News: Member Blog

Hello friends,
I serve on the National Youth Choir Committee for Choral Canada, as well a special offshoot committee for NYC Alumni. We have just formed this committee and have a great team of people from across the country and different eras of the choir working on some ideas to help service NYC alumni, keep us better connected, and help keep NYC alive and vibrant into the future.

One of the first projects we are undertaking is helping to update the NYC Alumni list…of over 800 alumni! We are trying to fill in the many, many blanks of missing/incorrect emails and contact info. We would very much appreciate if you could complete this 1 minute survey to update your contact information. Please feel free forward this information and encourage any NYC friends you have to do the same, and keep passing it on!

Hope you are well, and many thanks!
Sincerely,
Heather

WESNESDAY, MARCH 6, 2019

One of Canada’s national treasures in a very special concert on the farewell tour for the Vancouver Chamber Choir’s founding Artistic Director and Conductor, Jon Washburn, who retires this year. With a diverse repertoire and performing excellence, this twenty-voice choir has been performing across Canada and in every corner of the world for more than forty-five years. Boasting 32 recordings, the multi-award winning Vancouver Chamber Choir demonstrates the range of vocal expression from the majesty of choir and orchestra to the multi-hued palette of unaccompanied voices, to song to motet to oratorio and even opera. For this memorable Halifax concert, the Vancouver Chamber Choir will perform music including works by J.S. Bach, Claude Debussy, Benjamin Britten, Zoltán Kodály, and Imant Raminsh.

This concert opens with a special performance by Les Voix d’Acadie, a four-part francophone choir from Halifax.

Ticket Information and Purchase

Community Partners

It’s that time of year again! Please pass the hat and Toss-a-Tunee at your choir(s) rehearsal(s) or concerts in February and help support these amazing opportunities for our young singers! If all our member choirs took up the challenge you could really make a difference!

Do not miss this great opportunity to perform at the 2020 National Choral Conference & Festival PODIUM in Montréal! Visit www.podium2020.ca/perform

CALLING ALL MEN! Presented by Nova Voce in cooperation with the Nova Scotia Choral Federation, Voice Male is a workshop for changed male voices.  It is an opportunity to learn, have fun and sing with a larger male chorus!  The workshop will be followed by a concert featuring Nova Voce, guest choirs, and a massed choir sing. Join us for a day of music for men!

Fee:
Choir – $50
Member of a registered choir – $15
Come Solo (choir not registered) – $25
Dinner – $10

Location:
Faith Tabernacle, 6225 Summit Street, Halifax

Guest Conductor Mark Ramsay: Mark Ramsay is the artistic director of the Exultate Chamber Singers as well as the conductor of the University of Toronto Men’s Chorus, the U of T Scarborough Concert Choir, and the MNjcc Community Choir. In addition to his conducting work, he is an adjunct professor at the U of T Faculty of Music where he teaches graduate choral conducting lessons, an undergraduate course in choral music education, and works as an administrator for the choral area. He is frequently asked to appear as an adjudicator, clinician, and guest conductor, and is the editor of Choirs Ontario’s publication, Dynamic.He holds a Doctor of Musical Arts in choral conducting from U of T where he was a student of Dr. Hilary Apfelstadt. He was a recipient of an Elmer Iseler National Graduate Fellowship in Choral Conducting, as well as multiple U of T Fellowships and an Ontario Graduate Scholarship. In addition, he holds a Master of Music from U of T and a Bachelor of Music Education from the University of Prince Edward Island.Mark has also been a student conductor with the Elmer Iseler Singers, conducting fellow with the Canadian Chamber Choir, apprentice conductor with the Ontario Youth Choir, and tour manager for the National Youth Choir of Canada. Before moving to Toronto, Mark worked for ten years as a high school music teacher and curriculum specialist in Summerside, PEI where he was also the music director at Trinity United Church and conductor of the Summerside Community Choir.

Register your choir HERE if you choir would like to attend and perhaps perform in the closing concert.

Each individual singer of a choir and come solo singers must also register separately HERE

Congratulations to tenor Marcel d’Entremont, who has won McGill University’s 2018-2019 Wirth Vocal Prize.

The Prize recognizes a voice student who demonstrates exceptional talent and significant promise for an international career.

Marcel performed on November 25 with the other three finalists as part of the final round of competition. His musical collaborator was pianist and Talent Trust music scholarship recipient Dakota Scott-Digout, who also studies at McGill.

Marcel is a Talent Trust voice scholarship recipient who won the Talent Trust Portia White award in 2013. Originally from Merigomish, Nova Scotia, Marcel is in Montréal to complete a Graduate Diploma in Performance.

In addition to his Talent Trust scholarship and Portia White Award, Marcel won the Hal Leonard International Vocal Competition and placed first in the Atlantic Young Artist Competition.

Marcel has performed across Canada, singing the roles of Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor with Opera McGill, Il Podesta in La Finta Giardiniera with Opera Nova Scotia, and Rodolfo in La Boheme with Opera Saskatoon. He toured with Jeunesses Musicales du Canada as the title role in Gounod’s Romeo and Juliette as well as Alfredo in La Traviata.

Established in 2015 and awarded annually, the Wirth Vocal Prize brings the winner a $25,000 cash prize and a 14-karat Wirth Prize lapel pin.

Now in its 40th year, with some musicians participating since conception, Messiah from Scratch brings orchestral musicians and singers of all ages together to support Feed Nova Scotia and the Chebucto Symphony Orchestra. Messiah music scores are provided for a quick, one-hour rehearsal and then performed for the public, from scratch.

December 27th, 2018
Faith Tabernacle Church
2:00pm

Everyone is welcome to participate or to hear the performance. Messiah from Scratch will be held Thursday December 27 at Faith Tabernacle, 6225 Summit Street, Halifax. Rehearsal is at 2:00 p.m. and the performance at 3:15 p.m. Cost is $10 to participate or attend, with a $10 deposit for scores (refunded when returned). Donations and canned food for Feed Nova Scotia are welcome.