Elektra unveils 2025-26 season led by new artistic director Cassie Luftspring

Offerings include a Christmas concert with emerging artists, a climate change–centred program, and the triennial Tapestry International Festival

Elektra. Photo by Christopher Edmonstone

ELEKTRA HAS JUST announced the lineup for its 39th season, the first led by newly appointed artistic director Cassie Luftspring.

The season opens with Chez Nous: Christmas With Elektra on November 29 and 30 at Pacific Spirit United Church, during which the emerging singers of the Mira Youth Mentorship Program will join the adult treble-voice choir for a festive concert of yuletide classics and contemporary tunes. Derek Holman’s jubilant medieval suite Sir Christëmas and Missy Mazzoli’s cello-infused take on Hildegard von Bingen’s O Frondens Virga will share a program with Cree composer Andrew Balfour’s powerful piece Wyandot’s Realm, which reimagines the Canadian Christmas hymn “Huron Carol” with an eye toward Indigenous culture. There will also be works by Canadian composers Kelly-Marie Murphy and Gerda Blok-Wilson.

Programming resumes in the spring with the climate crisis–centred concert If the Earth Could Sing, which takes place at Pacific Spirit United Church on March 28 and 29, 2026. Vancouver-based composer Katerina Gimon’s Unsung: If the Earth Could Sing, a combination of movement, photography, and choral storytelling, is at the heart of the performance. Other works featured include Newfoundland-based composer Andrew Staniland’s Songs From the Lytton Fire, about the devastating wildfire that tore through the B.C. village in 2021, and a song about hope amid the climate crisis by transgender Mexican-American composer Mari Esabel Valverde.

Capping off Elektra’s major offerings this season is the triennial Tapestry International Festival treble-choir gathering. Halifax’s Aeolian Singers, Chicago’s La Caccina, and California’s Peninsula Women’s Chorus will join forces with Elektra for a free community performance called Choral Threads on May 8, 2026 at Pacific Spirit United Church, then the grand-finale Tapestry Celebration Concert the following evening at Christ Church Cathedral.

Free community events in store this season include a Reading Session of New Compositions on October 20, and the Choral Encounters event—a showcase for local community choirs—on May 25, 2026.

Tickets and season subscriptions are now on sale.

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Emily Lyth

Emily Lyth is a Vancouver-based writer and editor who graduated from Langara College’s Journalism program. Her decade of dance training and passion for all things food-related are the foundation of her love for telling arts, culture, and community stories.

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