Light up your summer with singing!
REHEARSALS — August 14-17, 7:00 - 9:15pm | Crestwood Community League
WRAP UP CONCERT — August 18, 7:30pm | Big Top, Fort Edmonton Park
WRAP UP CONCERT — August 18, 7:30pm | Big Top, Fort Edmonton Park
SongBurst adult summer choir is a non-auditioned week-long summer choir for adults. Choir members learn a variety of music together in a casual and supportive setting. At the end of the week, the choir performs a wrap-up concert for family, friends, and fans, in collaboration with the SongBurst choir camp for kids.
Register Now!
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Register online here! Groups of 5 or more receive a 20% discount when they register together.
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Know others in your choir or community who might be interested in SongBurst? Download the printable group registration form below and share it! Completed forms can be sent to programs@choiralberta.ca, or delivered to our office at: 5708 72 Street NW, Edmonton.
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Other Activities
Tuesday & Wednesday - Private Vocal Coaching | Kim Denis
In these sessions, participants will be taken through a series of vocal exercises to identify tips and tricks to make singing easier and solve individual vocal challenges. Coaching's will be positive, encouraging, and practical with techniques that can be incorporated into your singing immediately.
In these sessions, participants will be taken through a series of vocal exercises to identify tips and tricks to make singing easier and solve individual vocal challenges. Coaching's will be positive, encouraging, and practical with techniques that can be incorporated into your singing immediately.
Wednesday - CircleSinging and Vocal Improvisation Workshop | Karen Porkka
CircleSinging and vocal improvisation is a way of connecting to each other and to music while using our voices in familiar and new ways. The participants will become the circle of voices providing space for us to listen deeply and interact with the music that is offered into the circle while exploring leaderless and guided spontaneous improvisation. This form of singing brings us back to music’s most essential concept of “play” and to our humanity's essential need of connection.
CircleSinging and vocal improvisation is a way of connecting to each other and to music while using our voices in familiar and new ways. The participants will become the circle of voices providing space for us to listen deeply and interact with the music that is offered into the circle while exploring leaderless and guided spontaneous improvisation. This form of singing brings us back to music’s most essential concept of “play” and to our humanity's essential need of connection.
Artistic Team
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Melanie Turgeon began studying conducting at the age of 16, under the tutelage of Wolodymyr Kolesnyk, former conductor of Kyiv State Opera and Ballet Theatre. She completed her postsecondary education at the University of Alberta (BA Hons Mus and M Mus), followed by the University of Illinois (DMA). Dr. Turgeon is Professor of Music and Director of Choral Activities at The King’s University in Edmonton, Alberta, and Adjunct Professor at Cape Breton University in Sydney, Nova Scotia. She has conducted many choirs and ensembles and has presented research at several academic institutions and conferences both in Canada and internationally. Melanie has also toured extensively with her choirs, including three successful European tours. From 2002-2018, she served as Music Director and Cantor at St. Josaphat Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral in Edmonton. She has published various musical resources for the Ukrainian Catholic Church, notably a hymnal with an accompanying five-CD set, Sing to Our God (2008), which has been distributed throughout the world. Other highlights in Dr. Turgeon’s research endeavors include the publication of a book entitled, Composing the Sacred in Soviet and Post-Soviet Russia (2008), three recordings with Heruvymy Ukrainian Female Quartet, and one with King’s Choirs. In 2010 she founded Kappella Kyrie, an award-winning chamber choir primarily devoted to Slavic sacred music. For many years she has been involved with the Ukrainian Art Song Project (UASP), presently serving as the co-director and a faculty member of the annual Summer Institute.
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Katherine Tilbury is an expressive pianist who is passionate about collaborative piano and youth education. Hailing from Lacombe, Alberta, Katherine began studying piano at age five. She completed her Bachelor of Music degree with a concentration in piano from the University of Alberta where she studied under Dr. Patricia Tao. Katherine is a versatile pianist and has studied contemporary, jazz and classical repertoire. She maintains an active private piano studio with over twenty-five students and is extremely passionate about music education. This dedication is shown not only through teaching studio lessons and masterclasses, but through her position at The King’s University where she works with instrumentalists both in studio classes, and as a recital partner. Through her work as a freelance soloist and collaborator, Katherine has enjoyed playing wonderful works of choral repertoire with choirs in Edmonton including Kapella Kyrie Slavic Chamber Choir, Accord Ensemble and the Archbishop Jordan Choirs under Jolaine Kerley. Her most recent projects include acting as Music Director for Archbishop Jordan High School’s senior production of Little Women and Repetiteur for Pop Goes the Opera's production of Suor Angelica in 2022. When she isn’t at the piano, you can find Katherine in her painting studio.
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Originally from southern Alberta, Karen Porkka has made Edmonton her home for the past 30+ years as a musician, vocalist, composer, improviser, and music educator. She is the creator and co-creator of several musical projects; releasing CD’s with world music group d’Cana, the avant garde jazz group The Parkers and her own original project. She works as a collaborator with dancers, visual artists and other musical projects including Namibian born artist and recent Juno winner Garth Prince.
Karen is the founder of the Vocal Improvisation Network of Edmonton (V.I.N.E.) and community choir the Soul Song Circle Singers, which is part of the Ubuntu Choirs Network, upholding the belief that it is our birthright to sing. She has studied with master improvisers Bobby Mcferrin and Rhiannon and has worked internationally as a vocal improviser presenting at conferences in Portugal, Hawaii and was a guest conductor in Oakland’s Sing For Your Life yearly CircleSinging event in 2019. She offers a monthly Circlesinging gathering in Edmonton and travels to share her passion for vocal improvisation and community singing in workshop and retreat settings. |
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Kimberley Denis is known for her energy and enthusiasm both on stage and off, and is sought after as a soloist, vocal coach, choral clinician, and adjudicator for voice and choir. Upon completion of both a Bachelor of Commerce and a Bachelor of Music degree at Mount Allison University, she returned to Alberta to complete Master degrees in both choral conducting and vocal performance. Vocal credits include starring in a year-long tour with Up With People, as well as productions of Jason Robert Brown's song cycle Songs for a New World, as Cathy in The Last Five Years, and as Kate in Kiss Me, Kate! She is also a singer with Edmonton’s professional choir, Pro Coro Canada and has toured extensively as a singer with the world percussion group, the Jamani Duo. In addition to her stage work, she has a flourishing voice studio at her own music school – the Purple Door Music Academy and is also the voice instructor at the King’s University in Edmonton. She has conducted a wide variety of ensembles across the country and presently directs Shumayela (a choir for treble and changing voices for singers between the ages of 11 and 16) with the Kokopelli Choir Association and the Lynne Singers (a non-auditioned adult community ensemble). In addition to her work as a singer, teacher, conductor and adjudicator, she arranges pieces for choirs.
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Location
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REHEARSALS
Rehearsals will be held at Crestwood Community League. 14325 96 Ave NW, Edmonton POST-REHEARSAL HANGOUTS Participants are invited to bring their lawn chairs and relax after rehearsal. Food and drinks will be available from local vendors! |
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CONCERT
Friday, August 18 the SongBurst Adult Summer Choir and Choir Camp for Kids join forces for a concert under the Big Top at Fort Edmonton Park! SongBurst participants can enjoy free access to the park during the day, and continue the fun under the sun performing in our outdoor concert! |