A CAPPELLA
chamber choir for 35 years
Season 2022-2023
13
MAY
Enchantement
Songs of joy, comfort and hope
"Your concert was for me the surprise of the evening ... so very beautiful, so eclectic"
Donald Patriquin, composer and conductor
“… an exquisite performance. Thank you for bringing my music to life with such artistry ..."
Dr. Benjamin Bolden, composer and professor of music
UPCOMING CONCERTS
Enchantement
Saturday May 13, 8:00 P.M.
Three years after the beginning of the pandemic, we are still emerging from the profound effects it had on our way of living.
I have noticed joy
how it threads below
the darkness…
Have you noticed?
It rises like fingers
and then – look!
it presses through.
Laura Foley
(from “Threads of Joy”)
Dale Trumbore’s setting of this poem expresses perfectly the theme of our concert.
Our programme features songs of joy and optimism, including The Gift (Rob Dietz), The Sun Never Says (Dan Forrest), How Can I Keep From Singing? (Sarah Quartel), Will the Circle Be Unbroken (arr. J. David Moore), Wanting Memories (Ysaye Barnwell of Sweet Honey in the Rock) and, in a lighter vein, Ça va venir (La Bolduc, arr. Jean-Charles Côté).
And since joy threads its way up through darkness: Nothing Gold Can Stay and The Road Not Taken, from Stephanie Martin’s A Frost Sequence, as well as Prayer of the Children (Kurt Bestor, arr. Andrea S. Klouse), which we will sing in honour of the children of Ukraine.
The concert will be followed by a small reception.
PAST CONCERTS AND REPERTOIRE
THE CHOIR
From its beginnings as a small a cappella group in 1987, the Sainte-Anne Singers has attracted members who take a particular pleasure in creating beautiful harmonies with the voice alone, and in communicating that pleasure to their audience. It now includes 20 singers from the West Island, Greater Montreal and beyond.
Much of its repertoire is contemporary, especially Canadian, American and Northern European, but the group also performs works of the Renaissance and the 19th and 20th centuries, as well as sophisticated pop and jazz arrangements.
Over the years, the Sainte-Anne Singers has enjoyed multiple collaborations with the Montreal Chamber Orchestra (Wanda Kaluzny), the McGill University Children’s and Youth Choirs, the John Laing Singers (Hamilton) and the St. Lawrence Choir. It has been a frequent participant in events such as the Mondial choral Loto-Québec, the Canadian Connections concert series sponsored by the Montreal Choral Institute, the Festival de musique religieuse, the Nuit des Choeurs of the Festival Bach de Montréal, the Festival de la Voix (West Island) and the Classical Spree concerts sponsored by the Montreal Symphony Orchestra.
The Sainte-Anne Singers has performed at Podium, Canada’s biennial choral conference, in 2012 (Ottawa) and 2014 (Halifax). A third performance at Podium in Montreal in 2020 was cancelled because of the pandemic.
The ensemble has received numerous awards, including first place at the advanced level of the ARCIM competition (2001), and second place in the chamber choir category of the National Competition for Canadian Amateur Choirs (2010, 2015), as well as finalist in the same category in 2019.
Along with the Choeur de chambre du Québec and the Chœur du Plateau , the Sainte-Anne Singers was designated a ”Choeur fleuron” by the Alliance chorale du Québec from 2019 to 2021, in recognition of its musical quality and its contribution to Quebec choral life.
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
Passionate about a cappella, Margo Keenan studied voice privately and has sung for many years in several a cappella quartets in and around Montreal. She has taught music at the primary level and founded and directed numerous choirs in elementary and secondary schools in the Montreal area.
Margo founded the Sainte-Anne Singers in 1987. She studied conducting privately with Peter Schubert and Michael Zaugg. In 2013, she was presented with the Prix Jean-Pierre Guindon in recognition of her contribution to choral singing in Quebec over more than twenty-five years.
Since 2014, Margo Keenan also directs the Philomela Singers, a West Island community choir, as well as a 60-voice choir which forms each spring in order to perform at the West Island-based Festival de la Voix.
THE SINGERS
Many of the singers in this auditioned group have a solid vocal or instrumental background; others are experienced choristers.
SOPRANO
Sonia Castiglione
Marie Dallaire
Robin Hornstein
Christelle Jacquet
Isabelle Lafrenière
Katrina Lowe
Roxane Millette
Michèle Ross
ALTO
Annika Diehl
Barb Forton
Isabelle Ivanov
Georgia Smith
Wanda Taylor
Mary Tsartolias
BASS
Jean Jeukens
Claude Roy (guest chorister)
Daniel Taillon
CONTACT
We are looking for bass, alto and soprano voices
Do you love a cappella? The Sainte-Anne Singers, designated Chœur Fleuron by the Alliance chorale du Québec, is the West Island’s award-winning chamber ensemble dedicated to singing contemporary repertoire by Quebec, Canadian, American and Northern European composers, as well as standards of a cappella repertoire from all eras. Our concerts always include a variety of styles, from the sublime to the silly.
Rehearsals, which are bilingual, are in Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue on Monday nights, September to May. Two extra rehearsals are scheduled prior to concerts.
We hold auditions whenever there is an opening. Since these often fill quickly, singers interested in joining are encouraged to contact us without waiting for the beginning of the season.
If you enjoy a challenge, have choral experience, excellent pitch and some sight-reading ability, contact Margo Keenan at keenanmargo@gmail.com to arrange an audition.