About Allegra
As one of the only all female orchestras in the world, the Allegra Chamber Orchestra was created with the intent of serving our community through music, while providing a safe space for female and minority artists to create, collaborate, experiment, and have their work accepted, championed, and presented on the main stage. The orchestra and its unique output and mandate has been featured on CBC Radio, Radio ICI, The Walrus, The Strad magazine, The Violin Channel, The Hub, public radio stations across Germany and France, amongst other international media. The orchestra regularly commissions, mentors, and premiers works by Canadian, female and minority composers, and assisted in the founding of a music therapy program for women living on the street on Vancouver's downtown Eastside.
In a practical way, Allegra gives back to their communities through sponsoring social initiatives, as a portion of each ticket sold goes to a charitable partner in our community. Past initiatives include the founding of a music therapy program at a women’s shelter, mental health initiatives in the wake of Covid 19, environmental action, and immigrant support centres. In addition, Allegra champions the work of minority artists and composers, commissioning and premiering dozens of new works since the orchestra's formation in 2016, stemming from the belief that the stage should be a reflection of the ethnic make up of society.
Janna Sailor, Artistic Director
Hailed by critics as "charismatic, crisp, precise, and elegant”, Janna Sailor has firmly established herself as a conductor, violinist, and groundbreaking visionary on the Canadian music scene.
Recently listed on the Women in Music Canada’s “Honour Roll - 10 Female Artists to Watch” in March of 2023, Janna combines diverse experiences on the international stage with a deep sense of community, equality, and social justice, Janna’s creative output is firmly rooted in the conviction that classical music should be inclusive and accessible to all. This conviction has led Janna to work on a number of arts based social initiatives, including instructing disadvantaged youth on Vancouver’s downtown Eastside, fundraising and outreach activities for immigrants, establishing music therapy programs, and the founding of the Allegra Chamber Orchestra, an all female professional ensemble with a social action mandate to champion the works of female minority artists and to enact change through music. The orchestra and its unique output and mandate has been featured on CBC Radio, Radio ICI, The Walrus, The Strad magazine, The Violin Channel, The Hub, public radio stations across Germany and France, amongst other international media. The orchestra regularly commissions, mentors, and premiers works by Canadian, female and minority composers, and assisted in the founding of a music therapy program for women living on the street on Vancouver's downtown Eastside. Active as a concert producer, Janna’s work can be seen on stages across Canada, and heard on the airwaves as a producer for CBC Calgary.
Composer Incubator
In addition to performing, Allegra has taken up an active role in mentoring minority composers through the Canada-wide Composer Incubator Project, which pairs minority composers with established ones over a six month period in which they create a piece for Allegra, and culminates in the orchestra workshopping, recording, and performing the newly composed work. In addition, the emerging composers have the opportunity to engage in professional development workshops with industry professionals to empower them with the tools and connections to take the next steps in their career development. In addition, Allegra actively commissions minority composers to write original compositions for the ensemble.Our inaugural Composer Incubator Program for Female and Minority Composers took place between January-June 2021. This program saw six emerging Canadian female identifying composers from around Canada paired with established diverse composers for a six month period of one on one mentorship to compose a piece specifically for the Allegra Chamber Orchestra principles. During this time, Allegra also presented monthly online professional development workshops for the composers and music community. The program concluded with orchestra workshops and live stream performances of the mentee composers works. Mentor composers for the 2021 session included: Jocelyn Morlock, Alice Ping Yea Ho, Rodney Sharman, Jennifer Butler, Farshid Samandari, and Dorothy Chang. Composer Incubator 2.0 will launch in the Spring of 2023.
Allegra’s Current Programming Initiatives
festivELLE
Our bi-annual festival celebrates female composers and artists! The 2023 edition of FestivELLE will focus on mental health. The objective of this edition of the festival is to de-stigmatize mental health issues, encourage dialogue, and highlight the complexity of the human experience. Check out videos and premiers from festivELLE 2021 under Watch/Listen!
Re-Education and Reconciliation
This spring our core musicians will take part in our six month Re-Education and Re-conciliation diversity and inclusion training that Allegra is producing with the support of the Canada Council and Orchestras Canada. Allegra musicians will take part in training sessions lead by leaders from minority groups that will inform us as individuals, as well as our programming, direction, policy development, and community interactions.
Allegra SQ
Created with the intent to further the orchestra’s social action mandate, Allegra SQ facilitates more accessible community outreach as a satellite version of the larger ensemble, and has participated in Banff Centre residencies and community service concerts as part of their ongoing evolution as an ensemble. Through the shared ideals of acceptance, collaboration, and service, Allegra SQ has become a close knit group of musicians, striving not only for deeper meaning, connection and creative expression, but also artistic excellence and the conviction that classical music should be inclusive and accessible to all.The Allegra String Quartet is composed of Allegra core members (Erin James and Alicia Venables, violins, Janna Sailor, viola, and Kathleen de Caen, cello) Created with the intent to further the orchestra’s social action mandate, the string quartet facilitates more accessible community outreach as a satellite version of the larger ensemble, and has participated in Banff Centre residencies as part of their ongoing development and evolution as an ensemble. Additional chapters of Allegra:As the mission of Allegra grows in scale, it has garnered interest in communities beyond our home of Vancouver, and as such, a Calgary chapter of the organization was founded in 2023, with a third Toronto chapter in process. As we grow from within, we look forward to supporting the growth and unique contributions that these Allegra franchises will bring to the musical community.
Indigidivas
The Indigidivas bring together three classically trained Indigenous female opera singers to breathe life into the incomparable compositions of First Nations and Métis composers from across Turtle Island. Born of the desire to unite their passion for Indigenous language resurgence, contemporary works and resilience through representation, opera singers Melody Courage, Rebecca Cuddy and Michelle Lafferty unite with the all female orchestra, Allegra, and combine their unique artistry in harmony for an unforgettable journey through song. This experience will highlight Indigenous composers and librettists such as Ian Cusson, Yvette Nolan, Michelle Lafferty, Beverly McKiver, Jessica McMann and many more, alongside composers of the traditional operatic canon, such as Mozart, Delibes, Offenbach, Rossini - they are Divas after all! Prioritizing accessibility, the Indigidivas plan to bring their unique concert experience across Canada to concert stages and Indigenous communities. They actively seek collaboration from Indigenous artists and community members to enhance and customize the experience to each territory they are welcomed to. The Indigidivas are eager to come together to present an ever growing repertoire of new works by Indigenous storytellers.
Past Programming and Diversity mandate
Our past programming has featured works and commissions from BIPOC composers (Alice Ping Yee Ho, Rita Ueda, Bic Huang, Saina Khaledi) and we have collaborated with numerous artists from diverse communities in artist led projects (Cris Derksen: Orchestra Powwow, Mohammed Assani: Indian Summer Festival presentation of "Songs for Scheherezade", our annual Women's Day concerts prior to Covid featured artists from the Hispanic, South American, Acadian, Iranian, Vietnamese, indigenous, Chinese, Japanese, and Black communities of Vancouver in presentations that were made accessible to the pubic by donation and took place in venues on Vancouver's downtown east side. In the past, Allegra has championed the WISH Drop In Centre's Supportive Employment program, which grants women who have been living on the streets practical job experience in order to transition back into the work force. Allegra engaged women from this program to assist with greeting patrons, stuffing programs, and other miscellaneous concert tasks. We plan to re-engage with this program with the return to normal programming post Covid. All of Allegra produced events are made accessible with either admission by donation or a sliding scale, and free tickets are made available to our charitable partners to distribute to their clientele. In addition, during Covid our live stream performances and professional development workshops were made available online free of charge and are still online for access.