Sirens’ IRF Mixtape

Sirens singers curate their most treasured treble choral pieces, championing the versatility and strength of women’s voices.

Faced with the challenge of cancelling the spring portion of the 2019-2020 season, Sirens has not only been longing to make music together, but we have been missing our music community enormously. Spending time putting together our top choral playlist has been absolutely uplifting for our singers. Our choral musical tastes are varied, which made for a multifarious sampling of our singers’ favourites. Many of these pieces we have performed, like the heartwarming “My One and Only Life,” written by Susan Crowe, arranged by Stephen Smith, and of course performed by the illustrious Elektra Women’s Choir. “Les sirènes,” a stunning work by Lili Boulanger, has been performed twice by Sirens and of course we needed to highlight our namesake piece. We also included “Turlutte acadienne montréalaise” on our playlist for a small taste of what Sirens has on the horizon.

In December, we recorded our first album with producer Jeff Reilly and engineer Rod Sneddon. Though our interpretation of this piece is not up on Spotify YET, we do hope we can share our recording soon and we hope you enjoy Choeur Adleisia’s version in the meantime.

We believe it is imperative that we sing and promote the work of female composers, thus our playlist features powerhouse women composers like: Abbie Betinis, Hildegard von Bingen, Sulpitia Cesis, Eleanor Daley, Fanny Mendelssohn, and Gwyneth Walker. We would be remiss not to focus on some amazing Canadian composers and thus featured Srul Irving Glick, Keith Hamel, Sarah Jaysmith, Ramona Luengen, and Marie-Claire Saindon, among others.

Sirens has been so lucky to perform at Indian River Festival numerous times; we count these performances as some of our most treasured and significant musical experiences. Choral music sung at St. Mary’s Church in the summer on Prince Edward Island – what could be better!? Though Sirens has been apart for a few months, we cannot help but be emboldened by the innovation in our PEI music community. The words by Jane Sidberry in “The Valley,” performed by Elektra Women’s Choir on our playlist, remind us of better times to come:

Sometimes it feels all that you wanted
Has been taken away

You will walk
You will walk
You will walk in good company

Sirens hopes to be walking in the good company very soon – we miss you IRF and PEI!

Written by: Kelsea McLean, Artistic Director, Sirens Choral Association Inc.