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EESTI ELU reedel, 6. augustil 2021 — Friday, August 6, 2021
Nr. 31
The 2021 Elora Festival Online presents the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir and much more! The pandemic has affected us all in so many different ways, but it has been particularly difficult for the cultural industry, and especially for choirs all around the world. The Elora Festival, under the artistic direction of Mark Vuorinen since 2018, is Canada’s choral festival, which normally takes place every July in the artistic village of Elora, one and a half hours west of Toronto. The Festival features not only international choirs and vocal ensembles, but also chamber music and popular music concerts. The heart and soul of the Festival is The Elora Singers, one of Canada’s finest pro fessional choirs, also led by Vuorinen. The Singers normally perform no less than 15 con certs during the Festival, both on their own and in collabora tion with other choirs and artists of different genres. During a normal concert season The Elora Singers present interesting and diverse pro grams not only in Elora, but also in other cities. They also regularly commission new works and record new CDs. Mark Vuorinen is a scholar of Baltic choral music, who has been studying the Baltic choral
sound, Baltic composers and choral traditions for over 20 years. His doctoral dissertation was dedicated to the music of Arvo Pärt. Mark has organized tours to the Baltic States for choristers from his Kitchener choirs – the Grand Philhar monic and the University of Waterloo choral program, in cluding attending the Estonian and Latvian Song Festivals in recognized artists. Canadian recent years. baritone Russell Braun will In March 2020, concert halls present a recital with pianist and choral activity were si Carolyn Maule and the tenors lenced by the pandemic around and basses of The Elora the world. Since then, we have Singers. Cellist Katie Schlaijker learned so much about how to of the Penderecki String Quartet produce online concerts, im will join The Elora Singers in proving on and learning new “Reflection”, the first concert of methods, perfecting the creative the Festival. The Rolston String quality with every new program. Quartet and Friends will This summer, despite the on perform “Music of Vienna” as going pandemic restrictions, we part of an exchange with the have managed to assemble a Festival of the Sound. We are wonderful group of world-class thrilled to also be presenting the international choirs and cham British vocal ensemble ber musicians for the 2021 VOCES8, the Jason Max Elora Festival Online from Ferdinand Singers from the US, August 5–28, 2021. The Elora and the Estonian Philharmonic Singers will perform four unique Chamber Choir, under the artis and gorgeous programs which tic direction of Tõnu Kaljuste. were recorded recently in Ha The Estonian Philharmonic milton, Toronto and Kitchener, Chamber Choir will perform a observing all public health and program dedicated to composer safety protocols. Veljo Tormis, featuring his In addition to our own con “Kalendar Songs”, folk song certs, there will be five more arrangements about important concerts with internationally celebrations in Estonian (and
HIIS: an Indie PC Game Taken From a Sage’s Cauldron Vincent Teetsov When I was in high school in the UK, my friends put a lot of mental energy into the future prospect of university. We sweated over preparing for the impending humongous exams at key points of each school year. At other times, we kept up the pretense of studying, when really we were blowing off steam by wander ing around outside, going to the convenience store, pluck ing on a cheap guitar, or diving into the teenage hyp nosis of YouTube and video games. It’s with amazement that I learn about high schoolers who are using their time to make the type of content that allowed us to unwind back then. HIIS is an example of some Gen Z bril liance and their perceptiveness surrounding the intellectual potential of digital art. HIIS was officially launched on February 11th, 2021, and was developed and published by Bottled Fantasy Games. As they describe it, “We are a small team of high school students from Estonia. We have always wanted to make a game, but this opportunity was granted
to us when our school gave us the chance to make a student company (instead of a boring research paper).” What we get instead of a research paper is a game that gives you a decent amount of flexibility. As a “sandbox” style game, you inhabit a vast island which remains open to amble your way through. The scenery is not just a backdrop: it’s full of plants, seeds, mushrooms, seashells, and other objects that you will use to serve your character’s purpose as a mage. The central objective of the game is to make potions based on the requests of folks from beyond the island. The requests wash up on the island’s shore, and it’s up to you to come up with solutions to the customers’ dilemmas as they become increasingly difficult. To do this, players have to shrewdly comb through the island to pick plants (or seeds to grow plants in your own garden), collect water from a well, brew ingredients in a big cauldron, test the potions you make, and then send them back to customers. You may lose count of how many plants are around the island, but you’ll gradually find
out which ones require more effort to harvest, including those with defence mechanisms like spikes. It can also take a while to get the potions just right. Testing them on your own character can make you woozy. Testing potions on a stool can cause it to grow eyeballs! What you notice about each potion is tactical information for future potion requests, so be sure to write it in your character’s notebook for reference. Thankfully, even with these challenges, when you begin playing HIIS, it starts out with a tutorial, to get you acquainted with the vast island and equip you with all that you must know in your quests. Apart from fulfilling potion orders, there are quirks to be amused by, like using an exploding potion to launch you to the top of a mountain or to the other end of the island. Amusements like these alleviate the tough lineup of potion making sessions. With game based currency you earn while playing, you can buy miscel laneous curios like crowns and coffee cups. You can buy a compass that helps you find your way back home; a worthy purchase when the day quickly descends into night and your surroundings become veiled by darkness. You can also make additions to your character’s
Latvian) culture. Before this concert, Mark Vuorinen will chat with Tõnu Kaljuste about Estonian choral traditions, Veljo Tormis and what life has been like for the choir during the pandemic. There will be similar chats with all of our guest artists before their concerts as well. The Estonian Philhar monic Chamber Choir concert is sponsored by the Northern Birch Credit Union, for which we are most grateful! For full details about the 2021 Elora Festival Online, please visit our website at www.elorafestival.ca, where you may also purchase tickets! All concerts will be available to view from the date of their premiere, as many times as you wish from anywhere you have access to the internet until September 6. Ticket prices vary and we ask you to consider how many people will be watching the concerts together on one
device when choosing your ticket price. We hope that by Christmas, we will be able to perform for live audiences in concert halls and share the gift of music with all of you once again. We have been missing this experience over the last 18 months! Our artists and arts organizations have had a particularly difficult time during the pandemic, and we are most grateful for any support for either the Elora Festival or The Elora Singers. Donations may be made through CanadaHelps.org and are most greatly appreciated. For more information, contact me at laura.adlers@elorasingers.ca We hope you can join us at the 2021 Elora Festival Online from August 5 – 28. Enjoy the concerts!
cabin.
clues and prompts along the way like other games, so be patient and be prepared for lateral thinking. Visually, the isolated world (it’s just you on the island) reminds me a bit of Portal from 2007, or even a throwback like the 1993 hit game Myst.
The title HIIS, of course, refers to the sacred groves of Estonia. The link between the game’s tasks and the meaning behind such places is a little bit tenuous. Nevertheless, I imagine the title was chosen to describe the esotericism of this game’s landscape and to connect back to the magic of Estonian traditions. How will this game fit among others you’ve enjoyed playing in the past? Well, think ing of other comparable games, HIIS has some of the trial and error and brain-bending puzzles of the Nancy Drew game series by HeR Interactive. It has a self-directed approach to game play. You won’t be fighting bosses, and there aren’t lots of
LAURA ADLERS Executive Director The Elora Singers and Festival
For those interested in p laying, you can easily download HIIS from Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/ app/1453230/HIIS/ Your com puter will need to be running Windows 7 or higher (the game isn’t compatible with macOS). I wouldn’t call myself a big gamer by any means, but this game is a stimulus for nostalgia and makes me want to find out how to make something like it of my own.
HIIS gameplay still from Bottled Fantasy Games.
