Nurturing of Cantata Singer's 45-voice choir makes it better than ever

The concert was a fund-raiser for WaterCan, an Ottawa-based organization that provides clean water and sanitation to communities in developing countries.

Laurence Ewashko, the choir's director, assembled a lovely program, most of it water related, and the ensemble he has nurtured for more than a decade is singing better than ever. The concert also featured several welcome homecomings. Ottawa countertenor Daniel Taylor, home for the weekend from a production of Handel's Rinaldo with New York City Opera, was the guest soloist, and he sang gloriously. His pure tones and musical phrasing were particularly memorable in the aria Cara Sposa from Rinaldo and in Benjamin Britten's arrangement of O Waly, Waly.

Mr. Taylor was accompanied sensitively at the piano by Gerald Wheeler, who founded the Cantata Singers in 1964 and later was the longtime director at Montreal's Christ Church Cathedral.

The Cantata Singers perform regularly with the National Arts Centre Orchestra, but it's always nice to hear the ensemble for an entire evening, and to hear the fine work Mr. Ewashko continues to do with the 45-voice choir.

Highlights included assured performances of Wade in the Water and Un Canadien Errant and a particularly solid Shenandoah. Also memorable was a tender, beautifully sung rendition of Deep River as the evening's encore. The program included some generally pleasing new pieces, including works by Morris Kates and John Armstrong, and a song by Joanna Estelle, dedicated to Margaret Trudeau Kemper and inspired by her reflections on the death of her son, Michel. Ms. Trudeau Kemper, a supporter of WaterCan, was there for the performance, and hugged Ms. Estelle following the piece. The choir's enunciation in the new pieces could have been sharper, and it was sometimes difficult to make out the words. Printed text would have helped.