About the Performers

“a wonderful voice, bright, expressive and pure!”…
“her voice soared in the high register, filling the hall.”…
“enchantingly rendered plainchant…..hauntingly beautiful in its limpid simplicity”…

Elizabeth MacIsaac enjoys a reputation in Canada and abroad as a vocalist of great expressive range. Although primarily known as an early music specialist, she performs other repertoire to acclaim, and tours to premiere and promote contemporary works in Canada, Asia, and Europe. Ms. MacIsaac lived, taught and performed in Europe from 1990 to 1996, when she was choral director and music teacher at several International schools in Paris, including Marymount and l’Ecole Montessori Bilingue. Since relocating to Canada in Victoria, British Columbia, Elizabeth MacIsaac has continued her active career as a performer, founding many early music initiatives with great success.

In 1998, Ms. MacIsaac formed Ensemble Laude, the first medieval choir in Western Canada and co-founded, with lutenist Douglas Hensley, the duo Continuum Consort. Creating innovative musical projects each year, both groups frequently perform to raise funds for charitable organizations. Ms. MacIsaac is teacher and conductor on the faculty of the Victoria Conservatory of Music, and Brentwood College. With her dynamic personality, she is in great demand as workshop facilitator and adjudicator.

Pat Unruh

Reviewers have said:
“... a magical sound-world ...”
“ ... Unruh’s instrumental accompaniment created a movingly evocative backdrop.”
“ ... transported the audience ... simply mesmerizing”
“ ... vielle accompaniments are full of interest and variety”

Pat Unruh has performed in early music ensembles on viola da gamba and vielle in Canada, the USA, the UK, and France. For several years, she has given annual solo concerts for science conferences organized through the Université Libre de Bruxelles and the Foyer d’Humanisme in Peyresq, Alpes-en-Provence.

A founding member of Well-Tempered Baroque and ANIMA Medieval Music Duo, Ms. Unruh has also been, since 1998, Music Director of the Vancouver-based Historical Performance Ensemble, a period dance and theatre company. Ms. Unruh arranges and performs for the Victoria women’s medieval choir, Ensemble Laude. She has recorded two CDs with ANIMA and one with Ensemble Laude.

Ms. Unruh is a sessional instructor in Medieval Music History at the University of British Columbia, and is in frequent demand for illustrated talks and workshops throughout BC. She indulges a love of Renaissance pops in her ensemble, Light o’ Love. Pat Unruh has composed and performed for a variety of period plays, including twentieth-century settings of Shakespeare. She has been recorded a number of times on national Canadian radio.