Artistic Director
Andrew Balfour is the founder, conceptual creator, arranger and conductor of Camerata Nova. He has a wide variety of choral experience, including extensive coaching and clinician work with a variety of choirs in Winnipeg and performances with the Calgary Opera Company, St. Luke's Anglican Church Choir, Canzona, University of Manitoba Singers, All Saints' Anglican Church Choir, the CanAm Chorus, the Mennonite Oratorio Choir and the Brandon Chorale. He has received choral conducting instruction from Roy Goodman, Henry Engbrecht and the Hilliard Ensemble and studied voice under Mel Braun, Doris Mayoh and Donald Hadfield.
Since 1998, Andrew has written more than 18 original compositions, including Wa Wa Tey Wak (Northern Lights), a 30-minute oratorio based on an Aboriginal theme written for SATB choir, an Aboriginal singer, drum, viola, shell, didgeridoo and overtones, which was premiered and recorded by CBC in March 2006, and will be performed by Camerata Nova at the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra's New Music Festival in February 2007. He also wrote a Fantasia for SATB choir and string quartet, a Missa Brevis, choral motets, two choral works in Cree, a Magnificat for choir, organ and brass and a work for solo viola. Of these, 12 have been performed publicly and/or been broadcast on CBC radio. Also, Andrew was recently commissioned by the Prairie Ocean Centre for the Arts in Gimli, Manitoba to write a symphonic work about Lake Winnipeg. Voice of the Lake, written for chamber orchestra, choir and alternative instruments, was premiered June14, 2006 in Winnipeg and August 6th, 2006 in Gimli on the shores of Lake Winnipeg. Composing is an increasingly important sphere of creativity for Andrew and is an integral part of his collaboration with the singers in Camerata Nova. Andrew is a registered member of SOCAN.
Andrew has been involved extensively in editing and arranging music, particularly choral and brass, for 18 years. Since Camerata Nova's inception in 1996, he has specialized in arrangements of medieval, Renaissance, early Baroque and Byzantine choral music. This involves researching, transcribing, transposing and editing historical scores and, in certain cases, adapting instrumental parts for voice. Andrew has also produced many experimental arrangements using instruments such as crystal bowl, shell, didgeridoo, crumhorn, sackbut and overtoning in conjunction with voice. Camerata Nova is proud to possess a unique choral library, of which many pieces are Balfour arrangements.
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