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Denise Hawkins' leads the choir for her twelfth season as our Christmas concert "On Christmas Night" was held at Rideau Park United Church on Friday December 12, 2008 with guests "The Cumberland Brass Quintet". The choir held our annual weekend workshop in January at the Galilee Centre in Arnprior, and performed at the Sunday service at Grace-St. Andrews United Church, Arnprior, also an annual event.
We added an extra mid-season concert this year on March 6 at the First Unitarian Congregation with delightful young guest performers Bryan Cheng on cello, Sylvie Cheng on piano and Julie Leduc on harp.
Our spring concert "Songs for Canada - Music from Seas to Sea" was on May 8th at Arlington Woods United Church, featuring guest performers the Pimadiziwin Singers, an Ottawa-based First Nations group featuring First Nations-style music, drumming and dancing. For this concert we partnered with One World Grannies, a member of the Stephen Lewis Foundation "grandmothers to grandmothers" charity, with proceeds from the concert contributing to their efforts to support grandmothers of orphans in Africa. We also sang at several retirement homes, including Riverpark Place on February 28.
Our Christmas concert at Centrepointe Theatre "A Festive Noël", a seasonal celebration with voices and brass, was presented Dec. 7th featuring guests "NorthWinds Brass". We held our Spring concert "A Festival of World Music" on May 9th, 2008 at Centrepointe Theatre, featuring guests "The Sue Fay Healy Irish Dancers" and the "Oto-wa Taiko" Japanese Drummers.
Denise Hawkins' milestone tenth year leading the choir. David Loyer provided another year of accomplished accompaniment. Annual Christmas concert "Fantasia on Christmas Carols", at the Centrepointe Theatre, Ben Franklin Place. Guests: baritone soloist Garth Hampson, and cellist Jan Järvlepp. We had a successful workshop weekend at the Galilee Centre in Arnprior in January. Spring concert: "From Wondrous to Wicked", with a guest quartet from the Ottawa Symphony Orchestra. We presented several "sing-out" performances at various venues during the season at community events, such as Nepean Days, and at several retirement homes.
Denise Hawkins' ninth year leading the choir to new heights. David Loyer provided another year of accomplished accompaniment. Our spring concert was "Music of the Pacific Rim" was a musical tour of songs and folk tunes from countries bordering the Pacific and and Broadway hits from tales inspired by the South Seas. It featured a favourite returning guest, the "Oto-wa Taiko" Japanese drumming group,
The choir celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. Denise Hawkins leads the choir in her eighth year as director, with David Loyer returning as accompanist, and the choir using NorthWestern United Church as our rehearsal venue. We held another successful and enjoyable weekend workshop/retreat in January at the Galilee Centre in Arnprior, along with a performance at Grace-St. Andrew's United Church. Our annual spring concert will be in May at the Centrepointe Theatre, entitled "Another Opening, Another Show", with dancers from "The Sue Fay Healy School of Traditional Irish Dance" as our guests.
The choir held a workshop/retreat in January at the Galilee Centre in Arnprior, along with a performance at Grace-St. Andrew's United Church. Our annual spring concert will be held in May, entitled "On with the Show" comprising a selection of Broadway show tunes, with special guests "The Nepean All-City Jazz Band". After the summer break, our fall season had several sing-outs in preparation for our annual christmas concert at the Centrepointe Theatre with special guests a fairly new but wonderful group of singers, The Cantiamo Girls Choir and Brian Smyth as MC. The past few concerts have featured more individual performances in solos, duets and small groups to expand our repertoire. As usual, we held several annual social events such as a corn roast and a Christmas dinner so choir members can get to know each other better!
Another successful workshop/retreat was held in January at the Galilee Centre in Arnprior, along with a performance at Grace-St. Andrew's United Church. Other performances were given at Kanata United Church, with guest violinist, and at Christ Church Cathedral's Lenten Series. The spring concert was entitled "Jing-ga-lye-ya! " with invited guests "The Oto-wa Taiko Japanese Drummers" at the Centrepointe Theatre. The new season began in the fall with several performances leading up to our annual Christmas concert, this year entitled "Gloria!" with special guests "Heralds of Hope".
Denise returned as Director and David Loyer returned as the choir’s
accompanist. The choir held a winter weekend workshop in January at the
Galilee Centre in Arnprior. The workshop was fun and productive; we
learned some helpful voice exercises, and fine-tuned some of our
repertoire. The spring concert was titled "Songs - Then and Now", with
special guests, the Central
Children's Choir of Ottawa, directed by Barbara Clark, with Brian
Smyth as Master of Ceremonies.
The Fall season began with a performance at "A Loyal Salute", in honour
of Her Majesty's Golden Jubilee, hosted by the United Empire Loyalists
Association at the Centrepointe Theatre. The other performers at this
performance were The
Central Band of the Canadian Forces, and the MacCulloch Dancers. A
"sing-out" was presented at the Christmas Open House in the Atrium of
Ben Franklin Place.
The Nepean Choir's family Christmas concert, "Wassail!! A Celebration for Christmastide", featured special guests, "As You Like It", a renaissance instrumental ensemble of harp, strings, recorder, and percussion.
Saudra retired as accompanist after the spring concert. David Loyer joined the choir as accompanist in the Fall of 2001, and the location of the choir’s practice venue changed from the Kingsway United Church to the NorthWestern United church. The Christmas concert was called "A Fireside Christmas", with guest storyteller Mary Cooke, and Brian Smyth as MC.
This was the choir’s 25th anniversary year. We again went to the Tim Horton Camp in Quyon for our winter workshop. We were delighted to have Ruth Barrie as our clinician, and Diane Ferguson as our accompanist. Ruth taught us some wonderful voice exercises, which I am sure we are all still performing! Every weekend should have some excitement, and this one was no exception. The fire alarm was unfortunately set off by smoke from the fireplace, but no one knew how to turn it off. It was a good learning experience for the staff and the local fire brigade!
In March of this year, we were invited to participate in the annual Lenten services at Christ Church Cathedral. This was the year that we acquired new formal uniforms for the ladies -- two-piece emerald green gowns with gold-sequined/green reversible collars.
The sudden passing of our beloved director, Bernice Oak on May 19, 1997, devastated the Choir. We sang at her funeral on May 23rd at McLeod-Stewarton United Church. Bernice’s dear friend and colleague, Barbara Clark, saw us through our Spring Concert, with our guest, Iain Phillips, a celtic harpist. Helen Sutherland, one of our own members, gave valuable assistance conducting at practices during our time of transition. Our search for a new Director resulted in Denise Hawkins assuming that position in the fall of 1997. With Denise and our faithful accompanist, Saundra Vandenberg, we presented a successful Christmas Concert at Centrepointe Theatre.
Saundra Vandenberg, an experienced accompanist, accepted the position of accompanist in the fall of this year, upon the resignation of JoAnne Holden. We enjoyed the first of our winter workshops at the Tim Horton Camp Voyageur in Quyon, Quebec, where we combined serious practices with social fun and excellent food.
Cynthia Watson reluctantly resigned as our accompanist, but remained with the Choir singing in the soprano section. JoAnne Holden replaced Cynthia as accompanist for the remainder of the year.
In March of 1994, the Choir went abroad again -- this time to Bermuda. We wore our newest uniforms -- the ladies in a bright pink 2-piece dress, and the men in black tuxedos with matching pink cummerbunds and bow ties. This was also the year that the Choir purchased a good quality portable piano for rehearsals and transporting to places where we were asked to sing where no piano was available.
In 1993, the Choir was obliged to look for another rehearsal hall. After 13 years at Bell High School, we were fortunate to find excellent accommodation at St. Michael and All Angels Anglican Church on Belair Drive. April 2, 1993 marked the Choir’s most ambitious recital yet -- the performance of Faure’s Requiem and Vivaldi’s Gloria at McLeod-Stewarton United Church. There were three other important benefit concerts also held that year.
This was the year the Choir decided to retire the burgundy uniforms. The ladies were outfitted in a two-piece bright pink gown, while the men donned tuxedos with matching bow ties and cummerbunds.
On April 20, 1991, the Choir was privileged to sing at Craig and Jannie Whyte’s wedding in Lanark.
In 1989, after 10 years of faithful service to the Choir, our pianist, Marian Gilmore, suffered a series of health problems and had to retire. She has left us with several pieces of music and special arrangements that she wrote for the Choir. In the spring of 1989, Cynthia Watson took over at the piano. We were fortunate to have such an accomplished accompanist, and we appreciated her dedication.
This was a notable year; it marked the first of our annual Spring and Christmas Concerts at Centrepointe Theatre; Garth Hampson was our guest singer for the Spring Concert. In April, we performed the “Peaceable Kingdom” in the Council Chambers of the City of Nepean. We also made a 2-week tour of Southern England, for which we acquired our “travel-friendly” blue uniforms. We performed concerts at Canterbury, Portsmouth, Bath, Plymouth and London, as well as in Pam Denning’s home village of Chew Magna in darkest Somerset! There were, of course, numerous impromptu concerts in various pubs!
In July, the Choir joined a massed choir on Parliament Hill to celebrate Canada Day. In December, we sang carols in the Parliament Buildings. Our Prime Minister, Brian Mulroney, dropped by to wish us a Merry Christmas!
In the spring of 1985, the year of our 10th Anniversary, the Choir did not have a “guest” act. Various novelty numbers were performed during the second half of the program. Who can forget those blue tights in our premiere performance of “Antonio”! We went to Lake Placid for our annual weekend trip to celebrate our anniversary; we performed for the inmates at the local medium security federal prison.
In the fall of 1984, Bernice Oak returned the Choir as Director.
The Spring Concert in this year built on the success of 1982’s Spring Concert, and led to a costumed and choreographed performance of excerpts from H.M.S. Pinafore. We participated in the Commonwealth Inter-faith Service at McLeod-Stewarton United Church, and for several more years we were invited to be the Choir at these annual services. We began the first of our yearly weekend trips in June of 1983, the first to Kingston, and from then on to various towns within a 2- to 3-hour drive from Ottawa. Bernice retired from the Ottawa Board of Education, and took a year’s sabbatical from the Choir. In the interim, we were fortunate to have Cheryl Palmai as our Director. We acquired our burgundy uniforms during this year; the ladies in long burgundy skirts and vests with white blouses, and the men in burgundy pants and navy blazers. In 1983, we received a Volunteer Appreciation Award from the City of Nepean for “enriching the quality of life enjoyed by others in Nepean.”
The Choir’s Spring Concert included a costumed production of excerpts from South Pacific.
During the next few years, the Choir continued to flourish under
Bernice’s capable leadership, and grew in size to 65 members, with
regular performances at Nepean “Arts in Action”, Nepean Days, an annual
spring concert at Sir Robert Borden High School, and at the NAC Foyer
at Christmas. In addition, we gave concerts at various nursing homes,
community events, senior citizens’ residences and church services.
In the fall of 1979, Maeve Marshall had to retire as pianist due to health problems, and Marian Gilmore took her place. By this time, the Choir had increased to some 40 singers, had acquired a uniform, and performed their first concert at Sir Robert Borden High School on May 9, 1979, with the Nepean Concert Band as guests.
The year 1978 was a transition year. The Nepean Parks and Recreation Department withdrew its sponsorship, and Kaz had to give up the Directorship. The Choir became an independent organization and sought a new Director. Fortune smiled upon us as Bernice Oak took over as Director in the 1978/79 season.
The Nepean Choir was formed in 1975 under the auspices of the Nepean Parks and Recreation, for “adults who like to sing. The first Director was Jackie Mandrell, followed a year later by Kazimier Samujlo (known as Kaz), a music teacher at Merivale High School. Our first pianist was Maeve Marshall. The Choir grew in numbers over the first 3 years to 28 members.
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