MORE THAN 380 SINGERS TUNE-UP FOR CALGARY’S INAUGURAL IMMERSIVE FESTIVAL OF CHORAL MUSIC

Tickets for the Gala Concerts are ON SALE NOW!
Hundreds of choral singers from across Canada are preparing to attend Calgary’s first-ever immersive festival of choral music, Kantorei Choral Festival, from April 12th – 16th, 2023, in the prestigious Bella Concert Hall. 

Tickets to the Gala Concerts, featuring choirs singing individually and en masse, are selling quickly and can be purchased at tickets.mru.ca

The festival will be attended by multi-award-winning composers Jake Runestad and Joshua Rist who will be taking choral groups through their paces and helping them to hone their unique craft. 
Choirs will perform the world premieres of Runestad’s Ritual and Rist’s I Will Walk You Home. Calgary hip-hop artist KTheChosen will also perform on Joshua Rist's Witness.
Choral groups attending the festival represent a diverse range of voices and include: Les Petits Chanteurs de Laval, the largest choral organization in Quebec, Cantares Latin Choir, Ventus Women’s Choir, Calgary Men’s Chorus, Concino Choir, Youth Singers of Calgary, Western Canada High School, Spiritus Chamber Choir and Mount Royal Kantorei.
Mount Royal Kantorei is the flagship chorus of Mount Royal University’s Conservatory, helmed by musician, conductor, and educator John Morgan. He said:
“With a growing number of active choral groups and thousands of choral singers, Calgary has one of the most vibrant choral music communities in Canada. So, it is fitting that the city should have its own choral music festival. Choral music provides a medium through which we can communicate so much with so many, which is one of the many reasons it is one of the fastest growing music genres in the world. We are excited to bring Calgary’s choral energy to the stage and hope the audiences are ready to be blown away.” 
Kantorei Choral Festival is supported by Calgary Arts Development, Alberta Foundation for the Arts, Calgary Foundation, Mount Royal University Conservatory, and the Taylor Centre for Performing Arts. 

Find out more at www.kantoreichoralfestival.ca
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Applicants must:  

• Be a Canadian citizen or permanent resident. 
• Be studying music, specializing in Choral Music and Music Education. 
• Be enrolled in third year of study or beyond of an undergraduate degree or studying at the Graduate level. 
• Be attending University of Alberta, University of Calgary, University of Lethbridge, Ambrose University, MacEwan University, Concordia University of Edmonton or The King’s University. 
• Demonstrate a choral background, passion for teaching, music education for youth and leadership in choral conducting. 

 
There is one scholarship valued at $1,000, applied directly to tuition. The deadline to apply is May 15 at midnight. Eligible applicants are encouraged to access award information directly at: https://calgaryfoundation.org/student-awards/undergraduate-students/ 
 
To access the Student Awards Online Portal, select ‘Apply Now’ under the award listing on the awards webpage. If there are any questions, please contact [email protected].    

Applications are now open for the Pro Musica International Choral Festival! This week-long festival for high-school students and choruses from the U.S. and Canada will take place from July 16-22, 2023 at the Isabel Bader Centre for the Performing Arts at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario.

We are pleased to be working with Albany Pro Musica on this exciting choral program. Dr. Rollo Dilworth will serve as the guest composer- and conductor-in-residence, and the Festival includes workshops, masterclasses, rehearsals, and performances. Darrell Christie will be teaching alongside other renowned faculty members, including Julia Davids, Elizabeth Eschen, Leslie Fagan, and José Daniel Flores-Caraballo.

BONUS: Generous funding from Bader Philanthropies, Inc. provides FULL scholarships to all participating students, allowing the Pro Musica International Choral Festival to waive the $1,200 festival fee. This means that ALL students will receive FREE tuition, room and board, and transportation within the festival. Participants will be responsible only for their own transportation to and from the festival.

Learn all about the Festival here: promusicafestival.org
Applications via Acceptd here: https://app.getacceptd.com/promusicachoralfestival

WSCM 2023, IFCM's World Symposium on Choir Music, will take place in Istanbul on the 25-30 of April 2023. 
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The programme is packed with great events, along with a very diverse extended programme, consisting of over 80 choir concerts across historic performance spaces in the city. Invited choirs and presenters represent all five continents and over 30 countries. Masterclasses consist of conducting sessions with Ragnar Rasmussen, composition sessions with Ko Matsushita and Pop/Jazz Choir directing with Jim Daus Hjernoe. Applications for masterclasses will close on 15 December 2022.
Early Bird registration deadline is 1 January 2023, and standard registration closes 1 March 2023. 
Large groups of individual participants will also benefit from a discount: for groups of 10+, 20+ and 30+ we offer a 10%, 15% and 20% discount respectively. These individuals can consist of any group, choir, or choral organisation at any level, or come from any school or university. 
Please see the attached PDF file for masterclass application requirements, fees, general symposium details and also visit www.wscmistanbul2023.com to register!

The festival dates will be May 15-18, 2023. This festival takes place at various venues in the heart of historic, downtown Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan.
At this point in time, we are asking directors to check out our online schedule for available time and venue slots prior to registering.

Moose Jaw Band & Choral Festival (mjbandandchoral.org)

Les Petits Chanteurs de la Maîtrise du Cap-de-la-Madeleine choir from Trois-Rivières, Quebec will be touring western-Canadian cities from June 20th to July 3rd, 2023, and are looking for choirs that are interested in sharing both cultural and musical experiences with them. The choir consists of choristers between the ages of 9-14, under the direction of Mrs. Claire Bisaillon.

For more information, please contact the Choir Alberta office at [email protected] or at 780-488-7464.

ARC is pleased to announce that they have officially hired Torri Airhart as Artistic Director!
 
You may know Torri as the Principal Director of Up2Something and She’s Up2Something. Now, he is taking a new direction into shaping how ARC looks, feels, and exists for those already within the organization and those who join ARC’s future. Torri is excited to continue with ARC in a new role and continue work with an amazing group of singers and staff, as he splits his time between conducting and being their new AD.
 
“My ideal for ARC is where people can feel comfortable, happy, accepted, stimulated and refreshed, regardless of their job, religion or financial status. I want ARC to be a place where everyone is learning, and where musical literacy is celebrated. Rather than restricting ourselves to the stereotypical adult show choir, we can embrace a wide variety of music - recognizing that in doing so we are becoming better singers and musicians, and that we are pushing ourselves and the organization down the road in our ever evolving learning journey.”
 
Learn more about ARC by visiting their website: https://www.archoirs.org/
Follow ARC on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/archoirs 
 
ARC is a recreational choir and the only prerequisite is that you can match pitch. Their members range from 18-85+ years and come to rehearsal with a wide spectrum of musical training and ability, many having never sung in a choir before! ARC is a great place to stretch yourself and learn the joys of choral music and community.
 
Vision: Bringing the Calgary community to its feet by awakening, nurturing and sharing the magic of voices in harmony.

Mission: To provide creative and challenging opportunities for adults to enrich their lives and our community through musical expression and Performing Arts

The Calgary Foundation is pleased to announce the Douglas Parnham Memorial Scholarship for Choral Music, a scholarship opportunity which supports students studying music, specializing in Choral Music and Music Education.

There is one scholarship valued at $1,000. The deadline to apply is May 15 at midnight. 

Applicants must:

• Be a Canadian citizen or permanent resident.
• Be studying music, specializing in Choral Music and Music Education.
• Be enrolled in third year of study or beyond of an undergraduate degree or studying at the Graduate level.
• Be attending University of Alberta, University of Calgary, University of Lethbridge, Ambrose University, MacEwan University, Concordia University of Edmonton or The King’s University.
• Demonstrate a choral background, passion for teaching, music education for youth and leadership in choral conducting.

 
For more information and to apply for this scholarship, please visit the Calgary Foundation website here. To access the Student Awards Online Portal, select the scholarship from the list and click 'Apply Now'.

If there are any questions, please contact [email protected].   

The Messiah Project is an Against the Grain Theatre and Opera InReach collaborative effort giving two schools from across Canada a professional filming and recording experience and a pre-show feature for the premiere of the internationally acclaimed Messiah/Complex! 

Two Canadian choirs, whose members are aged 14-18, will perform the “Hallelujah Chorus”  from Handel’s Messiah in a video that will be featured in the pre-show event of Against the Grain’s Messiah/Complex. On top of singing the piece, choirs will create a filmed version of their performance. The final product will result in a video of both choirs’ performances combined, but each choir will receive a video of their group’s performance.

The chosen choirs will receive:

• A professional recording and filming opportunity
• A filmed “music video” of their Hallelujah Chorus performance 
• A meet-and-greet chat with an artist from Messiah/Complex
• A feature in the pre-show experience of Messiah/Complex including interviews and discussion with selected students and ensemble leaders
• A feature on both Opera InReach & Against the Grain’s websites

Secondary school choirs in Canada, or community choirs for singers aged 14-18, are eligible to apply.

HOW TO APPLY
​To apply, submit either a video or written response that allows us to get to know your choir and community. All official submissions must be submitted through our Google Form by your teacher/conductor. If you create a social video, generate some buzz for your choir by sharing it and tagging @operainreach and @atgtheatre using the hashtag #themessiahproject. 

For written responses, there will be a form field in the application as well as an option to upload an image or sample of your work.

Application Deadline: October 15th, 2021 at 11:59 p.m. 

For more information, visit the Opera InReach website: ​https://www.operainreach.com/the-messiah-project​