Leonard Enns

It’s curious how you can have a perception of who someone is, and find out much later that you only have one facet of that person in your perspective. I first knew Len as conductor of the DaCapo Chamber Choir, and then as a conductor of the Conrad Grebel College Chapel Choir . A friend had started to talk about a choir, the DaCapo Chamber Choir she had just joined, and about the enriching experience she was having singing in it under Len’s direction. After a year of hearing her reviews, I decided to attend a concert. Possibly as a way to avoid paying admission (I don’t exactly recall my motivation at that time), I contacted Len and offered to record the performance. If you have heard the choir in performance, you will understand how quickly you can become addicted to their sound and music and to Len’s warmth and style. That concert led to further concert recordings, and to eventually producing DaCapo’s first CD. (Both choirs will be releasing new CDs in 2009).

But even after recording his beautiful Sunne of Grace work for harp, soprano and choir with that ensemble, it still had not dawned on me that Leonard has a well-established and highly regarded career as a choral composer well beyond the borders of our region, and it took another trip to Winnipeg and its New Music Festival for me to become aware of that. There I encountered a premiere performance of his music by a choir that had been singing and commissioning music from Len for over a decade. More recently, Len’s choral music has been featured with the Elora Festival Singers, both in concert and on a CD of his music entitled Northwords, and a premier in Seattle, Washington with The Esoterics.

I am at this moment just beginning to develop an awareness that Len writes music for genres other than choir. The first movement of his cello sonata (I didn’t know!) was featured on the CD “Notes Towards” by Timothy Corlis which I produced last year.

For more on Leonard, you can visit his website.

-earl