A CAPPELLA
chamber choir
Season 2020-2021
29
MAR
Festival de la voix
Les Concerts Lachine et les Saints-Anges en musique
"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
March 29 - Festival de la voix CANCELLED
May 14 - Podium CANCELLED
Aqu'appella POSTPONED
The Sainte-Anne Singers present music on a watery theme, across a range of musical genres. Well-known folk and popular songs include Stan Rogers’ “Fogarty’s Cove”, the Scottish folksong “The Water is Wide”, “Je voudrais voir la mer” by Michel Rivard, Stephen Hatfield’s “La lluvia” (Rain), and “Bridge Over Troubled Water” by Simon and Garfunkel.
The rousing folk-style “Rain in the Country” by Canadian composer Aaron Jensen will be accompanied by percussionist Chelsea Jaramillo on the cajon. “Selene’s Boat”, a mesmerizing composition by Don Macdonald, will feature Chelsea on the marimba.
In a more spiritual vein, “There Will Come Soft Rains” (Ivo Antognini), “When the Sun Comes After Rain” (Mathew Emery) and “Water Night” (Eric Whitacre), are among several contemporary works featured. And since water at night reflects the stars, we have included the lovely Voces8 rendition of “Underneath the Stars”, and Basque composer Josu Elberdin’s “Izar Ederrak” (“The Beautiful Star”).
In the Canadian context, water also implies snow, and so we are delighted to present once again excerpts from “Les neiges de Nelligan”, composed for the Sainte-Anne Singers by Pierre Gallant in 2012.
Audience members are invited to a reception after the May 9th concert.
Information: (514) 267-7862
Saturday May 9 2020, 8:00 p.m.
Union Church
24 Maple Avenue, Ste-Anne de Bellevue
Sunday May 10 2020, 3:00 p.m.
Christ Church Beaurepaire
455 Church Street, Beaconsfield
Adults: 20$ - Students: 15$ - Children 12 and under: 5$
Tickets will be available from singers and at the door
PAST CONCERTS AND REPERTOIRE
2019/12
2019/05
2018/12
2018/05
2017/12
2017/04
2016/12
2016/05
2015/12
2015/05
2014/12
2014/05
2013/12
2013/05
2012/12
2012/05
2011/12
2011/05
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. Since then, it has grown to about 24 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.
In 2010 and 2015, the Sainte-Anne Singers came second in the chamber choir category of the National Choral Competition for Amateur Choirs. They received an Honorable Mention in the same category in 2019.
The group can be heard regularly at the Montreal Bach Festival (Night of the Choirs) and at the Festival de la Voix in the West Island. In 2017 and 2019, the group was one of several choirs chosen to perform at the Montreal Symphony Orchestra’s Classical Spree concert series at the Maison Symphonique.
The ensemble was designated a ”choeur fleuron” by the Alliance chorale du Québec in 2019 in recognition of its musical quality and its contribution to Quebec choral life.
The Sainte-Anne Singers have performed at Podium, Canada’s biennial choral conference, in 2012 (Ottawa) and 2014 (Halifax). They will perform once again at Podium in May 2020, in Montreal.
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
Francesca Abbondanza-Bergeron
Christina Barrucco
Sarah Burnell
Julie Grammond
Robin Hornstein
Katrina Lowe
Heather Macintosh
Roxanne Millette
ALTO
Laura Coulter-Low
Joanne Crevier
Annika Diehl
Barb Forton
Janice Goodfellow
Isabelle Ivanov
Nancy Lepine
Georgia Smith
Mary Tsartolias
TENOR
Jean-Marie François
Talib Hussain
Chih-Ying Lay
René-Michel Paquet
Gilles Pesant
BASS
Jean Jeukens
Jean Guy Léger
Claude Roy
Daniel Taillon
Klaus Winkler
CONTACT
We are looking for a bass for the 2020-2021 season
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 to arrange an audition.