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Canadian composer, lyricist and arranger Joanna Estelle has arrived at an artistic Rubicon with the 2018 Navona Records release of her first CD Emergence. The title is not cursory, for it distills in one word “The process of coming into being” that has been Estelle’s personal and artistic journey of the past several years.

Estelle was in her forWatch ties before she took the courageous decision to free herself of the expectations of others and soar with the angels. Completing her undergraduate degree in music in 2009 at the University of Ottawa, an achievement undertaken over a span of eight years while working her day job as an accountant for the Canadian government, Estelle graduated summa cum laude on the Dean's list as winner of the Faculty of Art's silver medal. She quit her job with the government that same year and began graduate study at York University in Toronto. She is currently pursuing further studies at the doctoral level.

Joanna Estelle has served on the National Board of Directors for the Association of Canadian Women Composers (2004-2014) and is a member of the Founding Board of Ottawa New Music Creators. Her Joanna Estelle Commemorative Scholarship Fund is a bequest to the University of Ottawa to encourage other women to find their musical voices.

Talent, training, study, perspicacity, faith and above all discipline and self-esteem are immediate gut takeaways from this marvelously diverse sampling of Joanna Estelle’s work. Collaborative assistance from colleagues John Gordon Armstrong (arranger), Laurence Ewashko (baritone), Morgan Strickland, Susan Elizabeth Brown and Laura Dziubaniuk (soprano), Brandon Wilkie and Roland Gjernes (cello), Frédéric Lacroix (piano), and two choral ensembles, Ewashko Singers and Capital Chamber Choir bring distinct cachet and color to each of the pieces on this premiere disc.

Pianist Frédéric Lacroix is featured in several chamber ensemble pieces on the CD, but is given a lovely opportunity to shine as a soloist in 10 brief and charmingly simple Umori (Moods), the first set of pieces on the Emergence CD. Soprano Morgan Strickland has a voice of genuine purity and round tone, handsomely displayed in three Estelle songs of great beauty; Susannah’s Lullaby (This is a Face of Love) with Lacroix, Language of a Rose and Qu’est-ce que c’est la vie? (Tribute to Diana, Princess of Wales with cellist Brandon Wilkie and pianist Lacroix. The three artists soar together quite naturally, the result of Estelle’s songwriting craft and elegant sense of style.

Another beautifully fashioned song in folk character Moyi mamij (For My Mother) brings together soprano Laura Dziubaniuk and baritone Laurence Ewashko - two superbly balanced instruments - for a heartfelt and emotionally powerful vocal duo, sustained admirably by cellist Wilkie and pianist Lacroix (nice writing for the two). Soprano Susan Elizabeth Brown and cellist Roland Gjernes bring a clean, contemplative, even fragile Bach-like delicacy to Estelle’sAbwoon d’bwashmaya (Aramaic Lord’s Prayer).

John Gordan Armstrong’s wonderful arrangement for chorus and soloist of Estelle’sWater Canticle (For Margaret Trudeau) is a beauty. Armstrong’s sensitivity to Estelle’s aesthetic - a perfect synergy between the two is apparent - has created an exceptional collaborative result, performed nicely by the Ewashko Singers, featuring tenor Robert Ryan with pianist Aude Urbancic.Likewise, Armstrong’s arrangement for the Capital Chamber Choir of Estelle’s Child of the Manger. The Capital Chamber Choir also performs Estelle’s La chanson de ton coeur (The Song of Your Heart) with pianist Sonya Sweeney.

The last work on Joanna Estelle’s Emergence CD is also its most complex and satisfying. Song for Abwoon offers an 11 minute overview of Estelle’s compositional ambitions and orchestration skills. Written for chorus (Ewashko Singers), soprano solo (Brown), cello (Wilkie), two flutes (Jeffrey Miller,Pascale Margely), oboe (Frédéric Hodgson), violin (Brigitte Amyot), viola (Kevin James), cello (Jean-François Marquis) and bass (Peter Kilpatrick)Song for Abwoon hints at things to come from this unique and now fully liberated musical voice.

Daniel Kepl | Performing Arts Review