The Board of the GCC is holding the Annual General Meeting for the 2021-2022 season on Sunday, November 20, 2022 at 3:00 pm. The meeting will be held over Zoom.
Please join us.
Let our General Manager know if you plan to attend and the Zoom link and supporting materials will be sent to you. Email your intention to attend to info@guelphchamberchoir.ca and you’ll receive the information a few days prior to the meeting.
We look forward to seeing you there.
The Guelph Chamber Choir is hosting its annual Donor Appreciation evening later this month.
Supporters are invited to join us for an open rehearsal to get to know our choristers, meet our Emerging Artists, enjoy some refreshments, and even get a chance to sing along with the choir.
Invitations have been sent via email.
For more information, please contact us at info@guelphchamberchoir.ca
The project is an exciting international collaboration between Schirmer and GCC, featuring brand new publications from a well-established Canadian composer.
The result was six premiere recordings of Stephen Chatman’s music, filmed in June 2022, available on streaming services and YouTube.
Our favourite video was shot at sunset at the historic “Goldie Mill” site in Guelph, featuring personal stories from members of the choir, dedicating the song to women who have passed away, yet who have made a lasting impact our their lives.
We’re very proud of this collaboration and hope you enjoy these six recordings.
#6 White Moons
We would like to introduce our final two Emerging Artists for the 2022 – 2023 year: Finn Steinke and Silas Chinsen.
They join Katie Hatanaka and Emily Steers to complete our program, and we look forward to working with all four artists over the next few months.
Finn Steinke
Finn Steinke is our Emergin Youth Artist. He writes: “I have been singing since I was about 6 years old, where I started my vocal journey with the Guelph Youth Singers. Music has been in my life since I was very young, and it continues to shape who I am today. To be given the opportunity to share my musicality with others has been a gift and drives me to share my love of music, especially with the wonderful community in Guelph. My love for music has also pushed me to audition and take part in spreading the emotional language of music beyond my local community and I look forward to the future of musical outreach both here in Guelph and beyond.
I had the wonderful opportunity to join the Guelph Chamber Choir earlier in the 2019-2020 concert season and am thrilled to be joining them once more in song as an Emerging Youth Artist. I am very grateful for the positon I have been given and I hope I can support the Guelph Chamber Choir in the coming choral season and build new skills in the program! I look forward to making wonderful music together!”
Silas Chinsen
Silas Chinsen is a multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, composer, and arranger based in Guelph, Ontario. He holds a M.Mus and B.Mus in classical guitar and voice performance, and has work featured on Naxos Records. Silas creates music for choirs, solo guitar, indie/neo-soul projects, scores for audio-visual collaborations, and is the 2022 Guelph Artist in Residence.
Silas graduated with the highest distinction from the University of Ottawa on full scholarship, and was twice the recipient of the Ed Honeywell Scholarship for Classical Guitar. He studied guitar with Patrick Roux and voice with Dillon Parmer, in addition to conducting with David Curry and Laurence Ewashko. Silas won the 2019 Ottawa Guitar Society’s “Call for Scores” composition competition, and has received various grants for his work, including the Guelph Arts Council Research and Renewal Award, the City of Guelph Artist In Residence Grant, and a TACTICS grant for the composition of a full length musical theatre production.
Silas creates music to illicit a unique and visceral emotional experience, with interests in extended harmonic and uncommon sonic textures. From modern classical compositions and arrangements to producing ambient soundscapes using recordings of the sounds of nature, Silas treats each project as a new opportunity to push his own musical and creative boundaries to continue to develop his unique sound and skillset.
You are invited to join GCC conductor Charlene Pauls and Vancouver composer Stephen Chatman as they launch the World Premiere of six new choral pieces, recorded by the Guelph Chamber Choir in June 2022.
Enjoy the interactive format of our Zoom session as we interview and chat about the creation and recording of the music. We will be joined by guest musicians Sharlene Wallace and Belle Cao, as well as GCC pianist, Alison MacNeill. Our evening will close with the premiere of GCC’s video of “White Moons” shot at sunset in June at Guelph’s historic Goldie Mill.
We’re proud to welcome Katie Hatanaka and Emily Steers as our emerging artists for the 2022/23 Season!
Both women are extremely accomplished musicians and we look forward to working with them over the next few months.
Katie Hatanaka
Katie Hatanaka is a soprano, conductor and teacher from Markham, Ontario. She recently graduated from Western University with a Bachelor of Music degree in Voice Performance studying under the guidance of Bethany Horst and choral conducting with Kathleen Allan and Dr. Mark Ramsay.
Katie ignited her passion for vocal music at the age of 6 through joining the Toronto Children’s Chorus and has continued to sing in various choral and solo settings since. Through an opportunity in her final year at Western to participate as one of six student conductors at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s inaugural symposium, “Lift Every Voice” (2022), Katie cultivated a love for choral conducting and has since been pursuing opportunities to further her skills as a choral conductor.
She is excited to have the opportunity as an emerging artist to grow as a conductor, leader and musician through the program as well as enter a new choral community in Guelph.
Emily Steers
Emily Steers (she/her) is a soprano from Guelph, Ontario. She recently completed her MA in Community Music at Wilfrid Laurier University, studying community and identity formation in LGBTQ choirs.
She is an ardent fan and performer of new music, having recently premiered a solo chamber opera by Alexander Wright and participated in the Musique 3 Femmes new opera workshop. She is equally passionate about early music, co-founding the Rubrum Aurum early music trio in 2018 and touring the Maritime provinces in the spring of 2019. She has a diverse set of operatic performances under her belt, ranging from Mozart to Monteverdi to Janáček.
Recently, Emily has been honing her skills as a conductor, working with the Mount Allison Elliott Chorale, the Laurier Singers, and the chorus of Vera Causa Opera. She runs a thriving teaching studio, working in a diversity of styles from musical theatre to folk to classical. Emily is committed to making her work accessible and meaningful to anyone who wishes to make music!