Earth Teach Me: Music by Rupert Lang Now Available on iTunes

Earth Teach Me is the latest CD featuring Vancouver's Christ Church Cathedral Choir, performing compositions written by the Cathedral's Organist and Director of Music, Rupert Lang. The Vancouver Children's Choir and the Pretoria High School for Girls Choir (South Africa) also appear on the CD. All but one of the titles on the disc are sacred selections, ranging from canticles and masses to motets and anthems. The CD's accompanying booklet includes the texts of each work and offers insightful details into its background, including particulars about its dedication or commissioner. Released earlier this year, Earth Teach Me is now available on iTunes and Amazon.com, just in time for holiday gift giving!

Lang has composed over 200 works. His music has been heard and sung by royalty and rock stars, by sports heroes and world leaders. He has conducted and inspired countless choirs of all sizes and configurations, talented soloists and four generations of children. His compositions have been performed to the delight of audiences at venues all over the world: from the grandeur of Carnegie Hall in New York City to the dramatic beauty of St. Miguel de Allende in the mountainous region of Central Mexico, from the echoing cathedrals of Italy to a schoolroom filled with singing children in the teeming urban environment of Hong Kong. Several of Lang's works are published by Boosey & Hawkes of New York.

Vancouver's Christ Church Cathedral Choir is recognized as one of the finest of its kind in Canada, having placed first in the church choir category of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's Amateur Choral Competition four times (1998, 2000, 2002, and 2006.) In 2006 the choir also won a competition-wide award for the Best Performance of a Canadian Work. Changes to the competition's rules precluded the choir from entering in 2004 and 2008.

The choir, whose main function is to celebrate the Sunday Eucharist through hymns, psalms, motets and mass settings, has a remarkably large and varied repertoire. A unique aspect of the choir is that from time to time it presents major choral works of such composers as Bach, Byrd, Duruflˆ©, Kodaly, Palestrina, and Pˆ§rt in the context of Cathedral liturgies. The choir also sings the evening office of Compline every Sunday and is host and lead choir for worship events associated with the Diocese of New Westminster.

The choir also plays a major role in the larger choral community of Vancouver by joining with other choirs for such works as Mahler's Symphony of a Thousand, Paul Winter's Missa Gaia and Rachmaninov's All-Night Vigil op.37, presented in its entirety for the first time in Vancouver in conjunction with Chor Leoni Men's Choir and Elektra Women's Choir in 1999.

The Cathedral Choir has recently embraced social media: They have a Facebook Page and are on Twitter.com @CCCC_Vancouver.