“It’s important for you to know, and for those who are listening online across our country, that our cathedral in the nation’s capital has one of the strongest youth ministries in the Anglican Church of Canada between its two choirs. Upwards of 40 and sometimes 50 kids weekly gather to sing together, to sing scripture, to grow in their stature as the children of God.” It’s a wonderful ministry, he added.

The choirs have plans to travel to the U.K. next year and to sing at Westminster Abbey in London in 2027.

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Budzin is a jazz fan. When he was a priest in Toronto, his parish there offered jazz vespers twice a month for 13 years. Inspired by that experience, “I thought we should take the risk and offer jazz vespers in a rural setting.”

The monthly Sunday afternoon jazz vespers services at St. Paul’s Osgoode that began in 2024 have proved him right. “Attendance has been enthusiastic and strong. I think September and October, we had 65 folks, and then even on a dreary November day, we had 75…. Several times, a number of people on their way out have thanked me for jazz vespers, and they say, ‘It’d be wonderful if this was offered more often.’” So, in the spring, the parish will test out holding services twice a month.

Budzin estimates that only 12 to 15 of those attending the vespers are regular Sunday morning parishioners. The rest come specifically for the jazz service. “They just love it, and they find it spiritually supportive and enriching. It has really developed into its own kind of worshipping community. On her way out, one woman said, ‘I think you’re making me a recovering agnostic.’ I like that comment,” said Budzin.

“What I’ve noticed with the Osgoode jazz vespers is I’d say 65 to 70 percent of the people are regulars who come every month. They are … getting to know each other and I’m getting to know them.” They love the musicians, says Budzin. “The quartet, sometimes the quintet, is excellent.”

Mark Ferguson is the leader of the quartet and plays keyboards and trombones. John Geggie is the bass player. Mike Tremblay is the saxophonist. The drummer is Jamie Holmes, and occasionally, for the quintet, Ed Lister is on trumpet. “Some folks scratch their head and say, ‘How do you get guys like this to come to Osgoode?’ But the musicians love it, too. They’re very committed and dedicated,” Budzin said.

The music is not all jazz. It’s a mix of music from artists such as Leonard Cohen, Gordon Lightfoot, Joni Mitchell, The Beatles, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, George Gershwin, Stevie Wonder and Burt Bacharach.

Instead of a traditional homily, Budzin usually reads one or two poems and offers a reflection. He’s read poems from Gerard Manley Hopkins,  e.e. cummings, Wendell Berry, Mary Oliver, and other less well-known writers, and he usually include a copy of the poem in the order of service.

“I love poetry as much as I love jazz, so I pick a poem that I think people would appreciate. And so far, I’ve struck a chord. Some folks have said they’ve collected all the poems that I’ve used for jazz vespers and keep them in a little binder.”

Budzin adds that at St. John’s Church in Richmond, they have started a monthly Sunday vespers for harp and flute with two exceptional musicians. “That is doing very well, too. Not quite as high numbers as jazz vespers, but it’s getting 25 to 30 people and developing its own group of supporters,” he said.

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The choir of Pembroke students is led by renowned organist, conductor and broadcaster Anna Lapwood, who is just finishing her tenure as director of music at Pembroke and has been appointed as the organist at the Royal Albert Hall in London. She serves as the Artist in Association with the BBC singers.

Their concert at St. Barnabas included Vigilate by 16^th century composer William Byrd but most of the pieces they sang were from contemporary composers, including Lapwood’s own composition Arise, Shine, which she said reflects on Jesus as the light of the world.

They also performed her arrangements of pop songs — Bob Dylan’s “Make you feel my love,” and Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah.” Lapwood said the master of Pembroke had asked her to do an arrangement of “Hallelujah,” one of his favourite songs, and they added it to their program for their Canadian tour because Cohen was Canadian.

The concert also included Eleanor Daley’s “Grandmother Moon” with lyrics by Mi’kmaq poet, Mary Louise Martin, which Lapwood said the choir has sung and loved for years and had special meaning for them as they visited Canada.

The Canadian tour included stops in Quebec City, Montreal, Ottawa, Kingston and Toronto. Lapwood said she and the choir were enjoying their trip and were particularly gratified by the warm audiences who had given them standing ovations at every concert. Ottawa was the first stop where they were being accommodated in home stays. Parishioners at St. Barnabas were hosting the choir members in their homes, and Lapwood thanked them during the concert for making them feel that they were with family.

The choristers were looking forward to the adventure of white-water rafting on the Ottawa River during their visit to the city.

Lapwood is a passionate advocate for music education, diversity and equal opportunities in music. The choir travels to Zambia every three years, and Lapwood has visited to teach music programs every year since she went as an undergraduate student in 2017.

Even though, Lapwood is just 30 years old, she was told during her musical education to “play like a man.”  In an interview with Perspective after the choir arrived in Ottawa, she said such bias continues to exist. “A lot of people have also said, ‘Stop banging on about it, it doesn’t happen anymore, that was 10 years ago, it’s not relevant anymore.’ Actually, one of my students told me as recently as maybe four months ago that they have been told exactly the same thing, and it just is there in historically gendered spaces,” she said. “I think the ease with which people can slip into gendered language, which is implying that one gender is better than the other is slightly scary, and so what I’m trying to do is just be the opposite of that and try and tell everyone that they’re welcome and valid and that gender doesn’t mean anything in terms of musical ability. It’s just it’s complete nonsense. And I guess because I’m quite vocal about it, female organists tend to come and want to work with me because I talk about it quite a lot. And I’m lucky that we have two amazing female organ scholars. I’ve also had two brilliant male organ scholars. I think it’s just trying to make sure everyone feels welcome and included.”

Lapwood tells her students to be and play like themselves. The concert performance at St. Barnabas attests to the stellar success of that approach. As the crowd stood and applauded until Lapwood offered them an encore of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” arranged by one of the young choristers, she was alight with pride in their achievements.

They returned to St. Barnabas the following day to sing at the Sunday evensong service. The choir donated 25 percent of the price of their sold-out tickets to the parish.

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Singers from many different choirs across the city gathered at Christ Church Cathedral Ottawa on June 14 for a workshop with renowned composer and director Andrew Balfour. Together,  they filled the Cathedral with music that beautifully mingles choral works with Indigenous perspectives and language.

Balfour directed the composite choir through two of his original compositions and two of his arrangements of 16^th century music by Thomas Tallis and Orlando Gibbons.

The workshop coincided with the tenth anniversary of the release of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s report, and Balfour spoke about his experience of being one of thousands of children who suffered the systemic abuse of being taken away from their Indigenous families in the 60s Scoop. “I was taken away from my medicine, my language, my blood mother, my brothers and sisters and connections,” he said.

“However, I landed in a wonderful, loving family. My father was an Anglican priest at All Saints Anglican Church in Winnipeg,” he recounted as he introduced himself. His adoptive family was also a very musical family, which is how Balfour was exposed to a very broad range of music as a child, including choral music as a choir boy.

There were early indicators of his passions and talents. As a child, he would play at being a conductor. Hearing the opening of Bach’s St. Matthew’s Passion was when he was eight or nine was “mind-blowing,” he shared. “I learned the codes,” he added, “how to make music, when I was six or seven years old.” That opened the door to his career as a singer, composer, conductor and sound designer that has taken him to across Canada and the world.

Along the way, there was also a difficult journey to reconnect with his Cree identity.

Balfour found a way to unite the two worlds musically. In a description of his album Nagamo, he explained that “by taking the choral music of the Elizabethan masters and other later choral music, I have reshaped the thoughts behind the texts, by changing the Latin to Ojibway or Cree perspectives. These are not direct translations of the sacred texts, rather a more Indigenous perspective of spirituality, but keeping the beauty of the polyphony intact.”

Ispiciwin (Journey) combines Cree text with the 16^th century music of Orlando Gibbons’ ‘Drop, Drop Slow Tears.’

Four Directions brings Ojibway text together with 16^th century music from Thomas Tallis “Te lucis ante terminum” (To thee before the close of the day), a hymn written to be sung at Compline, the last service of the day. Four Directions calls for the singers to add bird song into the piece at times, evoking the peacefulness of evening.

Qilak is Balfour’s original composition inspired by a trip he made to Baffin Island and is a collaboration with Iqaluit folksinger and songwriter Madeleine Allakariallak with English and Inuktitut text. Balfour told the singers at the Cathedral that when he arrived on Baffin Island, far north of the tree line, he was struck by the immensity of the land and the sky, which inspired this work.

Ambe is also Balfour’s original composition based on and inspired by an original song in Ojibway gifted to Balfour and the University of Manitoba Concert Choir by traditional drummer and singer Cory Campbell. The notes with the score say that Campbell describes the song as “a call to the people to the ceremonial way of life or the red road.” Balfour explains that “the steady beat throughout represents the heartbeat of Mother Earth and the lyrical first soprano melody that emerges from this rhythmic texture at measure seven conveys the powerful totem of the eagle which represents the teaching of love, wisdom and strength.”

Andrew McAnerney, associate music director for Christ Church Cathedral, said he was really grateful to Balfour for coming to Ottawa. “As was apparent to everybody, he’s a very accomplished musician. He’s a great director and artist,” he said, noting that he is in high demand and working on many projects.

McAnerney was delighted that the workshop drew singers from 15 to 20 different choirs. “That was tremendous work to get those 70 plus people together and singing those works… There was a range of difficulty. The Ispiciwin piece was relatively straightforward, whereas the Ambe piece with all its sorts of rhythms and syncopation was quite a challenge, especially because he didn’t take it slowly at all. He went full speed from the start.” Most of the singers participated in a pre-workshop rehearsal with McAnerney and were helped by having the music to study in advance, he said.

McAnerney said that singing the songs in the three different Indigenous languages “opened a window for us.” Balfour generously helped to bridge the gaps and open “a connection to a different world of music making. That was really special to have him there to explain it.”

The morning workshop also included a conversation with the Cathedral’s Dean Beth Bretzlaff asking Balfour some questions. He spoke about his love of Bach’s music and that first time hearing St. Matthew’s Passion and his memories of first travelling to England as a choir boy and singing in a cathedral that was 1,000 years old.

When she brought up the tenth anniversary of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s report, Balfour shared his admiration for the commission’s chair, Murray Sinclair, who passed away last year. He recalled listening to testimony at the TRC hearings in 2012 from 12 grandmothers, who were in their seventies and eighties at the time. “I suddenly saw them as young, vulnerable children. How is it possible, that just down the street, the master of the universe, John A. MacDonald, and all of those racist people made decisions to send those children away?”

He said that he sees hope in education and the fact that young people in Canada are learning about that history now, and in the work of Indigenous artists as a force for change and healing.

He added that the word reconciliation is misleading because there never was a time of peace and good relations to return to, but he echoed Sinclair’s words that “Reconciliation is an ongoing journey, not a destination.”

There were many compliments from the singers who attended. Susan Johnston, whose children are part of the Cathedral choirs, told Perspective that she came out of curiosity and an appreciation for seeing an act of reconciliation through music.

Loutchka Prophete, a parishioner at Christ Church Cathedral, said: ‘Singing together brings us together.” She compared it to Kintsugi, the Japanese art of repairing pottery using gold to join the broken pieces. “We must find the link, common ground, and these activities give us that common ground.”

The next day, Christ Church Cathedral’s Sunday Choral Eucharist marked the National Indigenous Day of Prayer as well as Trinity Sunday. Balfour was a guest director, and the Cathedral choir sang Ispiciwin and Ambe. That service was lives-treamed and can still be viewed on the Cathedral’s YouTube channel.

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The book was a labour of love for Frances Macdonnell, its general editor. Hewitt was her first organ teacher, she told Crosstalk, and she served as his assistant organist for the last few years of his working life at the Cathedral before she succeeded him as organist and music director at the Cathedral in 1980.

Born in England, Hewitt nurtured and influenced generations of young church musicians, singers and organists in Ottawa and beyond. He was one of the only four church musicians in Canada ever to be awarded an honorary Lambeth Doctorate by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Macdonnell said.

“Godfrey never published any of his music (except a couple of descants in various hymnbooks — one of them is in Common Praise.)  But during the last two years, I have led a group of musicians who had all been singers in Godfrey’s Cathedral Choir in earlier days to re-create this music and get it published,” she explained.

The new book, Sacred Choral Music of Godfrey Hewitt, includes all of Hewitt’s choral music for the Eucharist, Matins, and Evensong, his original Psalm chants, descants, and an Introit. “It also for the first time publishes his reharmonizations of hymn tunes,” she said.

“All his working life, Godfrey played his own reharmonizations of the final verses of hymns–but he never wrote them down. They are wonderful and should be more often played. Their movement and harmonic development always completely illustrate the mood and meaning of the words,” said Macdonnell, who re-created these reharmonizations from her own memories of Godfrey’s playing over many years.

The music was all engraved by Ross Jewell, a former Cathedral Choir member and retired electrical engineer, who took up music engraving as a retirement project.

The academic preface to the book, describing Hewitt’s life and work, was written by Dr. John Brough, a member of the Cathedral choir as a boy and young man, who now teaches music at Concordia University in Edmonton. His doctoral thesis was written on the history of church music at Christ Church Cathedral, Ottawa.

The publication of this book was made possible by the Godfrey Hewitt Memorial Fund, established through the Royal Canadian College of Organists (RCCO) after Dr. Hewitt’s death in 2002, Macdonnell said. This fund helps to produce the highly trained organists the Canadian church needs for the future by providing:

• an annual scholarship of $6,000 for a graduate student in organ
• a bi-annual grand prize of $6,000 for the RCCO national organ-playing competition
• an annual grant of $3,000 to the RCCO’s Summer Academy for young organists
• an annual grant of $2,500 to various organ recital series in Ottawa and across Canada

All this is made possible by donations to the fund in Godfrey Hewitt’s memory and in aid of the training of young Canadian organists.  Donations to the fund are very welcome and eligible for charitable tax receipts.

To make a donation to the fund or to purchase a copy of the book ($30, plus $5 for postage), please contact Frances Macdonnell by email: fbmacdonnell@sympatico.ca or by mail at 303 – 3099 Carling Avenue Ottawa ON K2H 5A6.

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Editor’s note: This story has been revised to include changes to events on June 14. A Saturday afternoon event marking the 10^th anniversary of the conclusion of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission has been cancelled. The 10:30 am worship service on June 15, focusing on the National Indigenous Day of Prayer, will take place as planned at Christ Church Cathedral, Ottawa.

Prominent Cree composer Andrew Balfour will help the Anglican Diocese of Ottawa mark National Indigenous History Month and the National Indigenous Day of Prayer on June 14 and 15 by bringing his music to a workshop for singers, a public event, and a special service at Christ Church Cathedral.

Andrew McAnerney, associate director of music at Christ Church Cathedral, shared his excitement about the Juno-nominated composer’s collaborative visit. “He’s a great talent,” he said. “And he’s a really interesting voice, not only about Anglican church music, which he knows well because he was a chorister, but also because of his identity and his background and … his own journey that he shares as a discovery of music and culture.”

Balfour was taken away from his Cree mother as a part of the Sixties Scoop. He was adopted as an infant by a Winnipeg family with Scottish roots and a love of music. His mother was a violinist and his father was an Anglican priest, who encouraged his interest in choral music.

As a young man, however, he struggled with questions about his identity, and later with poverty, alcohol, and a brief incarceration. Along the way, however, he reconnected with his Indigenous heritage and then found his path as a musician bringing Indigenous and classical choral music together in innovative ways. He is now known as a composer, conductor, singer and sound designer with a large body of choral, instrumental, electro-acoustic and orchestral works.

Balfour has been commissioned by the Winnipeg, Regina and Toronto Symphony Orchestras, Ensemble Caprice, Groundswell, the Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra, the Winnipeg Singers, the Kingston Chamber Choir, Roomful of Teeth, Tafelmusik and Toronto Mendelssohn Choir. He is the founder and artistic director of the innovative vocal group Dead of Winter (formerly Camerata Nova), now in its 25th year of offering a concert series in Winnipeg. With Dead of Winter, he writes that he specializes in creating “concept concerts,” many with Indigenous subject matter (​Wa Wa Tey Wak ​[Northern Lights], ​Medieval Inuit​, Fallen​)​. These works “explore a theme through an eclectic array of music, including new works, arrangements and inter-genre and interdisciplinary collaborations.”

In March, Balfour was slated to debut at Carnegie Hall in New York City, conducting selections from his work Tapwe: Songs of Truth with the Amabile Choirs, but due to an error in the paperwork for his stay in the U.S. and rigorous border security, he was denied entry into the U.S. and had to return to Canada.

“That whole concert at Carnegie was all about truth and love and compassion. So, I guess it’s kind of ironic that I get turfed,” he said in an interview with the Winnipeg Free Press.

He will be warmly welcomed at Christ Church Cathedral.

McAnerney outlined the plans for three events on Saturday, June 14 and Sunday, June 15.

On the morning of Saturday, June 14, there will be a music workshop for singers. McAnerney explained that participants don’t have to be choir members, and there is no fee. Anyone who wants to participate just needs to rregister on the Cathedral website https://www.ottawacathedral.ca/

The morning workshop will also include a moderated conversation with Balfour about his music, about his art, and about being a Cree composer brought up in the Anglican choral tradition, McAnerney said. “Andrew was a boy chorister himself. That’s not a comfortable story. It’s a story that’s going to talk about that intersection of Indigenous identity and the Anglican Church because he lived that. He was adopted from his family by an Anglican priest, so we’re going to have a conversation with him about that.”

Turning back to the music itself, McAnerney explained: “We’re going to be singing four pieces, which Andrew has created. Two of those are his own composition. One is called Ambe, and that’s based on a text about welcome for all things walking on two legs. There’s Qilak, which is in Inuktitut, and it’s a piece that’s inspired by travels on Baffin Island. It’s a piece about the views, about the skies, about the snow.”

The other two pieces are fusions with choral music from the 16th and 17th centuries. Ispiciwin [Journey] sets Cree words to music by English composer Orlando Gibbons. Four Directions is an Ojibway text set to music by English composer Thomas Tallis. “There are bird songs. There are ideas of the natural world combined with this ancient English piece of polyphony,” he said.

McAnerney noted that he will offer a rehearsal for participants on June 10 at the Cathedral between 7 and 8.30. “If people want to come and learn the music before the workshop, they can do that with me. And that will be lots of fun. We’ll also have resources on the event page for the text and for learning in advance,” he said. “We recommend if people want to participate, that they do that work in advance because they’ll get more from the workshop and more from Andrew if they’ve taken some time to be familiar with the music and pieces.”

On Sunday, June 15, there will be a special worship service at 10:30 am focused on the National Indigenous Day of Prayer. Balfour will lead the music, including William Byrd’s Mass for Five Voices as well as his own compositions Ispicwin and Ambe, with the Cathedral choirs.

McAnerney added that Balfour is well-acquainted with Ottawa, having brought one of his choirs to the city last year to perform from his Juno nominated album, Nagamo. “I’ve been a big fan of his work and his art,” McAnerney added, mentioning that a professional choir he directs in Montréal is commissioning a new work from Balfour that he hopes the choir will be able to perform at the Cathedral next year.“

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On the second Monday of each month, the Rev. Canon Allen Box celebrates the Eucharist in the hospital’s beautiful chapel, assisted by a team of Anglican volunteers led by Sheila Ruban and Tom Delsey who bring the patients to and from their rooms for the service, in wheelchairs or on gurneys. A choir led by Frances Macdonnell leads the congregation in singing four hymns and a psalm and all the service music by Merbecke; the choir also sings a choral prelude to the service as the patients are gathering.

As well as celebrating the monthly Eucharist, Canon Allen visits all the Anglican patients weekly, as do some of the volunteers. In these days in which more and more elderly people live in long-term care, this year-round Anglican ministry is of enormous value.

On Monday, Jan. 8 in the chapel, a particularly special service took place, since as well as celebrating the Epiphany, we were also celebrating the 60 years which Garth Hampson, Ottawa’s favourite bass-baritone, has spent volunteering at St. Vincent’s Hospital. When Garth first came to Ottawa in 1964 as the bass soloist with the RCMP Band, he joined the Cathedral Choir and started leading the music at the Anglican service at St. Vincent’s Hospital—and has continued doing that for 60 years, an unmatched period of service! In the last dozen years, this volunteer choir has been singing along with him—but Garth has been there faithfully every month since 1964!

For all his many kinds of  volunteer work, Garth has also been awarded the Sovereign’s Medal for Volunteerism, the Queen’s Silver, Gold, and Diamond Jubilee Medals, and the Governor General’s Commendation for Volunteerism.

At this special service, Canon Box was joined by Bishop Peter Coffin who has long been involved with the Anglican ministry at SVH, and we were thrilled to see Sister Louise Charbonneau return from retirement; she was the last of the Roman Catholic Sisters of Charity, the original founders of SVH, to serve in the chapel.

During the service, Garth sang the solo part in The Lord of the Dance, the choir and congregation joining happily in the chorus after each verse. Sheila Ruban had kindly organized a celebratory luncheon after the service, and many of Garth’s extended family and friends were there.

Fr Allen Box spoke during the service of Garth’s lifetime of volunteerism, and in his remarks at the luncheon, Bishop Peter thanked Garth and also Garth’s wife Eleanor for all her years of support.

Lacking a 60-year-volunteer-service pin, Rebekah Hackbusch, manager of spiritual care at SVH, presented Garth with two 30-year-volunteer-service pins!

Canon Box’s ministry at SVH is funded through the Prayer Book Society, Ottawa Branch, and is supported by several parishes such as All Saints, Greely, St. Mary the Virgin, Blackburn, and St. Barnabas, Ottawa, as well as by many individuals. All donations are tax-receiptable; cheques payable to “PBSC Ottawa Branch” can be sent to Frances Macdonnell, 303-3099 Carling Avenue, Ottawa K2H 5A6.

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The clergy already had ample evidence that people in the parish and the wider community love sacred choral music. An advertised performance by a visiting choir from Christ’s College, Cambridge in July had phones at the church ringing non-stop, and it was a packed house for on the concert on that hot summer evening.

And when Calkin offered Nov. 11 as one of the possible dates, the Rev. Gillian Hoyer recounted: “We thought what better way to mark Remembrance Day in a military community than to offer this Requiem for All Souls with the music of Fauré’s Requiem sung by the combined cathedral choirs?”

Much planning and rehearsing later, the combined choir arrived in Pembroke on Nov. 11, including members from the girls and boys choirs, mens’ choir and the lay clerks. Hoyer estimated there were 35 to 40 altogether.

Remembrance Day services are always important services at Holy Trinity because of Pembroke’s deep connection with the military. “Many of our parishioners are veterans or are active members of the military… and right now our curate in the parish, the Reverend Claire Bramma, is in her two-year civilian posting before becoming a military chaplain herself,” said Hoyer.

More than $1,300 in donations were collected for Wounded Warriors Service Dogs. “We know that there are a lot of veterans in our communities who have been beneficiaries of that organization, and in the absence of a specifically local veterans’ charity, we wanted a veterans charity that has a local connection,” Hoyer explained.

The service was very well attended, and Hoyer said many parishioners said how moved they were to hear the music in a service as Faure intended.

Parishioner Lesley Lancaster wrote to thank the clergy for making the special service possible. “The level of musicianship totally blew us away and to be so close to the singers was a real joy. I have sung this requiem in the past and heard it in concert. Some movements were sung at my father-in-law’s funeral in 2001 by his church choir in England…but I have never heard it before as part of a full Requiem Mass and found it very moving.”

The Holy Trinity Anglican Church Women group went all out preparing a ham and turkey supper as thank you to the choirs before they travelled back to Ottawa.

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Do you know a girl aged 8-18 who loves to SING?

Coming out of two years of pandemic disruptions to our operations we are excited to be actively recruiting for the next generation of girl choristers to take the Cathedral Girls’ Choir into its third decade!

Founded in 2001, Christ Church Cathedral Girls’ Choir is currently celebrating its 20th anniversary and remains the only all-girl cathedral choir in Canada. We are a welcoming community where friendships and camaraderie flourish. We train complete musicians and develop confident leaders. While our home base is the beautiful, inspiring and historic Christ Church Cathedral, we have a rich history of outreach and concert work alongside participation in high-profile civic and state events. We have also toured extensively including to the UK, Germany, France, Hong Kong and Japan.

Who can join?
We are looking for girls aged 8-18 who love to sing and who want to be part of a dynamic, friendly and welcoming community.

When do you meet?
Our season runs from September-June with weekly rehearsals on Thursday evenings. Our schedule of performances and other events is published twice a year (at the end of August and in late December).

Do I have to be Anglican to join?
No. We accept choristers from any and no religious background.

Do I have to read music or have sung in a choir before?
No. We provide professional-level training alongside mentorships with some of the city’s best professional musicians.

What type of music is sung?
We sing music of all kinds (not just church music). Together with loads of beautiful classical repertoire you can expect to encounter jazz, Broadway showtunes and Disney songs along the way.

How much does it cost?
Nothing. In fact, choristers receive a small stipend from us to recognize their service and commitment.

What protocols are in place to manage COVID-19?
As of Spring 2022 we are rehearsing and performing in-person and masked with a mandatory vaccination policy. Throughout the pandemic we have closely followed and will always adhere to the latest guidance from the province, Diocese and the professional performing arts industry.

Interested?

An informal conversation with James Calkin (Cathedral Director of Music) is the ideal first step! He can be reached anytime at james.calkin@ottawacathedral.ca

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