As If New Created: Live Premiere from Elektra Choir’s Chez Nous

I’m delighted to share the live concert premiere of As If New Created, performed by Elektra Choir as part of their Chez Nous program at the end of November. This concert also marked a significant milestone: the first performance under the leadership of Artistic Director Cassie Luftspring.

The inspiration for As If New Created dates back to 2021, during a holiday at my daughter’s summer home in Cape Egmont, PEI, overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. On the coffee table sat a copy of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s Evangeline. Its opening lines—describing a moment of profound stillness in Grand-Pré, an historic Acadian settlement in Nova Scotia, just before the tragedy of the Acadian deportation—inspired me to write the piece.

Longfellow’s Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie (1847) is a romanticized yet influential work that helped shape public memory of the 1755 Acadian Expulsion, becoming a lasting symbol of Acadian identity and resilience. The text I set captures a suspended moment of peace that is appropriate for winter celebrations but also throughout the year:

“Filled was the air with a dreamy and magical light… Lay as if new-created in all the freshness of childhood.”

I am deeply grateful to Morna Edmundson for initiating the commissioning process and helping bring this work into being, and to the exceptional musicians whose artistry shaped the premiere: Albertina Chan (harp), Jonathan Lo (cello), Katherine Watson (flute), Katie Rife (percussion), and Stephen Smith (piano).