Hello, Girl Choir families!  We’ve just returned from Festival 500 in St. John’s, Newfoundland, and I’m having a difficult time finding the words to describe our experience, but here goes…

We (24 Concert Choir girls, 4 outstanding choir moms, our Executive Director Mrs. Boucher, and I) spent 10 days singing, talking, attending workshops, and listening to some of the finest choirs in the world.

We worked with British composer and former Kings Singer Bob Chilcott, and Finnish conductor Kari Ala-Pöllänen; we attended workshops led by experts from Sweden, Russia, Canada, Finland, Indonesia, and South Africa; we attended four performances and heard fifteen choirs; and we sang with the world-renowned vocal ensemble Rajaton (check them out on YouTube!).

Along with the mass choir performance in the Mile One Centre, where over 800 singers performed, with 4000-plus audience members in attendance, we also sang two thirty-minute programs of our own, one of which was the World of Music Concert with Mississauga Children’s Choir and the Holy Heart of Mary Alumnae Choir.

Not only did we share a stage with these wonderful people, we discovered that when it comes to singing together, it doesn’t make a bit of difference where you’re from or how old (or young) you are – it’s the common understanding of this sometimes difficult, sometimes crazy, but always meaningful thing we call “choir”.

While I’m extremely proud of the girls’ premiere on the world stage, the thing I keep coming back to as I reflect on our time together is the bond we all share.  I miss our girls already!  How grateful – and lucky! – I am to have a group of intelligent, sensitive, creative, kind young women to share music – and my life – with.

I hope all of you enjoy the next few weeks of summer (I’d remind you to keep singing, but of course you will!), and I look forward to hearing you in our new space – our own home – next month!

The little throats that sing and rise
Up into the light with lovely ease
And a kind of magical, sweet surprise
To hear and know themselves for these

from Voices of the Air by Katherine Mansfield

Welcome to our Spring 2011 season!

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“Where words fail, music speaks.”
Hans Christian Andersen

I recently spent an afternoon reviewing our past programs, and I was struck by two things: one, the enormous growth that our choir has experienced in five short years; and two, the multitude of familiar names that have graced each of our programs since the first Winter Concert in 2005.

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It’s choir season again–happy “new year”!   I’d like to extend warm greetings to our returning members, and a hearty welcome to our new members.  I know I speak for Mrs. Fasulo as well as myself when I say that we are honored to have such an outstanding group of young musicians to work with this year.

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