Diane Loomer, C.M.(April 23, 1940 – December 10, 2012)

Born in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1940 and raised in a musical family, Diane Loomer received her BA from Gustavus Adolphus College. After teaching high school math and English in the USA and Germany, she relocated to Vancouver, BC with her husband Richard in the mid-1970s. There she began her studies in music theory, piano and voice at Douglas College, transferring to the University of British Columbia, where she earned a degree in music theory (minor in voice) in 1982.

Launching her choral conducting career at an age when virtually all other choral directors would be in mid-flight, Diane soon soared high, eventually reaching the very top strata of her profession. She has founded and directed four outstanding choirs (and co-founded/directed another) in a wide variety of voicings, fostering a love of singing in children, youth, adults and seniors.

In 1981 Diane formed the Douglas College Children’s Choir and the Douglas College Community Choir, later renamed the Amabilis Singers. In 1987 she and Morna Edmundson co-founded Elektra Women’s Choir, an ensemble the two co-conducted and led to great acclaim for 22 years. In 1992 she founded the renowned Chor Leoni Men’s Choir, Canada’s premiere classical male choir, and in 2007 Diane formed her final ensemble, EnChor, an auditioned seniors’ choir.

In addition to her choirs, Diane led an active career as a guest conductor and clinician. In 1994, she was the first female musician to conduct Canada’s National Youth Choir. She was a leader and encourager of choral colleagues and singers alike. Mentorship of young choral musicians was important to Diane, and she established programs to nurture their development. As well as com-posing and arranging choral music herself, Diane gave great energy to promoting Canadian choral composers and left a prolific commissioning legacy. This work was further enabled through the dissemination of these works through her dynamic touring, broadcasting and recording practice, as well as establishing, with her husband Dick, Cypress Choral Music, a publisher of Canadian choral music.

Diane received the BC Choral Federation’s Healey Willan Award in 1990 for her service to choral music in British Columbia; in 1994, she was named YWCA Vancouver’s Woman of Distinction for Arts and Culture; and in 1997 and 2004 received Distinguished Alumni Awards honouring her achievements from Gustavus Aldophus College and Douglas College respectively . In recognition of her significant contribution to Canada’s culture, Diane became a Member of the Order of Canada in 1999 and in 2002 was awarded the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal.

The following year, Diane was appointed by the University of Victoria to the University Women’s Scholar Lecture Series and in 2005 was appointed conductor emerita at Dalhousie University. In 2008 she was named a Paul Harris Fellow to the International Rotary Foundation for her tangible and significant assistance for furthering better understanding among peoples of the world, and in 2010 the Association of Canadian Choral Communities presented Diane with their Distinguished Service Award in recognition of her work promoting choral music in Canada. In 2011 Diane was the recipient of an honorary Doctorate of Letters degree from the University of British Columbia. She is a recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal and received an honorary Doc-torate of Fine Arts from Gustavus Adolphus College in 2012.

Diane’s love of music and deep belief that choral music could enrich everyone’s life infused all of her work. She loved her choristers as she sought to share the love she felt for the music introduced at rehearsal. This inevitably engendered the love of choristers for one another, and for Diane, as they created a close (but not closed) community. It radiated outward in a very palpable way at each performance, breaking the formidable “fourth wall” between performer and audience and draw-ing all together. Be the listeners many or few, the space cavernous or intimate, audience members always expressed the feeling of having been touched by the spirit and sound that she instilled in her choirs.

Diane is survived by her husband Richard, son Dan, grand-daughter Ella, and her choirs.

In Her Own Words... Word for Word

Selected notes – jotted down word for word by accompanist Ailsa Zaenker at EnChor rehearsals from September 2008 to October 2012 – from the mouth of our esteemed and beloved conductor Diane Loomer.

If I see you looking down, I think “Do they know something I don’t know?” Move as one school of fish rather than many individual fishes

If you know who it is, nudge him

Add lemon to the strawberry

Whatever you had for breakfast, eat it again next week

I’d rather see a few eyes than hear a few voices

Choirs have a sheep mentality – follow your leader

Your harmony works really well when you’re all on the same beat

In ‘Precious Lord’ don’t let the words ‘I am tired’ influence your singing

Sing more softly – listen more loudly

It always feels so much better to sing in tune, I don’t know why you don’t do it all the time

ff = full glorious sound... not El Blasto

I think I have a few guys wandering around in their sleep

If you know you’ve learned it incorrectly, then unlearn it

Your upbeats are somewhat in dispute

Seating plan “unless I change it around”

Believe it or not, I’m going to change my mind

Sing forward through your moustache if you have a moustache

Now you sound like well-behaved nuns –it’s OK to feel a bit

Sounds like a school teacher with a typewriter – you know what a typewriter is?

That’s a nice part but it doesn’t belong there

Everyone has an idea of where they think those two 16ths are – we can duke it out

Hohohoho... as if you’re trying out for Santa Claus

Pull tone back to where your wisdom teeth used to be

You are the Mother Superior of The Sound of Music and she’s always sharp!

Dick: when Diane says ‘Thank you’ she doesn’t mean ‘thank you’ she means ‘shut up’!

Painting with a brush that never runs out of colour

Even that vowel would make me happy for the rest of the day

Singing faster doesn’t help, believe me!

Right in the middle of the note is where you want to land

Keep note alive – like little ping-pong ball floating on water

Line up 16ths with person on your right – they’re a little slower than you are

forte means you have 25% left in your body

Push clouds way way up – out comes the sun

Give me the face of how old you feel

Fight everything that’s sinking in our bodies these days

Sopranos are used to being beautiful but not always accurate

Celebration of Life in Music and Memories

There’s a Meetin’ Here Tonight ...................................................music and text traditional, arr. Ron SmailChor Leoni Men’s Choir, Elektra Women’s Choir, EnChor Chamber Choir

conducted by Ramona Luengen, Composer / Artistic Director, Amabilis Singersaccompanied by Ken Cormier

Introduction: Christopher Gaze, Artistic Director, Bard on the Beach / Master of Ceremonies

The Earth Adorned ............................................. music and text, traditional Swedish, arr. Waldemar Åhlénconducted by Robert Sund, former Artistic Director, Orphei Drängar, Sweden

Speaker: David Kolander (Diane’s brother)

Wie lieblich sind deine Wohnungen .............................. from Ein Deutsches Requiem by Johannes Brahmsconducted by James Fankhauser, Professor Emeritus, UBC School of Music

accompanied by Ken Cormier

Abide with Me ................................................. Scottish hymn with words by H.F. Lyte, tune by W.H. Monkconducted by Wayne Riddell, C.M., Conductor Emeritus, The Church of St. Andrew and St. Paul, Montreal

Sarah ......................................................................traditional Newfoundland folk song, arr. Jonathan Quickconducted by Douglas Dunsmore, Artistic Director, Festival 500, Newfoundland

Steve Maddock, Byron Hanson, Greg Martin, soloists

Please join the choirs for the refrain as directed:

Sarah, Sarah, won’t you come out tonight?Sarah, Sarah, the moon is shining bright.

Put your hat and jacket on, tell your Mudder you won’t be long,and I’ll be waitin’ for you ‘round the corner.

Speaker: Joel Wiberg (College friend)

Soon Ah Will Be Done ....................................................................... traditional spiritual, arr. Diane Loomerperformed by the Coastal Sound Youth Choir, Carrie Tennant, Music Director

The Lake Isle of Innisfree ......................................................poem by W.B. Yeats, music by Eleanor Daley

Ave Maria ..............................................................................................................................David MacIntyre

Away From the Roll of the Sea ................................................... Allistair MacGillivray, arr. Diane Loomerperformed by Elektra Women’s Choir, Morna Edmundson, Artistic Director

accompanied by Stephen Smith

Ave Maris Stella .......................................................................................................................Diane Loomer

Bridge Over Troubled Water ....................................................................... Paul Simon, arr. Miles Ramsay

Fogarty’s Cove .................................................................................................... Stan Rogers, arr. Ron Smail

Goin’ Home ............................................................................................ Antonin Dvorák, arr. Diane Loomerperformed by Chor Leoni Men’s Choir, Carrie Tennant, Assistant Conductor

accompanied by Ken Cormier; Steve Maddock, soloist

Exultate Justi .................................................................................................................Ludovico da Viadana

You Are the New Day ....................................................................................... John David, arr. Peter Knightperformed by EnChor, Carrie Tennant, Conductor, accompanied by Ailsa Zaenker

Over the Rainbow ................................................................................ Harold Arlen, lyrics by E.Y. Harburgconducted by Morna Edmundson; accompanied by Ailsa Zaenker

Please sing along with the choirs:

Somewhere over the rainbow, way up high,There’s a land that I’ve heard of once in a lullaby.

Somewhere over the rainbow, skies are blue,And the dreams that you dare to dream,

Really do come true.

Someday I’ll wish upon a starAnd wake up where the clouds are far behind me.

Where troubles melt like lemon drops,High above the chimney tops,That’s where you’ll find me.

Somewhere over the rainbow, blue birds fly.Birds fly over the rainbow.Why then, oh why can’t I?

If happy little bluebirds fly beyond the rainbow,Why, oh why can’t I?

Kontakion ...................................................................................................................................Rupert Langconducted by Rupert Lang, Organist & Director of Music, Christ Church Cathedral

accompanied by Stephen Smith; Bruce Hoffman, soloist

We Rise Again ..........................................................................................Leon Dubinsky, arr. Stephen Smithconducted by Willi Zwozdesky, Conductor and Artistic Director, Vancouver Men’s Chorus

accompanied by Stephen Smith; Grace Fatkin and Steve Maddock, soloists

Please join the choirs as directed:

We rise again,In the faces of our children,

We rise again,In the voices of our song,

We rise again,In the waves out on the ocean,

And then, we rise again.

Solo:Give rest unto your servant with your saints, O God,give rest, give rest, where there is neither pain nor sorrow,neither sighing, but life everlasting.

Choir & Audience:Give rest unto your servantwith your saints, O God,give rest, give rest,where there is neither pain nor sorrow,neither sighing, but life everlasting.

Choir:For you, God, only are immortal,the creator and the maker of all,and we are mortal formed of the earthand to the earth we shall return.

Choir & Audience:Give rest unto your servantwith your saints, O God,give rest, give rest,where there is neither pain nor sorrow,neither sighing, but life everlasting.

Choir:For so did you ordain when you created me, saying:“You are dust and to dust you shall return.”All of us go down to the dust,yet even at the grave we make our song,alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.

Choir & Audience:Give rest unto your servantwith your saints, O God,give rest, give rest,where there is neither pain nor sorrow,neither sighing, but life everlasting.

Choir:Neither sighing, but life everlasting.

Thank you for joining us today to remember and celebrate Diane. In lieu of flowers, we welcome donations in Diane’s memory to either Elektra’s or Chor Leoni’s music commissioning funds established in her name. Diane Loomer Commissioning Fund for Elektra Women’s Choir This fund drives the commissioning of new compositions, and acknowledges the tremendous impact that Diane had in contributing to the choral literature for women’s choirs. For more information and details about the Commissioning Fund please visit:bit.ly/DLCFforElektra Diane Loomer Commissioning Endowment Fund for Chor Leoni Men’s ChoirChor Leoni will be honouring Diane, in perpetuity, by periodically creating major choral works for men’s choir in her name, drawing from our newly established Diane Loomer Commissioning Endowment Fund. Donations in lieu of flowers may be made through the Vancouver Foundation at: bit.ly/ChorLeoniDLCF

~ Dick, Dan, and Ella

Photo credits ~ Front: Bruce Hoffman / Page 3: Glen Erikson / Page 7: Stefanie Pielahn / Back: Jill Hamm