In 2022, Echo received a grant from the Canada Council for the Arts under its Digital Now initiative. The impetus for this 18-month-long project  was to give performing artists, hit so hard by Covid restrictions, a chance to present their work to audiences through digital media. By the time we were offered the grant, restrictions had loosened somewhat, and we were running hybrid rehearsals. As Alan, our Artistic Director enthused, “We are coming back to life!” We named the project “ECHO!! Revived. 

Over the next three terms, Echo worked with guest artists to produce digital content which can be viewed below. The grant enabled us to run workshops with Edmonton-based Maria Dunn when she visited Toronto, and to create two new videos featuring Maria and her music: a documentary-style video (A Conversation with Maria Dunn), and a shorter version that we incorporated into our December concert.  We were also able to produce a high quality recording of the Echo Winter Concert, “Through Darkness into Hope.” 

In our May 2023 spring season guest artist  Annabelle Chvostek  joined us, leading two singing workshops. At the end of the season, we were once again able to produce a high-quality recording of our Spring Concert, “Enough is Enough!” Annabelle is a Juno-nominated singer-songwriter, composer and producer whose musical achievements span multiple genres. Annabelle’s latest album String of Pearls brings together the tradition of the Canadian singer-songwriter and the nostalgia of her Eastern European heritage with a long-standing connection to Uruguay. String of Pearls was nominated for a 2022 Canadian Folk Music Award.

Andrew Craig was the final guest artist to be featured in ECHO!! Revived. A singer, instrumentalist, composer and teacher, Andrew calls himself an “artivist”—one who brings together music and social justice. Among his many notable achievements, Andrew founded Culchahworks Arts Collective in 2013, a Toronto-based arts organization that celebrates figures and events from African-Canadian, Caribbean-Canadian and African-American cultural legacies. Andrew led a workshop for Echo on September 30 that included singers from the Toronto Children’s Concert Choir (TC3), an Afrocentric youth choir. In the winter concert on December 3, he conducted Echo performing the songs he had taught. 

A workshop led by South African composer and choir leader Bongani Magatyana took place in the fall of 2023 for Echo and friends. Later that week, Mr. Magatyana led workshops at Chief Dan George Public School and for Sistema Toronto, which were facilitated by Echo, as well as a three-day public workshop, before returning home to Cape Town.

The Digital Now grant also enabled Echo to commission two high-quality videos of Andrew Craig’s and Bongani’s workshops for Echo, produced by Carlos Coronado.