The University of Manitoba Singers are celebrating the changing of physical and life seasons with their final concert of the academic year this week. Echoes of Change will serve not only as a celebration of the changes that have occurred in the lives of singers as they have developed their skills over the past year, but the upcoming scene change the choir will see as they embark on a tour to Amsterdam and Sweden in the coming weeks. .embed-container { position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; overflow: hidden; max-width: 100%; } .embed-container iframe, .embed-container object, .embed-container embed { position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; } A year of change and challenge Elroy Friesen, the conductor of the University of Manitoba Singers, says that change has been a major theme in the ensemble from the beginning. “This year, the changeover between people graduating and new singers coming into this ensemble was huge,” he says, noting that less than half of the choir had returned for this year. “The biggest change is that the ensemble has become an ensemble and they can read each other’s minds more, they can breathe together.” Having so many fresh faces in the group has not meant that the calibre of performance changed. “The repertoire I’ve thrown at them for this semester is really difficult,” says Friesen, “and they’re eating it up.” RELATED STORIES U of W theatre students reflect on past and present pandemic experiences Winnipeg Music Festival hands out awards, celebrates growth Joanna Loepp Thiessen wins 2026 Rose Bowl Echoes of Change is a concert of challenge, both in technical skill and in the messages the repertoire shares with the audience. From Thomas Jennefelt’s “Warning to the Rich” to pieces by Caroline Shaw and Saunder Choi that reflect on Emma Lazarus’s immigration poem “The New Colossus”, the University of Manitoba Singers are sharing music poignantly tied to issues playing out all over the world. “I think there’s more social justice in this program than there sometimes is,” says Friesen. “And then, because we’re doing the Swedish tour, we have a bunch of Swedish music on the program, traditional Swedish music as well.” View this post on Instagram A post shared by University of Manitoba Singers (@universitysingers) Preparing for a once-in-a-lifetime tour As part of their May tour in Sweden and the Netherlands, the Singers will be pairing up with local choirs to share music together as well as for one another. Friesen highlights performances at Stockholm’s Eric Ericsonhallen, Sundsvall, and Umeå University, a sister school of the University of Manitoba. The students will be immersed in Nordic singing techniques such as kulning (a non-vibrato directed call) as well as Swedish culture. Friesen notes that performing in these venues alongside friends is always a singular experience. “In the future, they might visit Europe, but they’ll only get to walk around and look at the artwork and get a sense,” he says of the opportunity. “They actually get to be in some of these gorgeous spaces and actually performing.” Audiences will hear these Swedish offerings in Winnipeg at Echoes of Change, which takes place at the Crescent Arts Centre in Osborne Village at 7 p.m. on April 2. Tickets and more information can be found at the Desautels Faculty of Music’s website.