The TCS Community Choir

Our current music director and conductor is Geoffrey Butler, who has held the position since 1994. Geoffrey is an operatic tenor, and organist and choirmaster of All Saints' Roman Catholic Church in Etobicoke. Under his guidance, the TCS has expanded in new directions, performing a rich and challenging variety of sacred, secular, and popular vocal compositions from around the world. Geoff has continued our musical training, providing invaluable lessons on vocal technique, breath control, diction, and music theory.

The results speak – or should we say sing? – for themselves. Geoff's eclectic approach means that every season, and every concert, is distinctive. Except for a few, well-loved favourites, the choir rarely repeats itself. The tradition of performing two major concerts a year – one at Christmas and one in the spring – continues. One of our most memorable recent concerts was the 1996 gala celebrating our 150th birthday (you guessed it – we are the oldest choir in Toronto!). That concert took us on a musical journey back to 1845, when two important social movements were taking place: Irish immigration to the new world, and the escape of black American slaves to Canada via the Underground Railroad. Combining traditional Iris songs, African-American spirituals, and historical readings, the concert spoke to everyone who is a newcomer, or whose ancestors were newcomers, to this country. We repeated that concert in 2001.

Other notable performances have included Ramirez' Christmas suite Navidad Nuestr, Vivaldi's Gloria, Britten's Ceremony of Carols (with harp and children's chorus), Mozart's Requiem, and Beethoven's Choral Fantasy in C Minor, performed with the Oakville Symphony Orchestra at Oakville's annual Waterfront Festival, Carl Orff's Carmina Burana (with two pianos and percussion), and Benjamin Britten's Saint Nicolas Cantata.

Thematic concerts have included Songs from the Stage (selections from opera and musical theatre), TCS Goes to the Movies (featuring vocal works used in various feature films), From Sea to Sea to C (a celebration of Canadian music) and Christmas Through the Eyes of a Child.

Where do we perform? The acoustically excellent and intimate Toronto Centre for the Performing Arts (formerly the Ford Centre) has been our performance venue in the recent past. Recent concerts have also been held at Massey Hall, Roy Thomson Hall, Metropolitan United Church and Christ Church Deer Park.

What else have we been doing? In keeping with our desire to give back to the community, we have performed benefit concerts for Toronto's Settlement House, Fife House and the "Out of the Cold" program. In 1998 we performed in the first annual "Sing for Sight" gala, whose proceeds benefit the Foundation Fighting Blindness (formerly the Retinitis Pigmentosa Research Foundation), an organization promoting research into degenerative eye disease.

In 1997, we released our first CD entitled Seasonal Treasures, a compilation of our best Christmas and holiday selections.

In 1998 and 1999, the Toronto Choral Society renewed its ties with St. George the Martyr Church, the site of our first performance in 1845. For two years, St. George was our home base and rehearsal space. Today, we rehearse at Eastminster United Church and participate in its restoration project.

In 2000, a smaller, auditioned group, North 44°, which provides opportunities for performing more intimate repertoire at a greater variety of functions was created. It performs two concerts a year (November and May) and is in demand for recordings and performances.

In 1999, Mr. Butler received a grant from the United Way to found a choir drawn from the homeless community of Toronto. The Street Haven Women's Choir meets weekly at Street Haven at the Crossroads, a downtown shelter serving the needs of women. In only its second year, the choir has been the subject of a documentary and has been heard in the music video In Her Mother's Eyes. These are exciting initiatives which are examples of the way that the Toronto Choral Society is reaching out to include a variety of people living in Toronto.

In 2002, the founding choir, previously known as The Toronto Choral Society, changed its name to the Toronto Choral Society Community Choir in order to better differentiate itself from the other choirs under the Toronto Choral Society umbrella.