This we know: Vancouver’s Chor Leoni has successfully hired one of Europe’s leading choral composers, Ēriks Ešenvalds, to write the central piece in its new concert program, The Dream We Carry.

The all-male choir has also won the right to use Leonard Cohen’s words, with Ešenvalds setting three of the CanCon icon’s poems in his Wandering Heart suite. And although Cohen has not otherwise contributed to the creative process, for everyone else the early going has apparently been a bit of a love-in.

We also know that this weekend’s concerts will also introduce newly commissioned works by Imant Raminsh, Jocelyn Morlock, and Rodney Sharman. But what Ešenvalds has done with Cohen’s “Twelve O’Clock Chant”, “I Lost My Way”, and “The Road Is Too Long” remains unclear, and the Latvian composer is working hard to keep it that way.

“I believe Canadian people know more—a lot more—than I do about Leonard Cohen,” he says with a laugh, in a Skype conversation from his home. “But I don’t choose to say what the whole cycle is about. In Latvia we have a saying that we don’t show our cards. So I won’t show you my cards. It’s a secret—but I hope you can experience exactly what the songs are about at the concert.”

Casual inspection of the texts—the first written in 1961, the second in 1984, and the third in 2002—suggests that Wandering Heart is a portrait of a life, progressing from a young man’s ecstatic physicality to an elder’s mix of resignation and wonder.

If that’s so, Ešenvalds isn’t about to let on. But he’s considerably more forthcoming on the topic of why a European choral superstar would take on a commission from a choir in far-off Vancouver.

“I like a challenge in my life, and [Chor Leoni artistic director] Erick Lichte’s commission was very ambitious,” the 38-year-old composer says. “He said that he wanted me to write for men’s choir and if I did, a lot of men’s choirs around the world would take this piece and perform it. Why he wanted to commission me I don’t know, but the result is quite a complex score. I would say there will be many, many men’s choirs who can do this score, but there will also be many amateur men’s choirs who will say, ‘Oh, there are too many voicings and also instruments involved,’ and it will be impossible for them to perform this piece.

“It was also a challenge for me to compose this piece because Leonard Cohen, he is a very special figure,” he continues. “His poetry has a very special voice, and he’s unique as a personality. So when I received these poems I found them very dimensional—which was very good, which is very inspiring for the composer.”

One challenge Ešenvalds won’t have to face is ensuring that his new piece is given a first-rate premiere. “Another reason I wanted to accept this commission is because, first of all, they made me feel sure that there would be no technical difficulties,” he says of Chor Leoni. “They have full range, from the lowest bass to the top tenors; they have wonderful soloists; there are many singers.…and to any sound they add depth, dimensional depth, through their breathing techniques. So that was the fundamental thing: that they are perfect, technically.”

That’s high praise—and, given Chor Leoni’s recent track record, undoubtedly well deserved.

Chor Leoni presents The Dream We Carry at St. Andrew’s–Wesley Church on Saturday (April 18) and West Vancouver United Church on Sunday (April 19).