From the beginning, Chronos Vocal Ensemble has championed Canadian music and supported the creation of new works through premieres, recordings, and commissions.
The 2024-2025 Composition Competition is now open! Details, guidelines and entry form.
From its inception, Chronos has championed Canadian music and supported the creation of new works through premieres, recordings, commissions, workshops with composers, and our annual composition competition, held since 2017. Prizes for the competition have been generously provided by an anonymous supporter.
Congratulations to our latest winner: Gerda Blok-Wilson!
Winning competition entries are represented on several Chronos recordings, and have been performed at Podium and ACDA conferences.
Winners in our annual competition have included:
2023 Gerda Blok-Wilson – I Am Not Yours
2022 Carmine Lappano – Arise, Arise!
2021 Edward Enman – All the love that lies beneath
2020 Leonard Enns – A Little More Time
2019 Stuart Beatch – Your Stars to Hold
2018 Paul Aitken – Au Clair de la Lune
2017 Nicholas Ryan Kelly – Little Bells
Commissions
Chronos has commissioned a number of Canadian composers for new works (follow links for available recordings):
2024 Jeff Enns – A Poplar and the Moon
2024 Stuart Beatch – Chosen Family
2023 Nicholas Ryan Kelly – Zoo Nocturnes
2022 Andrew Balfour – Witaskiwin (for Notinikew)
2021 Andrew Balfour – Gaze Upon the Trees
2021 Nicholas Ryan Kelly – You Speak Violets
2021 Christine Donkin – Sorrow Into Song (consortium commission)
2020 Katerina Gimon – Spring Rain
2020 Matthew Emery – Breathe, and I Breathe
2019 Kristopher Fulton – I’ll Drown My Book
2018 Alex Eddington – Picking Wild Berries
2017 Jeff Enns – Cantate Domino
2015 Trent Worthington – Rimini 1944: To Gain the Crest
Additional Premieres
World premieres except where noted. Links may be to performances by other choirs.
2023 Stuart Beatch – All Our Love, Always
2023 David Dykstra – Love’s Not Lost
2023 James MacMillan – Who Shall Separate Us (Edmonton premiere)
2023 Stuart Beatch – Psalm 100 (Alberta premiere)
2022 Andrew Balfour – Anthem for a doomed youth (Edmonton premiere)
2022 Stuart Beatch – The Letter (Alberta premiere)
2022 Dorothy Chang – Hear My Prayer (After Purcell) (Alberta premiere)
2022 Karen Thomas – Alchemy (Canadian premiere)
2020 Robin King – Exultate Deo (USA premiere)
2020 Jeff Enns – i carry your heart (USA premiere)
2020 Hussein Janmohamed – Sun On Water (USA premiere)
2019 Jonathan Dove – The Passing of the Year, pianos/percussion edition (Alberta Premiere)
2019 Nicholas Piper – The Delight of Paradise (Alberta Premiere)
2018 Jocelyn Morlock – One Black Spike (Alberta Premiere)
2018 Peter Togni – The Eighth of September
2018 Zachary Wadsworth – Three Lacquer Prints (Canadian premiere)
2018 Tawnie Olson – Spring and Fall: To a Young Child (Canadian premiere)
2018 Nicholas Ryan Kelly – A Flame in the Embers
2018 Stuart Beatch – I Loved You First
2015 Guillaume Boulay – Voix du vent (Alberta premiere)
Our four albums feature first recordings of dozens of Canadian compositions.
Resolve
Featuring music of eight Canadian composers, including six first recordings.
FRESH: New Music From Canada
New unaccompanied music by Canadian composers. A first commercial recording of each work. Selections have been featured by Chronos at Podium and ACDA conferences.
The Simplest Way
Featuring the music of Trent Worthington, recorded Spring 2016. Chronos has performed music from this album across Canada and in the USA.
Presenting Chronos Vocal Ensemble
Sacred a cappella music. Live takes from these recording sessions won Chronos the 2015 Healey Willan Prize.
Support New Music
We are always looking for support for new music projects, whether to continue operating our competition, commissioning new works, premiering new works or bringing composers to the city to work with the choir and attend premieres.
Want to sing?
Chronos Vocal Ensemble is always seeking additional singers with a high level of musicianship, strong individual vocal technique and versatility, and a desire to be challenged in an ensemble environment.