Singers are benefitting from your generosity.

Success, thanks to your support.

Thank you, <<First Name>>, for your continuing support and here are some ways your donations are making a difference.

Area 1 Harmony, Inc.

Empowering All Women Through Singing, Education, And Friendship

Sing Into Spring Education Day

with Nathan Ogg
April 12 -13, 2024

Article Submitted by Yvonne Rafuse
Area 1 Director

Thanks to a recent scholarship awarded by Sing Canada Harmony, Area 1 has had the privilege of gathering at the Debert Hospitality Centre, in Debert Nova Scotia to work with a highly respected judge, vocal coach, and music director, Nathan Ogg.

During an evening workshop on April 12th, Nathan met with Area 1 music directors in a round-table discussion, offering a selection of tools for effective musical leaders. On April 13th, Nathan led an inspiring full-day session providing vocal and performance instruction and physiological information regarding practices for maintaining a healthy voice.

The cost of bringing in a coach of this calibre can be extremely high, due in part to the geographic location of our area. Travel can be complicated, time-consuming and expensive. We would certainly have struggled with those costs, if not for the generosity of Sing Canada Harmony. The scholarship allowed us to keep the registration fee at a reasonable rate for the 110 participants, many of whom may not have otherwise been able to attend.

With much gratitude, Area 1 Council extends a heartfelt thank you to Sing Canada Harmony for financial assistance in reaching our area goals. This scholarship has provided top-notch training and educational opportunities for the members of Area 1 and its musical leadership.

You make a difference, <<First Name>>!

When you make a donation to Sing Canada Harmony, you help us to provide educational opportunities for worthy recipients across Canada.

Donate now!

Here are some other ways your donations helped.

Windsor Classic Chorale hosts the Windsor Choral Festival

Each year, the Windsor Classic Chorale hosts the Windsor Choral Festival, providing opportunities for musical growth and development to choral singers of all ages. The event is completely free of charge for participants. Festival locations include University of Windsor School of Creative Arts facilities, the Capitol Theatre, and various churches in the Windsor-Essex Region. All singing groups across the Windsor-Essex region are invited to participate in this event.

Windsor Choral Festival 2024 occurred from April 10-13 with guest choral clinician Dr. Elaine Choi. Choi is the Director of Music at Timothy Eaton Memorial Church, Artistic Director at Babεl, Co-chair of PODIUM Choral Canada Conference 2022, and the interim conductor of Pax Christi Chorale. In December 2023, she won the Ontario Arts Council Leslie Bell Prize for Choral Conducting. She was previously a conductor of the University of Toronto Soprano/Alto chorus. Choi’s diverse experience in conducting, education, bridging cultures through choral music, and working with ensembles internationally (Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Macau) helped enrich the knowledge and technique of Windsor-based choristers who participated in the 2024 Festival.

Festival events included free choral clinics for Windsor-based choirs, a Conductors’ Circle for choral conductors and choir leaders, a concert showcase of all choirs, culminating in a massed choral performance of Allister MacGillivray’s “Here’s to Song,” and a post-concert reception at the Capitol Theatre.

The Conductors’ Circle, which included 12 participants, included discussion and resources on recruitment, marketing, and communications; with a focus on building programs, driving choirs to explore and rehearse new repertoire, and work toward EDIA goals. Choral clinics provided 14 participating choirs of 11-41 singers each (youth, school, community, faith-based) with an individualized session with Choi to work on their own repertoire and vocal development. The live, in-person showcase gave choirs a chance to perform a massed choral piece in community with others. 253 singers participated in this showcase at the Capitol Theatre. We also amassed 620 audience members at the Windsor Choral Festival showcase in the Pentastar Theatre and over 100 participants and audience members at the post-concert reception in the Joy Theatre.

Sing Canada Harmony funds were allocated to support the logistical and administrative aspects of Festival activities, fostering engagement among community choirs and choral singers in the Windsor-Essex area. Specifically, these funds were used to engage Dr. Choi in choral clinics with 14 diverse vocal ensembles, as well as to coordinate a riser relocation aimed at accommodating additional choir members for participation in the culminating massed choral performance.
by Madeline Doornaert, Windsor Choral Festival Administrator

The Dr. Paul E. Tamblyn Music Educator Award

The Dr. Paul E. Tamblyn Music Educator Award is a perpetual endowment within the Sing Canada Harmony Scholarship Fund seeded by the bequest of Ontario barbershopper, the late Dr Paul E. Tamblyn. Tamblyn’s lifetime passion for excellence in training for choral and barbershop leaders and directors lives on through his gift. The fund continues to grow as family and friends make donations to the endowment in his name.

The Dr Paul E. Tamblyn Music Educator Award honours a choral director who has made a significant impact on the development, promotion and improvement of choral directing and performance in Canada.

Nominations for the 2024 award are being received. Please, use this link to access the form.

Thank you for supporting
Sing Canada Harmony Scholarship Fund. Consider a monthly donation today, <<First Name>>!

Harmony University

I’m so grateful to have received a 2023 Director’s First scholarship for tuition from Sing Canada Harmony. I attended Harmony University’s Director’s College in New Orleans, LA last July, thanks to this scholarship.

I so appreciate the work that Sing Canada Harmony does. The arts do so much to enhance our lives and with this scholarship I received extensive training that I brought back into my work as Director of Island A Cappella and elsewhere in the PEI arts sector.

It’s been an honour to lead Island A Cappella, and I’ve brought extensive experience and training from my undergraduate studies and a career working in musical theatre and the performing arts. Attending Harmony University’s Director’s College provided me with useful additional training in conducting and directing specific to the barbershop genre, and helped me to continue to push myself to learn and grow PEI’s women’s a cappella barbershop chorus. It was an excellent opportunity for me to network with and learn from and with my peers from across the continent.

Thank you again for this incredible opportunity.

All the best,
Jamie Feinberg

Nickel City Sound

On behalf of Nickel City Sound, I want to thank Sing Canada Harmony for the scholarship we used for coaching with Jordan Travis, January 26 – 28, 2024. We all agreed that the weekend was very beneficial and we had a lot of fun too!

We worked on embouchure and smiling. This helped us with matching our sound, increasing resonance and reducing tension, thus making things easier overall. We also had fast-tracked learning our contest songs and Jordan helped us fine-tune them, with particular attention to tempo, pitch and vibrancy. He also suggested riser placement and emphasized the importance of each individual singer’s responsibility for knowing their parts.

We also had some “chorus culture coaching” and team-building exercises from Katy Rose. We welcomed both her and Jordan with t-shirts from Positive Inception, a local shop that promotes well-being in the face of diversity.

The highlight of the weekend was Jordan’s birthday. We had a delicious cake for him and of course, he had to wear the birthday hat while we regaled him with NCS’s version of Happy Birthday. It’s funny how he was only available to coach us on his birthday weekend last year too! Is there a pattern here?

It was a great weekend and we thank you so much for this opportunity.
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In Harmony,
Carolyn Cattapan Grant Coordinator Nickel City Sound