Our 2023-2024 Season kicks off on Tuesday, September 26 in the courtyard of Good Shepherd School.  All voices are welcome!  You don't need to read music or even be a great singer to be a member of the choir, just enthusiasm and a commitment to attend every rehearsal so we can make progress together.  We offer practice tracks and sectional rehearsals to help drill the notes in your memory.  There is a fee of $150 to offset the cost of music purchases, venue rental, an honorarium for our director and accompanist, and other minor operating expenses.  If finances are  an issue, let us know and we can work something out.  We don't want you to miss the opportunity to be a part of the choir.  Communal singing reduces stress, raises endorphins, taps into the creative side of your brain, and forges relationships with others.  Come Sing With Us!  

Please message Nicola through our Contact page so we know how many choir folders to prepare for our first rehearsal. 

We look forward to hearing from you!

We are hoping to get the choir going again after the Thanksgiving weekend.  Right now, our biggest obstacle is that we don't have an accompanist.  If you play the piano with reasonable proficiency or know someone who does, please let us know!  Choir practices have traditionally been held on Tuesday evenings from 7 to 9 pm in the courtyard of Good Shepherd School.  

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For many of us, Christmas is a time for singing. We've been so fortunate over the years to be able to share the joy of making music together at our regular Tuesday rehearsals. By this point in our regular season, we would have already led the carol singing in Riverfront Park and be putting the finishing touches on an upcoming Christmas concert for the community. We would be looking forward to our annual Christmas potluck at my house with more singing around the piano along with our tradition of singing for the seniors at Sutherland Place. 

So how, in a pandemic year with restrictions around social gatherings, do we keep music alive in our hearts and our bodies? After all, passive listening to music does not release the same endorphins as physically participating in the music-making process. One possibility is to meet with our families from a distance over a platform like Zoom and sing along (microphones muted) in synchronous time to a screen share of Christmas carols:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8sklmGqNNE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxrC06MPx84   
It's not quite the same, but then again, nothing is this year.

Drop your comments below or simply say hello and let us know how you are doing with the lead-up to Christmas. We will get through this and we WILL sing together again someday. Happy Holidays!

Today I was thinking about the times in our life when we sing.  We sing to celebrate a birthday or special occasion.  We sing to pass time in the car during a long drive.  In days past, workers would sing as they worked to help keep a steady beat during a repetitive task.  They would sing songs in the fields to boost each others' spirits or to share hidden messages.  We sing praise songs in church; we sing sad songs to help chase away the blues.  We sing lullabies to put babies to sleep and songs to make others dance.  We sing to communicate our innermost feelings.  We sing in private and we sing with others.  How wonderful to have a Community Choir where we can all sing for the love of singing!

Our choir sang three selections at the North Peace Performing Arts Festival on Tuesday, March 5.  We performed very well and were given a superior (over 90%) rating.