Celebrating our 10th Anniversary season in 2017|2018, That Choir is one of Toronto’s most exciting a cappella ensembles, combining high-calibre performance with storytelling through choral music. Founded in 2008 by Artistic Director Craig Pike, That Choir now draws together close to thirty auditioned singers with diverse backgrounds in culture, work and study.
Each season, That Choir presents a four-concert series of contemporary choral works, undertakes a range of professional development projects, and appears at many local and provincial music festivals and arts events. They have been featured at Choirs Ontario's inaugural SingONtario! choral festival and SING: the Toronto Vocal Arts Festival. Recent appearances include the Toronto AIDS Candlelight Vigil, the City Carol Sing at Yorkminster Park Baptist Church, sharing the stage with Sir Christopher Plummer and Louise Pitre as a featured performer at the Shakespeare Globe Centre of Canada’s 25th Anniversary Gala at Casa Loma, a featured performance in Barrie, Ontario with the Georgian Music Series, and feature choir with the international touring concert: Game of Thrones Live Concert Experience.
Nurturing local composers and artists is important to That Choir. They have performed contemporary works by Eleanor Daley, Lydia Adams, J. Scott Brubacher, Tyson Kerr, Cy Giacomin, Matthew Emery, and Erin Smythe, as well as Dora Award winning musician Reza Jacobs. The group has also joined forces with Toronto- based theatre artists Deborah Hay, Nicole Underwood, Nancy Palk, and Jim Mezon in their annual holiday concert. Toronto-based string players Bryan Holt, Steph Park, Rebecca MacLeod and Brenna McLane formed the string quartet for That Choir’s performance of Ola Gjeilo’s Dark Night of the Soul, and the choir has also collaborated with pianists Michael Man, Jeanne Yuen and Meredith Zwicker.
Honouring their commitment to supporting the works of Canadian composers, the ensemble recently launched the New Works Development program, led by Composer-in-Residence Matthew Emery. This workshop program is dedicated to the development of new choral compositions by emerging Canadian composers. The program curated three new works that will receive their world premieres at That Choir: Borealis in May 2017.
That Choir has been fortunate to receive support from Choirs Ontario (2012, 2015), the Ontario Arts Council (2013, 2014, 2016) and the Toronto Arts Council (2014, 2015) to help fund successful projects including: a choral symposium with renowned conductor and clinician Susan Quinn, and the hugely successful Toronto premiere performance of Ola Gjeilo’s Dark Night of the Soul.
In 2013, That Choir placed second in Choral Canada's National Competition for Canadian Amateur Choirs (mixed-voice, adult chamber choir), and most recently placed as a finalist in 2015. In 2014, the group received an honourable mention in the Ontario Provincial Finals of the Ontario Music Festivals Association Choir Competition. In 2014, 2015 and 2017, the group received first place, platinum standard at the Kiwanis Music Festival of Greater Toronto, along with the Elmer Iseler Best Choir Award (2015).
In 2013, the choir was joined by the Bloor Collegiate Intermediate Music Program at their holiday concert. Based on the success of this project, the choir’s 2014 Christmas concert featured performances by, and a collaboration with the Cawthra Park Chamber Choir led by Bob Anderson, and was funded in part by the Toronto Arts Council. That Choir most recently collaborated with the Chamber Choir from Wexford Collegiate School for the Arts at That Choir Carols 2016. Through collaboration between the Artistic Director and music educators from within the choir, That Choir plans to offer more opportunities for Toronto youth to experience singing with a professional-calibre choir and to learn from professional artists.
It is That Choir's goal to share our passion for choral music with the arts community and to inspire audiences both young and young at heart. We endeavour to reach not only the established choral community in Toronto, but to encourage new audiences to experience the art of a cappella choral singing. We look forward to sharing our music with you in our 10th Anniversary 17|18 season!
