We get thank you messages!

The Windsor-Essex Youth Choir

The Windsor-Essex Youth Choir was grateful for the support of Sing Canada Harmony to host conductor/composer, Dr Tracy Wong, in our rehearsal on Wednesday, March 4th, to workshop her composition Bersatu Senada and her arrangement of the Malaysian folksong Ikan kekek. During the workshop, Dr Wong provided important cultural context, gave guidance on the pronunciation of the Malay text, and taught the choreography that accompanies Ikan kekek.
 
Dr Tracy Wong hails from Malaysia and is a choral conductor, music educator, and composer. She holds a Doctor of Musical Arts (Choral Conducting) from the University of Toronto. She is also a proud recipient of the 2016 and 2017 Elmer Iseler National Graduate Fellowship in Choral Conducting. She is presently an Assistant Professor at McMaster University. Tracy has led choirs in Malaysia and Canada, including the Kuala Lumpur Children’s Choir, University of Toronto Women’s Chorus, Young Voices Toronto, and Mississauga Festival Youth Choir. Tracy’s choral works have been performed by choirs all over the world with publications through Cypress Music.

Sugartones

Last year’s grant enabled Sugartones to hold two “drive-in rehearsals”, $200 each, before the pandemic lockdown; one on September 24, and the other on October 5, 2020. Hearing blended harmony during those “drive-in rehearsals” was highly motivational and has vastly helped us stay together to share other singing moments at weekly Zoom rehearsals. The remaining grant money was used to enable group and individual voice instructions on Zoom by highly qualified voice teachers. Sugartones has been able to keep the majority of our members engaged, and also acquire some prospective and new members. We are highly motivated to “keep the harmony ringing” for our singers becoming weary from the long period of physical isolation and lack of ensemble singing.

Windsor Classic Chorale 

From 2018, but it is an example of what we are missing.
The 7th annual Windsor Choral Festival was held March 1-3, 2018 with great success. Windsor is a singing community, and each year the Windsor Choral Festival hosted by the Windsor Classic Chorale supports and promotes choral singing in the greater Windsor and Essex area by ensuring that amateur adult, youth, and child choristers have opportunities to grow as singers. This would not have been possible without the assistance of organizations like Sing Canada Harmony.

The Windsor Choral Festival has taken place annually since 2012. The Festival coordinates hands-on, educative workshops with expert clinicians free of charge, providing ongoing training for local adult, youth, and child singers. The objectives of the Windsor Choral Festival are as follows: 1) provide workshops for ongoing vocal training and education free of charge, 2) promote community building through singing, and 3) encourage the creation and performance of contemporary Canadian choral works; and honour Canadian choral music. These objectives promote the creation and performance of choral music in Windsor-Essex; and contribute to the vitality of our singing communities in a collaborative, intergenerational way.

This year’s Festival hosted Dr. Rachel Rensink-Hoff, Brock University, as the clinician. Over 300 participants (adults, youth, and children) were involved in festival workshops and massed choir concert, “United in Song”. The funds from Sing Canada Harmony were used to purchase music for the massed choir song, “We Are Stars” by Winnipeg composer, Kenley Kristofferson.

Participating choirs:
  Windsor Classic Chorale
  Sun Parlour Chorus
  Chatham-Kent High School Choir
  Windsor Symphony Orchestra Chorus
  University of Windsor Singers
  UWindsor Chamber Choir
  Windsor Community Choir
  County Classic Chorale
  Windsor-Essex Youth Choir – Brio
  Windsor-Essex Youth Choir – Chanteuses
  La Chorale du Tricentenaire