The Elora Festival, positioned at the crossroads where great music and rural charm meet, is continuously redefining the musical experience.
One of its venues, the Gambrel Barn, is used as a storage space for salt and sand 11 months of the year, but transformed into a concert hall unlike any other for the month of July. An acoustically-spectacular space with wide open doors, the Gambrel Barn offers music lovers a uniquely beautiful experience.
“I remember one concert a number of years ago,” says Artistic Director Mark Vuorinen. “This torrential storm came ripping through for about 20 minutes. We actually had to stop the performance and just wait it out—and then the audience was literally in three inches of water. Once the rain passed, the show went on, and after the show I stood at the back door sort of apologizing to everyone, but they all insisted that it was a magical and unforgettable experience.” Rustic and flawed, but wholly unforgettable; it is all a part of the allure.
This season, a brand-new venue, the Fieldstone Barn, will be added to the roster. An old 19th-century stone barn on the edge of Elora, the festival will be among the first presenters to use the space. The way we experience music plays a huge role in how we enjoy it, and the Elora Festival is undeniably curated with this in mind. A key focus of this year’s programming is experiential concerts.
Wrapped in Love will be one of the events held at the Fieldstone Barn. Each listener will have an utterly different experience because the artists and audience will be intertwined. With no seats, “you’ll get a different experience depending on where you are standing and who’s walking around you,” says Vuorinen. Another noteworthy concert coming back for the third year running is Music in the Woods, situated entirely in a forest located about 20 minutes into the countryside.
Festival-goers can expect a stellar lineup of guest artists, including 2024 Polaris Music Prize-winning tenor, musicologist and activist Jeremy Dutcher; soprano-pianist Rachel Fenlon performing her unique, one-person Winterreise; and the organ/sax duo Andrew Henderson and Paul Cohen.
On July 17, Autorickshaw will join the Elora Singers and Penderecki String Quartet for a fusion concert, blending south-Asian styles with jazz music. This evening will feature various compositions that lead vocalist Subha Shankaran has written, as well as Bollywood music, and Leonard Cohen compositions blended with south Asian influence. “It’s like Leonard Cohen put into 7-8 (time signature) or something like that—you know, into a raga,” says Vuorinen.
Anchored by the voices of the Elora Singers, Vuorinen, who is also their artistic director, has curated a well-rounded package of concerts. Great music thrives in unique places, and that starts with the town of Elora.
www.elorafestival.ca
