Arkora lands in the Beach this Friday night with long-awaited album release celebration concert
Voices of the past…visions of the future: 13-piece Toronto-based polyphonic fusion band Arkora will take the stage at Kingston Road United Church for the release of their new album, Transfigured Light, on Friday, May 29.
As the season closer for the Kingston Road Village Concert Series, this concert places medieval chants alongside ground-breaking contemporary works, marking the culmination of a project that has spanned seven years, three cities, and eight new compositions.
Under the direction of Beach residents Benton Roark and Kathleen Allan, Arkora is all about bending and blending genres with contemporary vocal music that speaks to the heart of today’s audience.
Reflecting on this journey, Roark quotes one of the works on the album with a text by John Muir: “After ten years of wondering… and wandering in the heart of it, (we are) rejoicing in the glow,” words that capture the essence of Arkora’s transition from New Haven to Vancouver to St. John’s, and now finally….Toronto.
After debuting at Newfoundland’s Sound Symposium in 2014, Arkora went on to play notable venues over a decade plus of moving around: Roulette in Brooklyn, The Salvage Vanguard in Austin, Ottawa Chamberfest, Bach Fest in Vancouver, Hugh’s Room and Array Music in Toronto, expanding their reach and solidifying their reputation as a leading force in contemporary vocal music.
The journey to create Transfigured Light has been a long road, and has brought the band from a small chamber group into focus as a 13-piece electric choral-instrumental fusion consort.
Along the way, works from the album have garnered a string of critical acclaim: “the standout event of Vancouver’s spring music season” (Vancouver Observer), “a spellbinding journey” (Georgia Straight), “awesomely Goth” (Vancouver Sun) and “irresistible composer-bait” (Musicworks).
Arkora’s commitment to intersecting styles is evident in the concert’s programming, which features motets from the Renaissance and Middle Ages. Most notably, chants by Hildegard von Bingen, a 13th-century abbess, mystic, and composer renowned for her radical thinking and poetic gifts, will be re-imagined with electronics and improvisatory solos by members of the band.
This format has been road-tested. When a pandemic-postponed tour finally materialized, Arkora brought a similarly eclectic program across Canada from Newfoundland to Vancouver, playing festivals with varied mandates: experimental, chamber, early music. This interplay between Hildegard’s music and contemporary works creates a dialogue across time, allowing listeners to appreciate the timelessness of certain approaches to composition.
Medieval musical techniques found throughout Hildegard’s work, are also present in Arkora’s concert closer, Roark’s Where Endless Ages Roll, which sets an anonymous text from the Appalachian Sacred Harp, noting: “On a textual level, Where Endless Ages Roll is both a sober reminder of mortality and a joyous celebration of immortality. Musically, it strives to find common ground between these emotional states.”
Highlighting this Friday night’s concert will be solo performances by Teiya Kasahara, Namratha Sridevi, and Asitha Tennekoon, each of whom brings world-class talent, as Arkora honours the past and inspires the future.
The concert starts at 7:30 p.m. Kingston Road United Church is located at 975 Kingston Rd. Tickets are available for $35 in advance at https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/arkora-tickets-1601892978019?aff=oddtdtcreator or $40 at the door.
