Dear Amabile Alumni,
We are reaching out to all our Amabile alumni this winter to invite you to a grand celebration of our choirs’ 30th anniversary season.
The AYS began with John and Brenda in the fall of 1985, shortly thereafter came the JAS, and then in the fall of 1990, the first boys choir rehearsed for its first season with Bevan and Carol. So this year marks 30 years of singing for Amabile. And yes, we have some seasoned singers who have been with us for many of those years.
In this our 30th season, we have 300 singers in 8 choirs – 4 female and 4 male – and your legacy continues. When Bevan left the boys & men’s choirs, Ken Fleet joined our artistic team, and today we have 5 conductors working with the guys’ side. Ken is now conductor emeritus and Mark Payne returned to Amabile this year after a 15 year absence to take up a role of co-conductor. As you know, we lost John last spring, and Brenda carries on with Liska Jetchick assisting. Wendy and Jackie added the Da Capo training choir to the JAS roster…and we’re looking at even more additions in the future. Tours around the world, recordings, guest appearances — the new and continuing singers continue to strive for excellence.
We need you – your presence and/or your voice and photo – for our annual gala festival with all of our choirs, our alumni friends, our virtual choir, the Musicians of Orchestra London, guest soloists from our alumni ranks, and guest conductor Ivars Taurins at Centennial Hall on SUNDAY, MARCH 1st.
You have three tasks –
1. Submit your recording for the virtual choir project by February 15th. Here’s the link explaining how to do it: http://wp.me/p37Yde-xf
2. Join our rehearsal on Saturday, Feb 28 to sing the following:
Cantique de Jean Racine (Faure)
Jack was Every Inch a Sailor
Hush! Somebody’s Calling my Name
I Was Glad (Parry)
Blessing
…And then perform in our concert on Sunday at 3:00 pm with the current and alumni Amabile choirs.
3. Please share this note with the Amabile Alumni you’ve kept in touch with – we need a lot of singers to make our Virtual Choir amazing.
We look forward to having you join us that weekend. Once part of our organization, always a member of our family. Please RSVP TO dcanton@rogers.com
Sincerely
Carol Beynon, Brenda Zadorsky, Wendy Landon, Jackie Norman and our entire artistic team.
PS – and, please mark our Anniversary concerts in your calendars:
Saturday, May 23rd 7pm at FSA for the Boys & Men’s 25th anniversary celebration concert which will be a tribute to Ken Fleet. Entitled Just Sing Your Song, we will be performing his favourites as we pay tribute to a man who contributed so much to Canadian choral music.
Sunday May 31st – 2:30pm at FSA for AYS and Prima with special guest Alumna Sonja Gustafson.
More info to come about both concerts plus the JAS May 30th concert “Journeys” at New St. James at 7:30.