Oct. 2: Enjoy choir’s live-streamed Latin American concert

Toronto’s Upper Canada Choristers and their Latin ensemble Cantemos are presenting a live streaming of their postponed spring concert on Friday, Oct. 2.

The presentation of “Inti Ukana: A Latin American Tapestry” is based at Forest Hill’s Grace Church on-the-Hill but is open to attendees anywhere via the internet.

Originally scheduled for May as a public performance, the event will now be live streamed, with some pre-recorded elements at 7:30 p.m.   It will be accessible through the choir’s website and on Facebook.

Evan Fraser directs the 45-member mixed choir in music new and old, traditional indigenous and more widely known contemporary, with pianist Hye Won Cecilia Lee.  Joining them are artists from Toronto’s Latino community, including tenor Antonio Mata, and Bernardo Padron on flute and percussion.  Well-known singer-songwriter and radio host Laura Fernandez will emcee the evening and serve as narrator.

The concert — presented without intermission — takes its name from “Inti Ukana,” sung in Aymara, the language of an indigenous people still living in the Andean region.  The song is performed in a new arrangement by Laurie Evan Fraser.

Centrepiece is the dynamic “Misa Criolla” by Ariel Ramirez, Stephen Hatfield’s arrangement of “Ojos Azules” (Blue Eyes), and “Hanacpachap cussicuinin,” a hymn to the Virgin in Quechua, the indigenous language of the Incas.

Cantemos performs the energetic “Apamuy shungo” from Ecuador ansd the Venezuelan number “Mare-Mare.”

Admission is free, but donations are welcome, to cover the costs.