A year at a glance
It has been an amazing 10th anniversary season. Let's reflect on our humble beginnings and our recent season and see what we have to look forward next.
Nancy and Cantala celebrating their 10th Anniversary by performing their Spring Concert, May 2018.
Founded in 2008 by Nancy Singla, the CANTALA WOMEN’S CHOIR has worked hard to become an award-winning, vibrant young choral group in the Toronto choral community. Cantala has been described as a “musical home” by many singing in the choir. From begging musical friends to come and sing for her 10 years ago, Nancy is now thrilled Cantala continues to attract those in the community who have a passion for achieving choral excellence, a great love of choral music and value the quality of life that singing in a choir can bring to one’s life.
Since 2013, Cantala has enjoyed hosting workshops with estemed conductors Elise Bradley, Zimfira Poloz and Ontario composer Jeff Enns. Cantala has participated in the Peel Music Festival, Toronto Kiwanis Music Festival and the Ontario Provincial Choral festival and received many awards, scholarships and accolades.
This past year, Cantala had the awesome experience of travelling to NYC, working with Eric Whitacre and performing at Lincoln Center as part of Distinguished Concerts International New York (DCINY). There was so much growth in every individual singer as this project demanded the singers learn and memorize 11 pieces before the first NY rehearsal. It was a daunting task, as some of the music was very advanced, but they did it and did it well. Congratulations to all who were able to participate.
Since May 2017 Cantala has been diligently recording concert repertoire to compile music for their first album release titled Cantala Women's Choir. It will be released on itunes, Amazon, spotify and on CD. This is Cantala's first professionally recorded album. It will be released in Fall, 2018.
This past year we were thrilled to receive two grants from the Ontario Arts Council which supported our spring concert and recording session. These grants enabled us to bring in a grand piano for our performance and recording of Rachmaninoff's Six Choral Songs to Forest Hill. We were very pleased to received these grants and want to graciously acknowledge their invaluable support.
The next 3 things up for Cantala:
A seasonally themed album is in the works....stay tuned. We will complete the recordings for this album this December 2018. Prospective release will be December 2019.
After NYC the choristers asked me if they could start to memorize their choral concert repertoire. They realised the increased presence of themselves in rehearsal and performance and felt it made a big difference to their engagement with the conductor and the music. I am all for that! So we are now going to perform without music in performance. I think both the singers, myself and the audience will be thrilled.
And finally, we have decided it is time to step up our performance look to reflect the high level of choral musicianship Cantala strives to achieve by wearing a choral performance dress during concerts. It is an elegant black formal dress and is sure to make everyone feel comfortable and professional on stage.
See you on Monday September 10th, 2018 for our first rehearsal.
I'm looking forward to the next season -and the next 10 years.