Conducting Workshop 2015

Recently I spoke with a group of young people who noticed the cherubim and seraphim angels in the church - many winged, many eyes, but no body.  What job do they have?  To sing!  Simply to sing to the heavens!

Anyone who can breathe can sing, and should!  But joining voices together in community - well that takes talent and training!  So it is tremendously opportune that the Ukrainian Music Society of Alberta is again hosting a Choral Conductor's Seminar! The treasury of choral music, the synergy of voices energized to with purpose - well that is a classy combination - don't you think!.

As a chorister, an aspiring musician, an instrumentalist who admires the human voice - what greater treasure can there be than to develop the skill to lead - to conduct - to blaze trail and shape the voices that "simply sing!"

Please share this invitation widely, the Ukrainian Music Society of Alberta has a great reputation for quality, and so have the esteemed instructors of this valuable course - an equal opportunity for all!  

Dnipro Choir in Calgary September 27,2014

After Calgary's snow dump of September 2014 the warm weather has returned. Gardeners across the city are busily cleaning up broken branches, and salvaging vegetables that survived the thick blanket of snow. As I picked my kiwi's (thrilled with my little bowl of green grape size babies), pondered over the grapes (they will become raisins this year), collect the last few tomatoes that hid from the cold, and pick the frozen raspberries left on the branch, I start singing. Of course, the garden songs are usually my favorite Ukrainian folk songs. My heart fills with warmth, my ears remember the resonant harmonies of friends singing together and.....

There is a compassion bred of being connected to the Ukrainian idea, but there is a deeper spiritual and soulful connection that warms the heart when choristers synchronize their hearts, minds and breath. And anybody who knows Edmonton's Ukrainian community recognizes there is something special about its embrace. Part of the hromada's resilience, in my opinion, has to do with the feeling of gratitude, and feeling of belonging fostered through choral singing. And Edmonton's Ukrainian Dnipro Choir is celebrating its 60th anniversary of music making by bringing their Musical Kaleidoscope to Calgary on Saturday, September 27, 2014 at the Cathedral Church of the Redeemer in Calgary, located on the corner of 7th avenue and 1st Street.

Dnipro Choir presents an all Canadian program featuring the choral works of Canadians of Ukrainian heritage: Serhiy Eremenko, Yuri Fiala, Roman Hurko, Oleksander Koshets, Larysa Kuzmenko, Zenoby Lawryshyn, Denis Lucyshyn, Joanna Estelle-Storoschuk, and Willi Zwozdesky.

Is it possible that this wonderfully diverse Ukrainian community has been breathing together, synchronizing their heartbeats, and harmonizing, and sharing the pleasures of Ukrainian choral music for 6 decades? And going strong!!  Sixty years of choral programs, sixty years of eager singers, sixty years of printed music, sixty years of musical leadership, and sixty years of choral excellence. For more information check www.dniprochoir.com