Tonight is the first rehearsal of Echo Women’s Choir’s Spring concert season: their 20th Anniversary concert. I’m thrilled to be a guest conductor, alongside the wonderful Alan Gasser, while the choir’s other wonderful conductor, Becca Whitla, pursues her Masters research in Cuba.
Echo is a community-based choir in Toronto. There are no auditions to particicpate, though you might have to have your name on a waitlist for a little while. If you’re interested in singing, there are probably hundreds of choirs in the city to choose from, many of which do not require auditions. Most choirs have fees to participate, but some, like Echo, offer sliding scale or subsidies.
And trust me, there are choirs of every variety around here. From the more traditional Western European material of the Annex Singers to the rock n’ roll performances of newchoir to the more casual pub-friendly choir!choir!choir! to the sound-scape approach of the Element Choir, there’s something for anyone longing to sing with others in a choral kind of setting.
Two great resources for finding choirs are the Canary Pages of Wholenote magazine and the directory of Choirs Ontario (but rather annoyingly, the list is sorted alphabetically, so if you’re looking specifically for Toronto, it takes a little while). Don’t rely on these 2 only, however. Lots of singing groups are cropping up that aren’t in either of these (like all the choirs I mentioned above).
If you find a choir to sing with, tell me where and what the experience is like. Or maybe I’ll see you tonight at the Echo rehearsal?
