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AVHC: Come Sing With Us!

“Hope Lingers Here” - Singing Safely with Annapolis Valley Honour Choir!

Choir vows to sing through the pandemic, launches 2020-21 season with optimism.

When Covid struck last March, the AVHC quickly pivoted to an online program. All through the spring, singers met regularly to continue sharing their love of choral music with each other and with the community. Their spring “virtual concert” has reached over 11,000 people.

The theme of this season, “Hope Lingers Here” is a line taken from a song by Lissa Schneckenburger. With no singing in the schools, the AVHC aims to be a place where any young singers can gather to continue using their voices. In what will be an important year in all children's lives as they navigate the societal effects of Covid-19, the AVHC is fostering a feeling of hope, and of resilience with a season of joyful learning, inspiration and connection where young people will continue to build self-confidence, self-expression and grow in their artistry.

This enriching and innovative program makes the most of new opportunities to focus on individual development for the children and to broaden their horizons by exploring other genres of music and art forms through exciting workshops with local and internationally renowned guest artists, and choirs across the country.

Singers will engage in weekly online rehearsals for singing and a variety of activities, as well the older choirs will receive small group vocal coaching with voice teachers Paula Rockwell and Michael Donavan. They will have customized music theory/sight singing instruction and new online programs that allow them to receive individual attention and progress at their own pace. Modular workshops for the fall term will be offered by musical experts in their field - Laura Caswell (Music Theatre), Amelia McMahon (Vocal Jazz), Ken Shorely (World Rhythms), and Holly Carr (Visual Arts).

In addition, the Senior Choir will be participating in the Bridge Choral Collective - a series of cross-Canada workshops with a focus of music and social justice, led by international stars The University of Pretoria Choir (South Africa), Moira Smiley (US folk artist) and Sherryl Sewepagaham (Canadian Indigenous Cree Artist).

For the past five months, Artistic Director Heather Fraser, as part of her Advocacy work for Choral Canada, has closely been following the science and studies, and researching what is possible and what is safe with regard to group singing and the spread of COVID 19. As many choirs across the country, and internationally, begin to open their doors once again, AVHC hopes to be able to add in-person rehearsals/activities to enhance this virtual program later this fall - following all current recommendations and best practices to ensure the safety of all singers.

With no singing in the schools at this time, any singers from Grades 3-12 from anywhere (even outside the valley!) who are looking to sing and learn in a supportive community are welcome! Entry will be open until the end of September. Visit www.avhc.ca to find out more or contact the choir at coordinator@avhc.ca.

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2020 Laura Hawley Micro-Grant for Canadian Choirs

Is your choir looking to connect with a Canadian composer in some way this season? Apply for a micro-grant to make it happen!

The 2020 Laura Hawley Micro-grants for Canadian Choirs promote building relationships with Canadian choral composers, conductors, educators, and publishers through workshops, commissions, and other initiatives that focus on Canadian choral music.

Funding from these grants can be used in one or more of the following ways:

  1. To purchase a piece of music by a Canadian composer for your choir’s library
  2. To hire a Canadian composer or conductor for a virtual session with your choir
  3. To assist with commissioning a Canadian composer

Applications are now open; the deadline to apply is September 15.

Click here to apply!

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Choral Canada: National Webinar with Dr. Juliette O’Keeffe

CHORAL CANADA NATIONAL WEBINAR

Risks and Precautions for Choirs 

with Dr. Juliette O’Keeffe from National Collaborating Centre for Environmental Health

Dr. O’Keeffe and the NCCEH team have surveyed current available research and made an evidence review, along with recommendations for singers and choirs, in this recently released document: https://ncceh.ca/documents/evidence-review/covid-19-risks-and-precautions-choirs?fbclid=IwAR3LucUbbi1JX1uTUfAaDDrvZ68r1FbXySbEs-pz7xqQhmeacx3u5fs4Xuk

Wednesday, August 19th, 2020

4pm Pacific Time; 5pm Mountain; 7pm Eastern; 8pm Atlantic

Hear the latest on Choral Canada’s advocacy work, with an opportunity for webinar participants to play a part in University of Alberta’s critical research on Choral Singing and COVID-19 Transmission. Presenter Dr. Juliette O’Keeffe will provide insights on the NCCEH review of world-wide research and other emerging data on choral singing and the transmission of COVID-19, and how these findings pertain to choirs in Canada. Dr. O’Keeffe will answer your questions, and offer a Canadian perspective. Participants will have the optional opportunity to have open discussion time with colleagues at the end of the webinar.

Submit your questions for Dr. O’Keeffe when you REGISTER, before August 15.
Space is limited, so register today!

This presentation will be presented in English, but notes, slides and research review documents will be available in French.
__________________________

National Collaborating Centre for Environmental Health’s vision is to be the indispensable online resource for environmental health practitioners and policy-makers across Canada. NCCEH focuses on health risks associated with the physical environment and identifies evidence-based interventions to mitigate those risks. Learn more here.

Juliette O’Keeffe, MSc, PhD joined the NCCEH team in 2018 bringing with her previous experience delivering research for industry and government in the areas of rural drinking water, wastewater treatment, waste management and resource efficiency at the Urban Water Technology Centre in Dundee, Scotland. Prior to this she worked with Dundee’s Public Analyst and the Scottish EPA. She holds a BSc Honours degree in Environmental Biology (SFU), an MSc in Energy and Environmental Management and a PhD in Environmental Science (University of Abertay).

Choral Canada exists to celebrate and champion choral music for all Canadians. Learn more at choralcanada.org
This event is FREE of charge. Please register below and you will receive the Zoom link the day before the webinar.
Register Here
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Quarantunes #6: A Biweekly Choral Playlist

Welcome to the sixth installment of QuaranTunes, the NSCF’s biweekly playlist of choral music. This week’s playlist is a throwback to the inaugural concert of our Nova Scotia Youth Choir program- then the Rotary Youth Choir- in 1991, selected by guest conductor, Iwan Edwards.

Have any song suggestions?  Suggest a song for a future playlist by completing this form,  QuaranTunes: Song Suggestion Form.  As this is a curated playlist, your suggestion may not appear in the subsequent E-notes; though we will try our best to make sure that all suggestions are used at some point. We look forward to hearing what choral music you have been listening to during this time!

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Choral Canada: 2020 Annual General Meeting

Dear members of Choral Canada,

This is a reminder that Choral Canada will be holding its Annual General Meeting on Thursday, August 20, 2020, at 12:00 PM EST. The meeting will be held by Zoom. The purpose of this meeting is for the Board to report to, and receive direction from, the membership.  All members in good standing may attend.

As announced in a previous email, the Choral Canada Nominating Committee submitted to the Choral Canada Board of Directors a list of voting members who are willing to stand for election. The Board of Directors has approved this slate of nominees.

List of Nominees for the 2020-21 Choral Canada Board of Directors

For Election
Morna Edmundson- President-Elect
Heather Fraser – Director
Elroy Friesen – Director
Irma Mackenzie – Director
Anne Longmore – Director
Marie-Élène Lamoureux – Provincial Choral Organization Representative

For Re-Election
Emma Walker – Treasurer

By Appointment of the Board
Kellie Walsh – Past-President

Continuing Board Members
Laurier Fagnan – Incoming President
Tim Callahan-Cross – Provincial Choral Organization Representative
Willi Zwozdesky – Provincial Choral Organization Representative
Amy Pun – Secretary

Voting
Class A Members are entitled to vote at the Annual General Meeting. Class A Members are Individual and Component members.  The Individual membership category includes Individual, Student, Life and Honorary members.  The Component membership category includes one designated representative from each of the eight provincial choral organizations.

Since the meeting is held by Zoom, the Chair of the meeting will determine the voting procedure. Please refer to the Voting Ballot for information. You are also welcome to vote by proxy. You must complete the AGM Proxy Form by hand, scan and send by email to info@choralcanada.org by latest 5:00pm EDT on August 18, 2020.

AGM Materials
Materials will be circulated in both English and French; however, the meeting will proceed in English.  This email includes the meeting agenda, proxy form, ballot form. The financial statements are available to members upon request.

As there is limited opportunity for extended discussion at this meeting, agenda items include the minimum items of business required.

Please feel free to contact us at info@choralcanada.org with questions or for more information.

 

 

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Let’s Sing Safely – AN OPEN LETTER FROM CHORAL CANADA

Click here to read and download the official PDF version of this letter.

Choral Canada is the national arts service organization for the Canadian choral community and professional choral arts sector.

10% of the Canadian population sings in a choir in almost 28,000 choirs of all kinds according to the 2017 national choral census.That is approximately 3.5 million choristers.1 Choral singing truly is Canada’s national pastime!

As stewards of the choral artform, our #1 priority is the safety and well-being of choristers and the choral industry/sector.

We are seeking constructive avenues of communication among the Canadian Choral community, health officials and policy makers so that we can provide unified guidelines for the choral community. We feel strongly that a thoughtful, informed and collaborative approach is the best way forward.

We are looking to work with health officials and policy makers to find modifications and practical guidelines for safe singing, guidelines that are rooted in scientific research. We seek to create sensible safety guidelines that align with other sectors, such as adult rec hockey, gyms, dance studios, children’s soccer camps, etc. In fact, some provinces have already made recommendations for safe singing.

We appreciate the recent intention of the media to highlight how choirs are innovating and trying to survive during this time, but sensationalist headlines do even more damage to this already devastated arts sector including the professionals and associated industries who rely heavily on the choral arts for income. There is a lot at stake here. We cannot overstate the financial, emotional, cultural and physical damage of negative news articles and comments to the entire choral sector. These recent negative headlines have been pointed directly at the choral sector based on little more than anecdotal evidence.

Definitive scientific studies about COVID-19 transmission in relation to singing versus other forms of activities such as loud talking or cheering and other aerobic activity, have yet to be published. The Government of Alberta recognized the lack of credible, scientific evidence surrounding this subject in its Covid-19 Scientific Advisory Group Rapid Evidence Report, stating:

There is a gap in the scientific knowledge regarding the aerosolization of COVID-19 in particular for such activities [singing]. The evidence that COVID-19 is transmitted through singing is largely limited to media reports, and it is uncertain whether the transmission that occurred in these settings was related to aerosolization through singing, or through droplet or contact transmission… The committee agreed it is unclear whether the risk of transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus via singing may be caused by aerosolizing of respiratory particles, or large droplets being expelled, or a combination, or social behaviors associated with close groups (close contact, handshaking, hugging etc.)2

This report was written by a very balanced group of researchers, including a published Infectious Disease physician specializing in the airborne transmission of viruses.

We are presently following studies that are trying to answer questions scientifically. Taking place in Fluid Dynamics labs and Faculties of Medicine at universities in Germany, the United States and Canada among others, this much-needed research will help to inform decision makers on what actually happens with droplets and aerosols when people sing. Preliminary, yet unpublished studies coming out of Europe that are dealing specifically with the behaviour of droplets and aerosols during the act of singing are showing that singing does not have as adverse an effect as is being reported.3 We await more definitive evidence from these studies.

We encourage decision making and policy implementation rooted in science, as opposed to unproven, anecdotal or comparative scenarios. We will continue to advocate for clear scientific communication from our leaders and insist that policy be created with integrity from the best available science.

Because there are nearly 28,000 choirs throughout Canada, representing a diversity as vast as this land, a “one size fits all” approach may not be practical. We are eager to work with policy makers to find innovative solutions for safe singing for a variety of choral groups in a variety of scenarios.

Choral Canada

1 January 2017 survey and analysis by Hill Strategies Research for Choral Canada
2  Alberta Health Services, Covid-19 Scientific Advisory Group Rapid Evidence Report, May 22, 2020, p.2
3  Christian Kähler, et al. https://www.unibw.de/lrt7-en/making-music-in-times-of-pandemic.

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NSCF: Guidelines For Choral Singing In Nova Scotia & Other Resources for Choral Organizations

The Nova Scotia Choral Federation (NSCF) has developed guidelines for choral singing in Nova Scotia; these guidelines have been approved by the Department of Communities, Culture and Heritage and Health Nova Scotia. In addition,  we have compiled other resources that may assist choral organizations  as they plan for their upcoming 2020/2021 seasons. These resources include guidelines created by the Government of Nova Scotia in consultation with the NSCF, a webinar on copyright as choirs consider creating virtual choir performances sponsored by American choral organizations,  and potential provincial funding opportunities.

NSCF:  GUIDELINES RELAUNCHING AND PLANNING FOR CHORAL SINGING IN NOVA SCOTIA

Government of Nova Scotia: COVID-19 Guidance for Vocalists and Instrumentalists & Other Resources
https://nscf.ca/government-of-nova-scotia-covid-19-guidance-for-vocalists-and-instrumentalists-other-resources/

Government of Nova Scotia: COVID-19 Small Business Reopening and Support Grant
https://novascotia.ca/coronavirus/small-business-reopening-support-grant/

National Association for Teachers of Singing: Copyright Guidance for Singing in a Virtual World
https://youtu.be/14Sr2EM0y3o

If you have any questions about the above resources, please contact the Nova Scotia Choral Federation Staff:

Executive Director: Tim Callahan-Cross
tim@nscf.ca

Program Coordinator: Ryan Henwood
ryan@nscf.ca

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Government of Nova Scotia: COVID-19 Guidance for Vocalists and Instrumentalists & Other Resources

On July 3rd, The Government of Nova Scotia shared new guidelines for musicians, providing guidance for organizations as they plan for their upcoming 2020/21 seasons.  The Nova Scotia Choral Federation has been meeting with Dr. Strang’s office to ensure the guidelines address the needs of our choral community. Full guidelines, as well as other COVID-19 related resources can be found here:

COVID-19: Factsheets and Posters 
https://novascotia.ca/coronavirus/resources/

COVID-19 Guidance for Vocalists and Instrumentalists
https://novascotia.ca/coronavirus/docs/COVID-19-Guidance-for-Vocalists-and-Instrumentalists.pdf

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Communities, Culture and Heritage COVID-19 Prevention Guide for event organizers, theatres and performance venues

Later this week our Executive Director, CCH (Communities, Culture and Heritage, and a couple other stake holders will be meeting with Dr. Strang’s office to discuss the guidelines and expand on them.  The guidelines below deal specifically with performance.  We would also like guidelines around rehearsals and we hope expand on what was released last week and is currently available – see below.  We will keep you informed and send out information as it becomes available

The following is an except from the document Communities, Culture and Heritage COVID-19 Prevention Guide for event organizers, theatres and performance venues:

Vocalists, singers, public speakers and instrumentalists Singing, use of wind instruments, speaking loudly and cheering may pose a higher risk of spreading the virus. Gatherings and events should limit the risk by implementing the following:
• Consider adapting activities which would normally require individuals to be in close proximity (i.e. music, dance and theatre) to maintain physical distancing • Individuals who are heavily exerting themselves while engaging in activities at the event (i.e. playing music, singing) should maintain a distance of 4 metres/12 feet from all others while performing, including vocalists and musicians • Consider having vocalists/musicians face away from others while singing or playing wind instruments • Increase physical distance between performers and the audience to 4 metres/12 feet
novascotia.ca/coronavirus
• The number of performers should be limited to soloists or small groups • Members of a performing group should not mingle with audience members, patrons, venue staff, or volunteers during or after performances

You can find the whole document here .

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Audition Virtually for the Annapolis Valley Honour Choir

The Annapolis Valley Honour Choir will be welcoming new choir members for the next school year. Any students in Grades 3-12 during the 2020-21 school year are encouraged to join the choir family.

Auditions for Junior Choir (Grades 3-6), Intermediate Choir (Grades 5-9) and Senior Choir (Grades 8-12) will be taking place online through June. Students can choose to use a live ZOOM audition, or send a pre-recorded video.

With three choirs and over 150 students from throughout the Annapolis Valley, the AVHC is recognized nationally as a leading program for music education. Their online “Virtual Spring Concert” was just a huge success – lifting spirits across the country! Singers are welcomed into a supportive and close knit family, given a safe space to be themselves, build their confidence and find their voices. Fun and engaging vocal instruction, musical literacy and leadership programs together offer a high quality music training and steers the choristers towards musical excellence as well as building thoughtful and community minded citizens.

Find out about the AVHC and their programs, and how to join at www.avhc.ca

SING AND LEARN WITH AVHC!