A note from Laurie Evan Fraser (August 2003)

Greetings Everyone!  Hope you are all having a great summer and have been singing lots.

Our first choir practice will take place on Monday, September 8 at 7:30 p.m. at our new rehearsal home at the Salvation Army North Toronto Community Church, 7 Eglinton Avenue East. This is on the south side of Eglinton just east of Yonge and the subway. Access is through a side door in the laneway on the west side of the building... the door will be unlocked between about 7:15 and 7:45 and then must be relocked.... late comers can pound on the door at the top of the stairs just north of the side entrance ... so don't be late, eh :-)

Our first performance of the fall will be on Saturday, September 20 at the Church of the Annunciation, 157 Florence Avenue, 4 blocks south of Shepherd just west of Yonge. This is a Dinner/Fund-Raiser for the church, and we will be singing for about an hour starting around 8:30 p.m. Choristers who would like to have dinner are being offered a special rate of $10 each (regular tickets are $22.50). We will be reprising music from our Gershwin & Friends Concert, so please be sure to sing along with your tapes/CDs so you will be in good shape. We will only be able to spend a minimal amount of time on this music during our rehearsals on September 8 and 15, as there are only 13 rehearsals in total before our Holliday concert on December 12! I know I can count on all of you to be prepared.

Our Christmas programme is a mixture of some old favourites as well as some carols new to many of you. We’ll be singing in Spanish, German, Latin, French, Hebrew and English! We have been invited to present a Christmas service at the South Peel Unitarian Church on Sunday, December 7. This is the 6th year they have asked us back. It is a great way to kick off our holiday season.

2004 is our 10th anniversary year, and we already have some exciting plans to help us celebrate. We would like to involve as many of you as possible in the planning. May has agreed to head a committee; please let her know if you would like to participate.

Our spring concert will commemorate music that is a part of our history and celebrate new works such as the commissioned opus by Stephen Chatman. Steve has already started work on Voices of Earth, a choral work in 2-3 movements for SAB and piano with texts by Archibald Lampman including Snow, The Bird and the Hour, and Voices of Earth. We will have the opportunity to work directly with Steve, as he will be in Toronto the week before our performance to attend rehearsals and put the finishing touches on this work as he hears us sing it. What an exciting opportunity to be directly involved in the creative process! We are seeking funding from several sources, so this concert can be held at a larger venue, and we can sing with full orchestra. We have invited the children from Davisville Public School to join us in singing the Faure Requiem.

Hope you all have been having a great summer, and I look forward to seeing you on September 8!

Concert and Event Schedule (Fall 2003)

Concert and Event Schedule (Spring 2004)

Special Thanks to the Donors who make it all possible ...

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