BRIEF HISTORY OF THE GUELPH YOUTH SINGERS
Guelph Youth Singers (GYS), now in its 20th season, has become a high profile representative of the City of Guelph in the field of choral music. The organization was founded in 1991 to provide children and youth with an opportunity to experience a professional level of musicianship. The four treble choirs in the organization are: Choir I, a training choir of children aged 6 and up; Choir II, a more advanced training choir of children and youth aged 9 and up; Choir III, a choir for singers who have superior singing and music reading skills, aged 11 and up; and the Chamber Choir, singers aged 14 and up chosen from Choir III who rehearse separately and prepare more challenging repertoire. Drawing from all choirs, a seasonal Boys Choir was developed in 2005 to compete in the Guelph Kiwanis Festival, to sing a feature piece in the major spring concert, and, more generally, to encourage the boys to appreciate their special part in the overall choir.
Weekly instruction includes vocal technique, theory and sight singing, and is augmented with workshops by guest clinicians in drama, movement and voice throughout the year. GYS performs up to five major concerts per season as well as workshop, festival, corporate, community and guest performances.
GYS has released two solo CDs: Bird in the Nest (1998) and Wind in Our Sails (2002) and hopes to release a 3rd this October. The Choir has also performed on CDs with Guelph Chamber Choir (On Christmas Night, 1995); for the Canadian Literacy Association (Notable Canadian Choirs Sing Christmas Carols, 1996); with the Guelph folk ensemble, Tamarack (Blankets of Snow, 1998); and singing the title song on the CD Song of Our City: A Musical Celebration of Guelph.
All four choirs of GYS perform annually in the Guelph Kiwanis festival, and have won the trophy for the Best Choral Programme annually since 1996. They have also distinguished themselves at both the Provincial and National levels of the Canadian Federation of Music Festivals, winning several provincial awards and national first prize awards. In 2010, Choir III was won first at the provincials while Chamber Choir was awarded second. Choir III went on to achieve second place at the National level.
Choirs III tours regularly throughout Canada and into the northern United States. Past performance highlights include singing for national conventions of the Association of Canadian Choral Conductors (Quebec City, 1996 and Toronto, 2002) and the American Choral Directors Association (Chicago, 1999). They have performed in Montreal, Kingston, Toronto, Calgary, Syracuse (N.Y.), Vancouver and Coquitlam (B.C.) and New Glasgow (N.S.) as guests of various choirs. They have also hosted choirs from southern Ontario, Quebec, Alberta, B.C., Nova Scotia and New York State as well as choirs from Japan and Slovenia. GYS has toured to perform as visiting guest artists to the State University of Potsdam, New York (2000), Albion College in Michigan (2001), Fort Wayne, Indiana (2003) and Farmington Hills, Michigan (2005). In May of 2008, Choir III/Chamber choristers were invited to form part of the honour choir, along with choristers from Bach Children’s Chorus, for the “Children in Harmony Festival” at Walt Disney World, Orlando, Florida. As Honour Choir, the combined tour choir had the opportunity to perform for all the other participating choirs of the festival, and in two other public concerts at Disney World.
This season GYS is excited & proud to mark 20 years of providing the children of Guelph and surrounding area with a professional level of musicianship through choral music. In celebration, the choir will be presenting “Of Icebergs and Angels’ Wings” a 20th Anniversary Concert on Saturday October 30th, 2010 with special guests- the Guelph Chamber Choir. Also, in the 2010-2011 season plans are underway for GYS Choir III to engage in a SEVEC sponsored exchange with the Edmonton Youth Choir. GYS choristers form life-long friendships and gain invaluable experience from these joint events. In February 2011, the choir is privileged to be able to participate in a joint concert with the Overtones- Guelph’s very own women’s Barbershop choir.
Auditions are held in the spring and late summer for entrance into the choir in September 2010. Limited audition appointments are also available in November for children and youth who are seeking to enter GYS in January 2011. For more information on Guelph Youth Singers and to book an audition appointment, phone 821-8574.
CONDUCTOR
& ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
Linda Beaupré
Conductor of Guelph Youth Singers since its inception, and founder/director of the Bach Children’s Chorus and Bach Chamber Youth Choir (Toronto) since 1987, Linda Beaupré is known throughout Canada as a choral clinician, adjudicator and workshop facilitator. Her choirs have been chosen to perform at national levels of ACDA and ACCC conferences, and have received many awards from the Federation of Canadian Music Festivals.
Ms. Beaupré received her B.Mus. degree in music education from the State University of New York at Potsdam, and a M.Mus. degree in vocal performance from the University of Western Ontario. She has taught music in Australia and Nova Scotia, and for several years was a professional singer with the Elmer Iseler Singers and The Toronto Mendelssohn Choir. Along with Jean Ashworth Bartle and Eileen Baldwin, she is a co-author of the series A Young Singer’s Journey. This integrated literacy programme of workbooks and CDs is distributed throughout North America by Hinshaw Music Publishing.
Conductor of the 2008 Ontario Youth Choir, Ms. Beaupré is a co-winner of the 2006 Leslie Bell Prize for Choral Conducting, awarded by the Ontario Arts Council and Choirs Ontario and in 2002 she received the Women of Distinction Arts and Culture Award from the Guelph YM/YWCA.
PIANO
ACCOMPANIST
 Ken Gee studied piano with Edna Smith, Reginald Bedford and Boris Berlin, and performed in many master classes. A winner of many performance scholarships, Ken is an experienced recitalist, concerto soloist, accompanist, and chamber music player. He has a Music B.A. from McMaster University, where he was awarded the McMaster Medal for the Creative and Performing Arts. Ken was music critic for the Hamilton Spectator, manager for chamber music series and Ensemble Sir Ernest MacMillan, co-director of the Hamilton Kiwanis Music Festival, and a teacher at McMaster University, Sheridan College and Mohawk College.
Ken’s other life is in Macintosh-based design work and music production. He developed classical piano music software for PG Music Inc., Victoria, and makes music and music text books for Frederick Harris Music Ltd. and the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, and Kjos Music in San Diego. He is the accompanist for GYS, Suzuki String School of Guelph, and Suzuki summer Institutes in Waterloo and Montreal, and has also been a piano adjudicator, and private teacher and coach.
In May 2007, he introduced Guelph Musicfest, a concert series in the Guelph Youth Music Centre Recital Hall that completed a highly-successful fourth season (From Russia with Love featuring The St. Petersburg String Quartet) in May. In 2008, he was the recipient of a City of Guelph Mayor’s Award. Ken lives in Guelph with his violinist wife, Paule Barsalou (director of the Suzuki String School of Guelph).
VOCAL COACHES
Soprano Marion Samuel-Stevens is a graduate of the University of Toronto’s Voice Performance. She has been praised for her warmth of tone and direct, engaging stage presence. “She maintained a feeling of tonal purity and roundness... finessing a number of tricky arpeggios.... performance was warm and supple”
Marion was the 2010 Ontario winner of the Natsaa competition and second runner up in the regional Natsaa competition in Indiana. She is an avid supporter of new music and was a finalist in the 2008 Eckhardt-Grammatté competition.
In 2010 she was one of two vocalists participating at the first ever Bohlen Pierce symposium in Boston Ma. Marion has performed Grigori Frid’s Diary of Anne Frank as Anne, Peter Skoggard’s new opera Stratas in the title role, Ruth in Ronald Beckett’s opera Ruth, Mark Adamo’s Little Women as Beth, as well as David Del-Tredici’s Alice with the National Ballet of Canada Orchestra. Operatic roles include Elle in La Voix Humaine by Poulenc, Marzelline in Beethoven’s Fidelio, Hélène in Hindemith’s Hin und Zurück and Estelle in The Stronger by Hugo Weisgall, Queen of the Night in The Magic Flute by Mozart and Titania in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Oratorio highlights include Mozart’s Coronation Mass and Vespers and Mass in C minor,, Haydn’s Paukenmesse, Lord Nelson Mass with the Elora Festival, and Creation. Vivaldi’s Gloria and Magnificat, Gounod’s St. Cecilia Mass, Faure’s Requiem, Handel’s Messiah and Vaughan Williams’ Sea Symphony, Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater and the Christmas Oratorio by J. S Bach. Marion has also been featured as a recitalist with Guelph’s Musicfest.
Sandra Tucker Soprano
Possessing a voice that has been described as “meltingly lyrical”, Sandra Tucker received a Bachelor of Music and a Diploma in Opera from Wilfrid Laurier University under the direction of Victor Martens. She then went on to study with acclaimed soprano, Edith Wiens, at the Hochschule für Musik in Augsburg,Germany, for which she was the recipient of a generous grant from the Canada Council for the Arts. She has also completed a Masters of Music and Literature from the University of Western Ontario.
Her concert credits include appearances with the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, Orchestra London, Barrie-Huronia Symphony, The Penderecki String Quartet, The Wellington Winds, Augsburg Orchestra, Cellar Singers,Guelph Chamber Choir, Menno Singers, Peterborough Singers, London Philharmonic Choir, the Wiblingen Basilika Choir, and as a soloist in the European Musik Festival under the baton of Sir Helmuth Rilling.
Her opera credits include Fiordiligi in Cosi fan Tutte, Carolina in il MatrimonioSegreto, Manon in Manon Lescaut, both the Countess and Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro, Anna Maurrant in Street Scene, Laetitia in The Old Maid and the Thief, Pamina in the Magic Flute and many others.
She has a private studio in Kitchener, is a member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) and an Ontario Registered Music Teacher (ORMTA). She has been a vocal adjudicator for the Kiwanis Music Festival and NATS competitions and is also a part of the artistic team for the Guelph Youth Singers and Cantiamo Academy of Choral Music.
Amanda Wilhelm, mezzo-soprano, has just completed her Opera Diploma at Wilfrid Laurier University where she also acquired her Undergraduate degree in voice performance, studying with Daniel Lichti and Kathleen Brett. At Laurier Amanda was chosen twice for the Dean’s Honour Roll for academic excellence. She was also a musical skills tutor for first years. Amanda Wilhelm has been a soloist at many different churches and is in her fourth year as a choral scholar at St. Peter’s Lutheran Church in Kitchener. Having grown up in the St.Mary’s Children’s Choir and Festival Youth Singers for ten years under the direction of Eileen Baldwin, Amanda is very excited to be joining the vocal coaching team of the Guelph Youth Singers. Amanda has participated in NATS (national association of teachers of singing) and has competed at the provincial level in voice, as well as winning many awards and trophies in local competitions. With Opera Laurier, Amanda has played many roles including Madame Armfeldt in Sondheim’s A Little Night Music, Madame de Croissy in Poulenc’s Dialogues of the Carmelites and the Sorceress in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas. In excerpt shows she has played Carmen in Bizet’s Carmen, Orlofsky in Strauss’s Die Fledermaus, Dorabella in Mozart’s Cosi fan Tutte, Addie in Blitzstein’s Regina, and Madame de la Haltière in Massenet’s Cendrillon.
STRING
ACCOMPANISTS
The Suzuki String School of
Guelph was founded in 1972. It is a non-profit charitable organization with a Board
of parent volunteers. The school now has around 160 students ranging from
age 3 to 18, and is renowned throughout North America for its high
standards in teaching and leadership role in the Suzuki community.
Artistic director Paule Barsalou,
heads a highly-qualified faculty which teaches violin, viola, cello, orchestra, chamber music and rhythmic
reading. The SSSG provides bursaries to families
in need of financial assistance.
ARTISTIC
POLICY & ROLE
GYS has a strong educational
mandate to develop the musical potential of youth from all backgrounds and
of various abilities through:
- Theory and
sight-singing instruction.
- Exposure
to challenging and diverse repertoire from a wide range of
composers.
- Exposure
to other conductors and choirs.
- Cooperative arrangements with other Ontario and Quebec choirs which allow GYS to host
and travel to workshops and performances each season. These workshops and
performances expose the singers to the varied talents of several
outstanding conductors/clinicians and culminate in a performance which
underscores what they have learned in workshops.
STRUCTURE
GYS is a parent run
organization, with parents making up the majority of board members and
volunteers. Guelph Youth Singers was incorporated
June 3, 1992.
Charitable registration number:
135120376RR0001.
Staff
- The artistic director is
responsible for artistic direction, development, and musical education of
the choirs.
- The administrator, is responsible for the general management
and coordination of daily affairs.
- The volunteer and marketing coordinator is responsible for the recruitment and coordination of our many volunteers as well as overseeing the marketing and corporate fundraising of the organization.
- All staff are accountable to GYS's Board of
Directors, reporting to the Board regularly at meetings. They work in
accordance with the policies and programmes established by the Board of
Directors.
Board of
Directors
- Made up of
eleven members who assume fiscal responsibility for GYS and sit as chairs
of various committees.
- Meets
monthly to discuss current issues and review budgetary
concerns.
- Connects
with artistic director, administrator, volunteer and marketing coordinator, and volunteers weekly through
email, fax, and phone, as well as at various committee
meetings.
- Committee members are:
- Sharon Buisman (President)
- Lisa Lee (Vice President)
- Janet Cox (Secretary)
- Kim Gould (Treasurer)
- Irina Brovko
- Fran Gallagher-Shuebrook
- Sara Kaune
- Arlie McFaul
- Anna Pye-Clifford
- Elizabeth Renfrew
- Dirk Steinke
Volunteer
Base & Support
- GYS builds
its volunteer base from choir members, parents and interested community
members.
- Volunteers
receive support and direction from the volunteer and marketing coordinator, the artistic director
or the administrator. In most cases, all three individuals are involved.
- Our
volunteers are shared with other community arts organizations such as
the Guelph Spring Festival,
and the River Run Centre.
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