Ewashko to lead Vienna Boys' Choir: Ottawa conductor to study with Helmuth Rilling during sabbatical

Laurence Ewashko, one of Ottawa's busiest choral conductors, is taking a year off to lead the Vienna Boys' Choir on tour and to study with Helmuth Rilling, the German conductor who is considered one of the world's finest choral directors.

"It's a great opportunity to get back to Europe, and it's going to be a rich year," says Ewashko, 40, who directs the Cantata Singers of Ottawa and prepares the Opera Lyra chorus for the company's two productions each season. He also teaches choral conducting at the University of Ottawa and leads three university choirs.

"It's a chance to travel and meet new contacts, see new things and hear a lot of music before I come back to Ottawa," said Ewashko, before leaving for Vienna recently to begin rehearsals with the Boys Choir.

Several Ottawa and Canadian choral conductors will handle Ewashko's Ottawa duties during his absence.

The Vienna Boys Choir School operates four choirs, including two in Vienna and two that tour internationally. Ewashko will lead the 25-voice touring choir on a tour of South America and the U.S. from Sept. 26 to Dec. 22.

Ewashko previously conducted the choir on a 1986 tour. He has fond memories of the experience, though he admits it can be draining to spend three months on the road with 25 children.

"It's a very impressive choir. These boys start attending the school at age seven and enter the choir when they are nine. They get two hours of rehearsal every day. It's amazing what children can achieve with that amount of preparation."

Laurence Ewashko leads the Cantata Singers in rehearsal earlier this year. He says his Ottawa choirs will be in good hands with guest directors during his year of touring and studying.

Rilling invited Ewashko to study with him after working with the Ottawa conductor last February on Verdi's Requiem at the National Arts Centre. Ewashko prepared the Ottawa Choral Society for the concert, and he says Rilling was pleased with the performance.

Ewashko says it was fascinating to work closely with Rilling at the NAC, and he's looking forward to studying Bach with him in Stuttgart.

"I appreciate his approach to baroque music. Some people think it's too romantic, but I think its make sense. He really knows Bach, and it's going to be enriching to work with him."

In late February, Ewashko will begin two months of language instruction in Italy to brush up on his Italian.

"Italian is one of most important languages in all of opera, and it's important for me to be as fluent as possible for my work with Opera Lyra," he says.

Ewashko, a baritone, then goes back to Vienna to work with a voice coach "and just experience the cultural aspects of Vienna" to round out his sabbatical.

Born in Winnipeg, Ewashko studied music in Kiev and Vienna. In 1988, he replaced Brian Law as director of the Cantata Singers, one of Ottawa's most prominent choirs. The ensemble presents its own concert series and also performs regularly with the NAC Orchestra.

Ewashko has been credited with nurturing dramatic improvements in the choir over the past decade. In 1990, the Cantata Singers won a special prize for best performance of a Canadian composition at the CBC Radio national competition for amateur choirs.

In June, Ewashko led the choir on a European tour that included stops in Austria and Budapest, performing mostly Canadian music, with excerpts from Rachmaninov's Vespers.

"It was very successful. The choir sounded good and audiences were very appreciative," he says.

During Ewashko's sabbatical, the Cantata Singers will work with guest directors including Ottawa's Lisette Canton, Montreal conductor Wayne Riddell and Toronto conductors Robert Cooper and Lydia Adams for the choir's concert series.

Its season opens Nov. 15, with a performance of Bach's St. John Passion. Riddell will conduct the choir and an expanded version of Ottawa's Thirteen Strings for the performance at St. Matthew's Church.

The choir also has two performances with the NAC Orchestra in the coming season, both in the orchestra's baroque series. James Caswell, director of the Canadian Centennial Choir, will prepare the Cantata Singers for the Sept. 23 performance of Monteverdi's Vespers under conductor Martin Pearlman.

Laurence Ewashko

Opera Lyra Ottawa will also use area conductors for its two productions in the coming season: The Magic Flute (Oct. 17 to 24) and Tosca (April 3 to 10).

The University of Ottawa will hire replacements to handle Ewashko's duties during his year off.

Ewashko is looking forward to returning to the ensembles next fall, and he says he isn't worried about their musical health while he's away.

"I know that the choirs will be in very good hands. These are all very talented people.