Cantando: A Silence Haunts Me

Cantando’s opening concert for their 2026-2027 season, and first-ever solo concert performance, will explore the echoes of great artists in the choral works of today. The deep wisdom of poets like Robert Frost, William Shakespeare, and Sara Teasdale will soar to life in the voices of Calgary’s newest ensemble for young adults.

The concert will also feature a central performance of “A Silence Haunts Me”, composer Jake Runestad’s choral reflection on Ludwig van Beethoven’s Heiligenstadt Testament. Beethoven’s letter, dated 1802 and addressed to Beethoven’s two brothers, detailed the composer’s pain and suffering at his increasing deafness, included confessions to thoughts of ending his own life, and expressed his desires to overcome his hearing loss and continue his creative legacy.

The letter was discovered having never been sent; 14 years after penning it, Beethoven was completely deaf. Runestad’s work invites audiences to empathize for a moment with the great composer as he agonizes over the impending loss of the asset he holds most dear.