Leonard Enns

Enns, Leonard

Leonard (Jacob) Enns. Choir conductor, composer, teacher, b Winnipeg 2 Feb 1948; B CH MUS (Canadian Mennonite Bible College) 1969, B MUS (Wilfrid Laurier) 1974, M MUS (Northwestern) 1977, PH D (Northwestern) 1982. He served 1969-72 as music director at the United Mennonite Educational Institute in Leamington, Ont, then returned to university to study choral conducting with Margaret Hillis. His PH D thesis was titled "The sacred choral music of Harry Somers: an analytical study." He became a member of the teaching faculty at Conrad Grebel College, University of Waterloo, in 1977 and has conducted the University Choir (1977-82) and the Conrad Grebel Chapel Choir (1977-). He was conductor 1987-8 of the Menno Singers, and founder and conductor (1998-) of the DaCapo Chamber Choir. Enns' Nocturne, from that choir's second CD, ShadowLand (2009), received a Juno award nomination in 2010 for classical composition of the year.

Enns has composed some 65 works, mostly for choir, some published by Waterloo, Monarda Publications, Schirmer, Boosey & Hawkes, Gordon V. Thompson/Warner Chappell, and Thomas House Publications. A 1983 work, Prayer for Peace, won the vocal/choral class of the 1985 Manitoba Mennonite Historical Society Composers' Competition, and Enns' Songs of Innocence (Waterloo 1979) was performed by the Elmer Iseler Singers on CBC radio in 1985 and in Vienna in 1987 at the International Choral Symposium. Three of Enns' compositions were premiered in 2005: Nocturne at the Guelph Spring Festival, Te Deum Brevis at the World Choral Symposium in Kyoto, and Sparrow at Newfoundland's Festival 500. Enns was named 2008 International Composer of the POLYPHONOS competition, sponsored by Seattle's The Esoterics, which commissioned his I Saw Eternity (2008). Also in 2008 his This Amazing Day was a finalist in the Vancouver Bach Choir competition New Works for Large Choir. Enns is an associate of the Canadian Music Centre and a member of the Canadian League of Composers.