have to say that the recording quality is also marvelous to my ears. It’s got a wrap-around quality to it, with a compelling perspective for every instrumentation and balance.

Congratulations Maestro Brown, and Maestro Bourne, too. There's such glorious "vision" surrounding this whole recording. I look forward to enjoying it often."

"It is refreshing to hear a choir of women sing with the warmth and distinctive beauty of the female voice. The choir, its director, and the accompanist are to be congratulated on a program well chosen, musically excellent in excecution, and providing a highly pleasurable listening experience."

"Attention to musical detail, colorful tone, energetic involvement, and impeccable diction combine to create this engaging demonstration of choral artistry. A pleasure to hear."

"ORIANA Women's Choir has enjoyed a long and distinguished career. It has enjoyed wonderful success under the distinguished direction of John Ford and William Brown. This choir is very important within the Canadian choral fabric.

William Brown is one of Canada’s leading choral conductors. He brings dedication and inspired leadership to the ORIANA Women's Choir. He is dedicated to excellence and leads ORIANA Women's Choir with knowledge, dynamism and elegance."

"As Executive Director of the Association of Canadian Choral Conductors and conductor of the Chorale du Gesù women's choir in Montreal, it has been my pleasure to hear ORIANA Women's Choir both in concert, in recordings and in radio broadcasts over the past 20 years. This long-established and very accomplished women's choir has served as a model for other women's choirs over the years throughout Canada and it is exciting to hear the group as it continues to flourish and explore new repertoire. I was particularly impressed with the choir's performance at Podium 2002 held in Toronto last year, which combined artistic singing with great stage presence.

In William Brown, ORIANA Women's Choir has a very talented and devoted artistic director, whose work extends well beyond the choir itself. He is a wonderful music educator and a fine administrator as attested to by his past work as president of Choirs Ontario and his current position as president of the Association of Canadian Choral Conductors. He was also the co-chair of the very successful national conference for choral conductors, Podium 2002, held in Toronto. Mr. Brown is highly respected in the choral community across Canada and deservedly so."

"ORIANA Women's Choir is an outstanding choir of women's voices blended to bring tonal beauty and musical sensitivity to its performances. In the capable hands of its talented conductor, William Brown, it brings a wide variety of music from different periods, cultures and styles, to faithful and appreciative audiences.

It has been a pleasure for me to work frequently as a composer and as an accompanist with this group of dedicated singers whose commitment to the choir shows their love of fine choral music."

"Serendipity caused my path to cross with the ORIANA Women's Choir. What a gift to hear this incredible chorus of voices – because of a chance to design their performance wardrobe. They took my breath away when I first heard them perform. This highly disciplined choral group understands the importance of precision, appearance and passion in their music.

Under the direction of William Brown, ORIANA Women's Choir have taken choral singing to a whole new level with their ingenious interpretation of both classic and original pieces."

"It has been an enriching experience to work with ORIANA Women's Choir, and I count myself fortunate to have been given the artistic opportunity on a number of occasions.

William Brown Artistic Director first contacted me for the narration of Song of Survival - an extraordinary piece, a musical testament to courage and beauty. Our recent collaboration was with one of my favourites – The Barn Yard Carols, reinforcing my admiration and respect for this beautiful choir. I am proud to be an Honorary Patron, and strongly support the adventurousness, the quality and the endeavours of ORIANA Women's Choir."

"I knew ORIANA Women's Choir after hearing them on a broadcast featuring a World Choral Competition. I heard your beautiful song called ‘The Lark in the Clear Air’. I was moved by your angels’ song. I tried to find your compact disc on the computer, but without any luck, until today. My wife is also your fan. We love ORIANA Women's Choir's music so much. Your beautiful songs are how I imagine angels in the air. We are so excited that you will send us your compact disc ‘When Music Sounds’. We will wait for your parcel, and have a Merry Christmas due to your lovely songs. May God bless you everyday!"

"I was very glad to finally after all these years hear ORIANA Women's Choir's voices. Yes, it was the sounds that I have searched for. Sacred, pure, a little tense look for perfection, agape love of God and mother. Sometimes your voices are clear as crystal and I feel that it is coming directly from heaven from an intense light or depth of the water in a jar. It is a mystic atmosphere. I will listen to your music very carefully and repeatedly. Our family loves the choir and all its members. We are fans forever without sound. May God bless you and the choir."

Child with the Starry Crayon

"It has been a wonderfully refreshing experience to work with the poetry of young poets in general and two young poets in particular. The poetic techniques and imagery may be simple but the questions asked arise out of the same universally shared human experience that motivates the greatest of artistic creation. I have enjoyed my brief association with Ausma and Emma and hope that they will continue writing and creating throughout their lives.

I thank William Brown for his vision in promoting and seeing to completion this great collaborative project and his wonderful singers for giving it such an expressive voice."

"It was amazing to witness the ease and speed with which ORIANA Women’s Choir learned Stars, Blue, Ice – a superb premiere performance. William Brown has a great sense of rhythm and tempo.

This unique project was not only truly inspiring and exciting, it also serves as a model for other choirs and communities interested in promoting the collaboration of singers, composers, and young poets.

Although Stars, Blue, Ice has only recently been submitted to a publisher, I have already received several requests for copies from choir directors across Canada."

"I was very pleased to be asked to contribute to this wonderful project which encouraged creativity in children. I was impressed by the imaginative imagery expressed in the children’s poems; I tried to capture their images in shifting harmonic colours to show the changes from day to night. The choir’s performance came across beautifully and showed great sensitivity to the texts."

"This was, all round, a marvelous project. The marriage of student poetry with the music of professional composers was, in all cases, really quite magic; it all worked! Initiatives of this sort that give our youth opportunities for public recognition of intellectual and creative excellence are not common and are to be encouraged. I would not be surprised if more than one of the young poets has been inspired sufficiently to write more poetry, perhaps even lyrics. This event did them a great service and allowed them to hear their poetry in a very different way. I sat in the company of a few of the young poets at the concert and at the rehearsal; their excitement was palpable – I could have cut it with a knife!"

"It was a great pleasure for me to join in this unique commissioning project of the ORIANA Singers.  I am sure that each of the composers involved in the project were astounded by remarkable richness of the poetry provided by so many young, talented writers in the Toronto region.  William Brown and the extraordinary singers in the choir must be commended for their vision in launching such a project, and for the exceptional evening of premieres we all enjoyed in May.

For the project I set two contrasting poems. Ryan O’Reilly’s poem Les étoiles is an atmospheric text full of beautiful imagery;  this inspired a musical setting that is appropriately neo-romantic and at times, impressionistic in feeling.  Amy McDougall’s poem Monday Afternoon is an insightful commentary on the contemporary topic of body image and self worth among teens.  The musical work is minimalist in style to underscore the edgy, contemporary spirit of the text."

“Child with the Starry Crayon was a delight to set to music.  The images written by Dinoshi Munasinghe of a child walking in the night floating up to sit on the moon and drawing the constellations awaken the imagination.  Upon first reading the poem, I felt myself floating along with the child on his celestial journey.

It has been an honour to be part of this unique musical project, and I thank William, James, and ORIANA Women’s Choir for capturing the essence of Child with the Starry Crayon so beautifully in this recording.”

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