Chor Leoni sings of healing and hope in The Songs Will Remain

The Vancouver choir reflects on war and peace in its annual Remembrance Day concerts, featuring works by Kate Bush and former composer in residence Don Macdonald

By JOHn LUCAS

Chor Leoni. Photo by Philip Jack

Chor Leoni presents The Songs Will Remain at St. Andrew’s–Wesley United Church on November 11 at 2 and 5 pm

IT’S NOT OFTEN that a choral performance goes viral, but that’s precisely what happened when Chor Leoni released a video for its version of the Kate Bush song “Army Dreamers”. Recorded live at St. Andrew’s–Wesley United Church, the video captures the Vancouver men’s choir singing Ken Cormier’s arrangement of the song, which poignantly portrays a mother’s anguish over a son lost to an unspecified war: “Should have been a father/But he never even made it to his twenties.”

As of this writing, that video has racked up 1,058,845 views on YouTube.

Chor Leoni’s timing could not have been better. The choir uploaded its video in April 2022; a month later, the fourth season of Stranger Things sparked a resurgence of interest in Bush’s music with the inclusion of “Running Up That Hill”. Then, in 2024, the TikTok generation discovered “Army Dreamers”.

“What is interesting is that this viewership for our video was clearly driven by young people, most completely new to what choral music is,” Chor Leoni artistic director Erick Lichte tells Stir. “So, just hearing a choir sing a song which is trending opened a new listening world for some of these folks. Second, Kate Bush is an uncompromising genius who consistently creates her own worlds through her music. I think all people, especially young people, are drawn to artists who make them see and feel the world differently. Kate Bush can do that in ways many other current popular artists aren't.

“I also think the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza have weighed on our hearts for the past few years,” Lichte continues. “This song offers a snapshot of the futility and waste of the prospect of war through a very intimate and empathetic scene of a mother mourning her dead son.”

Chor Leoni will perform “Army Dreamers” at The Songs Will Remain, its annual Remembrance Day concerts, along with Lichte’s own Invocation: We Will Remember Them and the world premieres of new arrangements of works by Don Macdonald and B.E. Boykin.

Boykin’s Holding the Light features lyrics by contemporary American poet Stuart Kestenbaum that speak eloquently of a world in need of healing and hope: “In our imperfect world/we are meant to repair/and stitch together/what beauty there is, stitch it/with compassion and wire.”

Kestenbaum doesn’t specifically mention warfare, but Lichte says the poem’s themes are a perfect match for The Songs Will Remain.

“I worry there is sometimes a disconnect with Remembrance Day,” he says. “Yes, we remember, but what then? I think if Remembrance Day holds any power, it is to confront the sacrifices of the past, and through this, see the pity and futility of war. But then the most important part is for us to take the lessons this day teaches and work towards peace, in the name of all who have been afflicted by war.

“Holding the Light is about this connection to action through remembering,” Lichte notes.” In the music we see a world whose heart is broken, but yet we can still find fragments of glittering beauty which we can repair and stitch together.”

“If we are meant to learn from this day and then put those lessons into action, hope is the fuel which will drive that work.”

Macdonald’s Last Night of Stars is also about hope, in its own way—a fervent prayer that members of the next generation will right the wrongs visited upon the world by those who came before them: “It is time for our passing and your dawning…Restless tides of fear may drown us,/you must rise to meet them.”

“Last Night of Stars is about the hope a child brings to a world that is crumbling or already lying in ruin,” Lichte says. “At best, if the large problems of the world are to be fixed, the solutions are multi-generational. At worst, I don't feel very confident that the current generations will abandon war as an institution, so we must look to those being born today for hope and answers.”

Macdonald’s name should be a familiar one to those who have attended past Chor Leoni Remembrance Day concerts. In 2021, he was the choir’s composer in residence when it premiered his Boundless and Infinite.

That piece is also on the program this year, and it will feature Katherine Evans, principal trumpet of the Vancouver Opera Orchestra. Evans will also play “The Last Post”, a bugle call traditionally performed at military funerals.

“I’m not from a military family, but I play ‘The Last Post’ every year because I honour anybody who’s gone into these situations, and served when there was no other choice,” Evans tells Stir. “I play it on trumpet. I’m not sure how the purists feel about that. The military does still play it on bugle, I think, but any of the other zillion trumpet players who will be doing it, they usually play it on trumpet.”

Remembrance Day observances have tended to focus on the sacrifices of those who fought in the two world wars, cataclysmic 20th-century conflicts that recede further into the past with each year. John Babcock, the last surviving Canadian veteran of the First World War, died in 2010. Of the million or so Canadians who served in the Second World War, fewer than 40,000 remain, with an average age of 94.

For many young people, these events may seem like ancient history, but Evans says that in spite of this, Remembrance Day remains sadly relevant.

“Wars are still going on today,” she points out. “This is a day when we reflect on anybody who has served, anybody who has been affected by war. It’s just a moment to hear some of the individual stories, the context, and to reflect and hope that we can make that not happen. I mean, it sounds ridiculous in this day and age; it seems to be quite challenging on many, many sides. But that’s the hope.”

And hope, Lichte says, is precisely what Chor Leoni would like the audience to hang on to, long after the final notes of “The Last Post” have faded into a solemn silence.

“It would be very easy to sing a Remembrance Day concert which offers no hope,” he acknowledges. “But if we are meant to learn from this day and then put those lessons into action, hope is the fuel which will drive that work. So, in this way, Chor Leoni's mandate for this concert is to offer strength and hope to all who listen.”

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