_{Abendmusik History}

by Ruth Enns

In the summer of 1986, a few brave Mennonites in Vancouver banded together to buy a convent. The dwindling group of nuns at 4000 West 11th Street could no longer sustain their community in the Point Grey neighbourhood. Rather than sell for a higher price to a developer, they chose to pass their property to some visionaries who were willing to sign significant personal letters of credit in support of a dream: a place where Mennonite university and college students could live when they came to Vancouver to go to school, a place where young scholars were encouraged to make connections between studies and faith, and with each other. The grey concrete building that had housed some fifteen nuns was renovated, renamed the Menno Simons Centre, and students came.

Interest rates in those days were high, and with a sizable mortgage to address, the founders felt considerable pressure to find money. John and Erna Friesen had musical relatives: a beginning could be made by having a fund-raising concert. The first event in what became Abendmusik featured their son, cellist John Friesen, his aunt, soprano Ingrid Suderman, and his cousin, pianist Betty Suderman. It was held in August 1987, once at the MEI in Abbotsford and once at Killarney Park Church in Vancouver.

The name Abendmusik was chosen because J. Evan Kreider had been teaching a course on Bach, and because Early Music Vancouver had just had a concert with that name: José Verstappen said he didn't mind if we recycled his lovely poster design! We were later repeatedly advised that this was not a good name — it smacked of Germanic heritage and did not reflect the diversity of modern Mennonitism, and only old people would come. Music history students know it was the name of a new music series that attracted the attention of Bach as a twenty-year-old: he walked over two hundred miles across Germany and almost lost his job to be there. We continue to enjoy the name because of its radical resonances, old and new.

I got involved in Abendmusik for its second event, in November of 1987. Exactly how that happened had to do with Evan Kreider's commitment to starting the Menno Simons Centre: he was one of my professors in the doctoral musicology program at UBC. I also encountered him when I played piano at the little Point Grey Inter-Mennonite Fellowship, which was meeting in the chapel of the Menno Simons Centre. As a grad student at UBC, I had contact with many musicians who were looking for opportunities to perform, some of whom were Mennonite. In the early years, Abendmusik presented mostly chamber music concerts, with a mix of instrumentalists and solo singers. We sometimes had short testimonials from Centre residents, and we always had coffee time after the concerts so people could visit. Many different Mennonite churches were used, partly in an effort to expand our contacts, but also to suit various performers, for reasons such as acoustics, pianos, or personal connections.

The Abendmusik Choir was formed when Eric Hannan arrived at UBC in 1991; he was working on a degree in choral conducting and needed a choir. With help from Evan and others, the first vesper service happened that October at First United Mennonite Church in Vancouver, where Eric and his wife Erika were attending. The vision of the vespers was to intersperse readings and prayers written over the centuries with mostly-unaccompanied choral singing to form a one-hour worship experience. Coffee time, speakers, and at first even the offering plate were purged as disruptions. (The offering soon returned!) Eric chose venues mainly for their acoustics. After some experimenting and adjusting, Knox United became the usual church where we practiced and presented services in Vancouver (1994), and in Abbotsford, we used Emanuel Free Reformed Church (2000).

There was a period when we presented a combination of benefit concerts and vesper services each season. Our busiest season was 1992, when Abendmusik put on fourteen separate events, which included four sets of vespers and two benefit concerts, each done in at least two places. However, the focus became the choir, and eventually we no longer did the concerts. I had completed my UBC degree, was working and raising kids, and the concerts didn't make sense anymore. Also, the size of the mortgage and interest rates decreased! Abendmusik came to mean choral services, with liturgical elements arranged or created by Evan Kreider. We settled on three sets of services per season — Thanksgiving, Advent and Lent — each presented in Abbotsford on Saturday and in Vancouver on Sunday.

The next big change came when Eric Hannan was appointed conductor of the award-winning Vancouver Cantata Singers — he no longer had the time to lead our group. Andrea Klassen Siemens, who had sung in the choir from the beginning and had acted as assistant conductor when Eric was away, took over as Music Director in 2004. In the spring of 2011, when Andrea went on leave, composer and UBC doctoral student Tim Corlis conducted. This is when the number of services was reduced to Advent and Lent.

Tim moved back east in the summer of 2012, so Michael Murray, the organist and music director at St. Philip's Anglican Church, agreed to lead the choir. This is when we started paying the conductor, a significant new expense, but one which led to a long stable period for the choir. Knox began a serious renovation in 2015, so we moved our rehearsals and Vancouver services to St. Philip's, and the size of the choir settled in at about 25 singers, typically a mix of mostly Mennonites and Anglicans.

The Covid pandemic began just as the old Menno Simons Centre closed in the spring of 2020. Our Lenten Vespers occurred as planned on Mar. 7 and 8, but already warnings were circulating; in the 2020–21 season, it was not safe to get together to sing. A 23-minute Advent recording with readings and songs was created at St. Philip's with nine well-spaced and masked singers plus Michael Murray as organist/choirmaster. This was posted as a video for public access on the weekend of December 5, and donations were accepted online or by cheque. The rest of the season was cancelled.

After these extreme restrictions, choir members were glad to get together to sing in the fall of 2021, even though we had to sing with masks on for all rehearsals and services. Because of the pandemic as well as floods in the Abbotsford area in December 2021, we had just one performance of the Advent program. It was livestreamed as well as recorded, a new venture for us. Lenten Vespers were re-scheduled from March 5–6 to April 2–3 to escape the worst of the Omicron variant. For both Advent and Lent, audience members were masked and had vaccine passports checked at the door, and all seemed to go very well. We were glad to be able to complete both sets of services as planned in 2022–23, with livestream broadcasting and videos posted after the service. Kevin Hiebert was very helpful in getting this set up. By 2023–24, we dropped the livestream because of frustration over the quality of the music but kept the posting of Kevin's video recordings and the acceptance of online donations.

Michael Murray directed Abendmusik from Advent 2012 to Lent 2026, around the time he retired from St. Philip's Church to move to PEI. The next chapter in the history of the choir will begin in the fall of 2026; as the Pax House student residence opens on the campus of UBC, David Poon takes over as director of the choir, and we will move our choral activities in Vancouver to St. John's Shaughnessy Anglican Church.

The long-running success of Abendmusik has been due to consistently good audience attendance and the contributions of many willing volunteers. In particular, Karen Thiessen has been Choir Manager for many years, and Evan Kreider has devoted countless hours to creating programs and scores for the choir. Fundraising was a burning issue in the early days of the Menno Simons Centre, and Abendmusik's contributions in this area have been significant, with nearly $450,000 received in offerings over the years. It has been the main outreach program of Vancouver's old Menno Simons Centre and the new Pax House. For the musicians and the people who come to listen, its value lies in the opportunities it provides for the encouragement of artists, the enjoyment of good music, and the experience of communal meditation and spiritual renewal.

Ruth Enns
Chair of Abendmusik since 1988
July 2011/updated May 2026