Nova Scotia does it again!

Kentville musician wins Camerata composer’s competition

Edward Enman, a versatile and accomplished musician from Kentville, has won the 2010 Halifax Camerata Singers Young Composer’s Competition.

His winning composition, Then Shall I Leap Into Love, uses text from a poem by medieval mystic Mechthild de Magdeburg. The choral work will be premiered by the Halifax Camerata Singers at a concert May 28.

Enman began studying piano with Jane Murphy at age four. The son of Jennie and Steven Enman, he attended Northeast Kings Education Centre and in 2009 graduated from Acadia University with a Bachelor of Music degree.

Now 23, he is enrolled in the Master of Music program at the University of Ottawa where he studies piano performance with David Jalbert. Enman also accompanies the university’s Calixa Lavallée Chamber Choir.

Enman worked with Nova Scotia choirs as a singer and pianist for many years. A member of the Nova Scotia Youth Choir (2004–08), he was Nova Scotia’s tenor representative with the National Youth Choir of Canada in 2008 and 2010. While a student at Acadia he took part in the Halifax Camerata Singers’ Youth Mentoring program and worked with both the Annapolis Valley Honour Choir and Acadia University Chorus.

He also has been successful as a composer. His piece Good Times (Yellow) won the high school category in the Vancouver Chamber Choir 2005 Young Composers Competition, and in 2009 his piece Music was a finalist in competitions sponsored by VCC and the Canadian Chamber Choir. His choral works have been performed by Annapolis Valley Honour Choir, the choir of the Nova Scotia Choral Federation’s Youth Choir Camp, and Novus Chamber Choir. He is currently working collaboratively with the Capital Chamber Choir on a new piece, we want to smile, which will be premiered in Ottawa in April 2011.

Enman is the second Nova Scotian to win Camerata’s national Young Composers Competition. The jury comprised composer and 2011 Juno Award nominee Peter Togni, Halifax; Acadia University School of Music Director Jeff Hennessy, Wolfville; Camerata Artistic Director Jeff Joudrey, Truro; and Camerata Xara conductor Christina Murray, Halifax.

Halifax Camerata Singers is Atlantic Canada’s leading chamber choir. The choir frequently commissions choral music from Canadian and international composers, and encourages young singers through its Youth Mentoring Program, Nova Scotia Youth Choir bursaries, the Young Composer’s Competition, and Camerata Xara Young Women’s Choir.