Chor Leoni - When There Is Peace (2019)

When There Is Peace: An Armistice Oratorio by rising star and Chor Leoni Composer-in-Residence Zachary Wadsworth is Chor Leoni’s first recording since winning the prestigious Margaret Hillis Award for Choral Excellence from the professional organisation, Chorus America.

Told in the words of Great War-era poets and the found writings of infantrymen in the trenches, When There Is Peace draws the listener in to experience the journey from war through that tenuous moment when word of the Armistice first broke, and finally to the delirious ecstasy when the guns fell silent, and hope bloomed again.

Joining Chor Leoni to tell this compelling story are the renowned Borealis String Quartet, noted Canadian tenor Lawrence Wiliford, soprano Arwen Myers, and percussionists Martin Fisk and Robin Reid.

Commissioned and premiered by Chor Leoni, When There Is Peace marks the first work for the choir by Zachary Wadsworth. Premiered on the 100th anniversary of the Armistice of World War I, When There Is Peace was recorded live at Vancouver’s St. Andrew’s-Wesley United Church and broadcast across Canada by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation on Remembrance Day, 2018.