Michael Murray and the Sound of Abendmusik: A Reflective Legacy
After more than a decade of leadership, Michael Murray concluded his tenure with the Abendmusik Chamber Choir in Spring 2026, leaving behind a quietly influential legacy shaped by reflection, musical curiosity, and community-focused choral practice.
When Michael Murray began directing the Abendmusik Chamber Choir in 2012, he stepped into an ensemble already shaped by decades of liturgical music-making, community tradition, and evolving sacred performance. What he brought was not a reinvention, but a deepened sense of curiosity about what choral music could be when it is experienced less as performance and more as a shared reflection.
Murray's appointment also marked a significant turning point in the ensemble's history. Previous conductors had served in volunteer capacities, but with his arrival, while serving as organist and music director at St. Philip's Anglican Church, Abendmusik began formally compensating its conductor for the first time. Though this introduced a new and meaningful financial commitment, it also ushered in a period of stability and continuity for the choir, helping to anchor its artistic direction over the years that followed.
From the outset, Murray was drawn to the distinctive character of Abendmusik's Vespers tradition, particularly its departure from conventional concert norms. One detail stood out immediately: there is no applause at the end of pieces or services.
That absence, he noted, shaped everything. It created space for silence, contemplation, and continuity – an experience he had long been interested in exploring. His time with Abendmusik became an opportunity to engage with repertoire he had always wanted to conduct, within a setting that allowed music to breathe without interruption.
One of the first major works he led with the choir was Bach's motet Lobet den Herrn, a formative and memorable milestone that set the tone for his tenure.
A Choir in Subtle but Meaningful Transition
Over more than a decade, Murray witnessed, and gently guided, a gradual transformation in the ensemble's sound and makeup.
What had once been a choir more heavily weighted toward female voices evolved into a more balanced ensemble, with consistent representation across soprano, alto, tenor, and bass sections. In its later seasons, Abendmusik often featured roughly equal numbers in each section, creating what Murray described as a stronger, more grounded sonic foundation.
The choir also became increasingly diverse in its membership. While rooted in Mennonite tradition through its connection to the Menno Simons Centre, Abendmusik gradually welcomed more singers from outside that community. Notably, several Anglican choristers joined during Murray's tenure, subtly influencing the ensemble's musical direction.
This shift was reflected in repertoire choices, which began to include more Anglican traditions, including a stronger emphasis on Evensong canticles such as the Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis.
Collaboration and Musical Partnership
A defining feature of Murray's time with Abendmusik was his long-standing collaboration with organist Gerald Harder. He describes this partnership as one of the most rewarding aspects of his work with the choir.
Harder's reliability, musicianship, and easy presence contributed significantly to the stability and warmth of the ensemble's Vespers services. For Murray, this collaboration was not only practical but deeply musical, an ongoing conversation between organ and voices that helped shape the choir's sound week by week.
Repertoire That Shaped the Years
Across seasons of Lent and Advent services, certain works stood out as especially meaningful in Murray's memory—pieces that captured the emotional and spiritual range of Abendmusik's identity.
Among them were:
- Arvo Pärt's I Am the True Vine
- Pepper Choplin's We Are Not Alone
- Heinrich Schütz's Wer will uns scheiden
- Palestrina's Sicut Cervus
Together, these works reflect a broad musical landscape, from Renaissance polyphony to contemporary sacred composition, mirroring the choir's commitment to variety within a contemplative framework.
The Most Rewarding Work
For Murray, the essence of his time with Abendmusik was not defined by any single concert or season, but by the experience of bringing music to life with a committed ensemble in a reflective setting.
He describes the work simply: it was a privilege to shape these pieces with the choir, and an even greater gift to share them with a community willing to listen deeply.
Looking back, Murray also expressed a desire for Abendmusik to expand beyond its traditional seasonal structure. While Advent and Lent have long been the choir's focal points, he sees potential for broader programming, music for Christmas, Epiphany, Easter, and Thanksgiving, drawing from a vast repertoire that has historically remained unexplored for many years within the ensemble.
In his view, this expansion could enrich the choir's already deep tradition and ensure its continued vitality in a changing musical landscape.
A Lasting Contribution
After more than a decade of leadership, Murray's tenure concludes not as an ending, but as a continuation of Abendmusik's evolving story. In 2026, leadership passes to David Poon, marking a new chapter for the ensemble.
Yet the imprint of Murray's years remains: in a more balanced sound, a broadened repertoire, strengthened collaborations, and a deepened sense of what Abendmusik has always been, a space where music is not performed for applause, but offered as reflection.
Within the ongoing tradition of the Abendmusik Chamber Choir, his legacy is one of quiet shaping: attentive, collaborative, and rooted in the belief that silence after music can be as meaningful as the music itself.
Welcoming David Poon: A New Chapter for Abendmusik
As Abendmusik enters a new chapter in its nearly four-decade history, we are delighted to welcome David Poon as the choir's new Music Director.
Following more than a decade of leadership under Michael Murray, David brings a deep passion for sacred music, liturgical tradition, and congregational singing that aligns beautifully with Abendmusik's longstanding mission of creating spaces for reflection, beauty, and spiritual renewal through music.
For David, the journey into sacred music has been a gradual and deeply personal one.
Although he grew up attending church, it was not until high school that faith became a meaningful part of his life. Through a local youth group, he began taking seriously the beliefs he had encountered throughout childhood. Like many Christians of his generation, his early musical experiences were shaped by contemporary worship music, and he fondly recalls singing along to artists such as Delirious? and Jars of Clay during his university years.
Over time, however, David found himself drawn toward older traditions of sacred music. A university history professor introduced him to Thomas Day's influential book Why Catholics Can't Sing, sparking new questions about worship, music, and tradition. Encouragement from mentors and colleagues led him to discover the rich world of liturgical music—and, eventually, the transformative experience of Choral Evensong.
That discovery has shaped much of his musical life ever since.
Today, David is passionate about bringing together diverse traditions of sacred music, incorporating Gregorian chant, Renaissance polyphony, English church anthems, French motets, and contemporary choral works into worship and performance. Beyond his work with Abendmusik, he is also dedicated to helping others experience this music. He directs MOTET in Vancouver, which gathers amateur singers to provide music for Solemn Sung Masses at Holy Rosary Cathedral during the summer, and Vespersong on the Sunshine Coast, which brings singers together several times each year for Choral Evensong services.
At the heart of David's approach to programming is a desire to offer music that lifts listeners beyond the ordinary.
"Behind my repertoire selection is often a drive to present music that takes us out of the every day," he explains. "For church, music that sidesteps the secular soundscape and lifts one up to heaven; for concerts, music that speaks to the soul, granting hope and helping us forget our worldly troubles."
That vision feels especially fitting for Abendmusik, whose candlelit Vespers services have long offered audiences a space apart from the noise and busyness of daily life. Through sacred music, scripture, prayer, and silence, Abendmusik has cultivated a tradition of reflection and contemplation for nearly 40 years.
As he begins his first season with the choir, David is eager to build on that tradition while bringing his own musical perspective to the ensemble.
"I look forward to making music with you soon," he says, "and presenting some of the best sacred music ever written to our audience."
We are excited to welcome David to the Abendmusik community and look forward to the music, inspiration, and new possibilities that lie ahead under his leadership.