Join us as we boost voices and bodies and spirits with a taste of what it will be like when we’re back to making music together again. Three wonderful clinicians – Dr. Victoria Meredith, Erica Phare-Bergh and Sarona Mynhardt – will be joining us on April 9 & 10 for Wellness Weekend, a series of online sessions that will remind us that a new choral season is not far away. You won’t want to miss it!

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REGISTRATION

Friday, April 9 & Saturday, April 10 on Zoom

For individual registration, please click here.
(This workshop is FREE to current BCCF individual members, and to members of pre-registered BCCF choirs: see below) Individual registration open until 1:30pm Friday

If you are the choir President or conductor, use the form below to register your choir. You can choose whether to cover this cost as a service to your singers and a way to keep them engaged; or recoup your costs through donations. Choir registrations now closed; singers in choirs already registered may continue to register as individuals.
$150 choir registration– click here (Allows any singer in that choir to register free of charge using the individual registration form above.)

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SCHEDULE

FRIDAY, APRIL 9

2:00 PM – CHORAL SINGING & HEALTH
Dr. Victoria Meredith introduces participants to relationships between choral singing and various aspects of aesthetic, social and physical wellbeing, drawing from research from the fields of music, medicine and psychology. Singers will have the opportunity to share their own experiences and to try out vocal exercises related to various aspects of their health.

3:15 PM – BREAK

3:30 PM – SINGING TOGETHER FOR THE HEALTH OF IT
Join Erica Phare-Bergh for 75 minutes of joy-filled music-making. Let’s sing together and get those happy hormones going! We’ll do some physical and vocal warm-ups then dig into a song by one of Canada’s best-loved singer-songwriters. “All The Diamonds” by Bruce Cockburn. Music scores will be made available beforehand. Life’s too short not to sing during this pandemic!

4:45 PM – END

SATURDAY, APRIL 10

9:30 AM – MOVEMENT SESSION
Sarona Mynhardt will take us through a sequence of movement based on the Alexander and Rosen principles to get our bodies aligned ready for our best singing.

10:15 AM – COFFEE BREAK & SOCIAL TIME

10:45 AM – SINGING ON TOP OF THE WORLD 
Yes, you can! Join us for a blast from the past. We’ll work on the Carpenters’ tune, “Top of the World.” And then…learn how easy it is to put it all together on EasyVirtualChoir.com. You’ll surprise yourself! Don’t worry – no *solo* singing will take place in the session. No one’s cover will be blown! Music scores will be made available beforehand. And there’s NO pressure to go “virtual”. Just come and enjoy the singing if you’d prefer. See you there!

NOON – END

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CLINICIANS

Dr. Victoria Meredith has conducted choirs and presented workshops in every province in Canada and throughout the United States, including provincial and state honour choirs and the National Youth Choir of Canada. Prior to her recent retirement, Dr. Meredith was Professor of Choral Music and Associate Dean of the Don Wright Faculty of Music at Western University (London, Ontario). Her current choral activities focus primarily on guest conducting and live and on-line choral workshops. She especially enjoys working with adult choral singers and exploring ways in which people can sing as well as possible for as long as possible. 

Her popular book “Sing Better As You Age” received Choral Canada’s National Choral Award for Outstanding Choral Publication. She has also published numerous choral music editions and articles, including the chapter on Canadian choral music in The Cambridge Companion to Choral Music. She has received over twenty academic and choral awards, and in 2020, Dr. Meredith was honored with Choral Canada’s Distinguished Service Award.

Erica Phare-Bergh is the Artistic Director of Voices in Motion, an intergenerational choir for those with memory loss, their caregivers, students and friends. There are currently five of these choirs in the Greater Victoria Area, that have amalgamated into an online choir during COVID. She also directs the Vancouver Island Chamber Choir and the Newcombe Singers.

Erica has her M. Mus. in Choral Conducting from McGill University. A native of Montreal, she is the past director of the Vanier College Choirs, FACE Young Singers the McGill Conservatory Choirs until she moved to Calgary in 2010. In Alberta, she directed the William Aberhart High School Choirs, Westwinds Green Choir, Kairos Young Singers, the Savridi Singers and taught Music and French with the Calgary Board of Education. She is in demand as an adjudicator and presenter and was the guest conductor for the 10th Anniversary of the CBC-McGill Youth Gala. She is a published arranger with Cypress Choral Music and directs music at Church of Our Lord in downtown Victoria. 

Sarona Mynhardt has one goal in life, and that is to truly make a difference in the lives of the singers she works with. She firmly believes that through Music a teacher does not only have the opportunity to teach music literacy and musicianship skills, but those life skills and qualities that are universally important. Those of love, compassion, humanity, respect, discipline, passion and joy! Born and raised in South Africa, Sarona completed her education degree in Pretoria. In 1996 she immigrated with her husband and two children to Canada.

Sarona founded the White Rock Children’s Choir, which had Choirs at several levels under her artistic direction for 20 years. The Choir participated regularly in International Festivals, and she conducted them in prestigious venues accross the world. Highlights included a performance for Archbishop Desmond Tutu in St Georges Cathedral, and a performance in Carnegie Hall when the Choir was invited by Henry Leck to be part of a Children’s Festival Chorus under his direction in April 2014. Over the past 10 years Sarona organized two Children’s Choir Festivals celebrating diversity and World Music, and also founded and conducted the Cantrix Women’s ensemble.

Sarona has taught Music in both the public and private school systems, she was on the board for the BC Choral Federation for five years, and received the BCCF Willan award for outstanding service to the BC Choral Federation in 2015. She regularly serves as a Guest Conductor for Honour and Festival choirs, Adjudicator at Music Festivals, and Clinician for Conductor and Choral workshops. Sarona has taught Vocal, Choral and Leadership workshops on several trips to both Taiwan and South Africa, and she has been on the faculty for the BCCF Choral Directorship Courses since 2006. She has participated in and completed level three of Creating Artistry – Conducting Courses and Master Classes with Henry Leck and Vocal Training with Steven Rickards at Butler University in Indianapolis. Sarona is a registered teacher of SongShine – a program based on the leading edge science of neuroplasticity and the brain’s ability to reorganize and change itself through singing and music. Sarona recently moved to the Sunshine Coast where she founded the Inspirito Women’s Vocal Ensemble, leads SongShine classes, and continues to teach voice at her private studio.