History

A History of the Calgary Choral Society

THE EARLY YEARS (1903 – 1940)

The earliest evidence of Calgary Choral Society was a rehearsal held on March 10, 1903¹. Over the next years the group met intermittently until Horace Reynolds took over the group in addition to his role as organist at Wesley United Church. After two conductors (C.B. Glover 7 years & Edward Broome 1 year), Glyndor Jones, a well-known baritone from Wales and also an organist with the United Church², became the new conductor in 1927. He was with the group until he left for a position in Vancouver in 1940. The group performed classical pieces as well as operettas. Membership was free and open to all Calgarians.

CORONATION & BEYOND (1952 – 1980)

At a meeting of the downtown Kiwanis club on September 8, 1952, the formation of the Calgary Choral Society was approved. “Consensus of members speaking before the vote was that Calgary is now ready, both in size of population and in the number of people interested, to support a choral society in the city on a paying basis.”³ Over the summer of 1952, 400 auditions were held from which 66 sopranos, 55 contraltos, 30 tenors and 50 basses were selected, and there was a waiting list of 170. Rehearsals were held at the Mount Royal College Conservatory of Music. The first event was a recording of two carols for the Calgary Power Discovers radio program on December 21, 1952 as well as their Christmas Day broadcast.

The Calgary Choral Society’s first public performance was at the Stampede Corral on May 9, 1953 where they performed “Merrie England” with the Calgary Symphony Orchestra and two of “Britain’s brightest singing stars”, Webster Booth and Anne Ziegler, as part of a celebration of Queen Elizabeth’s coronation. There were over 6,000 people in attendance.

This oratorio choir continued after that inaugural concert with plans for two concerts per year, one in November and one in April. In 1970 the Calgary Choral Society was formed as a non-profit organization which it remains to this day.

HANDEL’S MESSIAH

Through the years, the Calgary Choral Society performed Messiah, with the first known performance in 1913⁴. In a time where such performances were a primary source of entertainment for the season, this was a big draw. Public opinion was strong and the pressure was definitely on for a group of singers to do justice to this music. Depending on the year and the particular group of singers (and reviewers!), feedback was sometimes enthusiastic and occasionally dramatically negative. One letter to the editor in 1927⁵ complained not of the music, but of a desire for more of it — that a ticket price of $1 was too high and should be reduced to $0.50 and allow for two performances.
In 1970, the Messiah was, for the first time, not a capacity audience at the Jubilee. John Vandenbeld switched the musical offering to Bach’s Christmas Oratorio in 1975, and when the Messiah was performed again in 1978 at Knox United Church to a smaller crowd, reviews were not great (“Couldn’t get a Handel on the Messiah”⁶). With this in mind, Vandenbeld creatively decided to embrace the amateur label, continue a cherished tradition, and in 1981 the group successfully launched a sing-a-long Messiah, a tradition that continues to this day at Knox United Church, but is no longer sponsored by the Calgary Choral Society.

SETTLING IN (1980 TO 1995)

Calgary Choral Society established itself as an on-book group of enthusiastic community singers preparing for and performing two shows per year, Christmas and Spring. With James Munro’s last concert as Artistic Director, the group left classical music behind to try out the music of Broadway and perform with another Calgary group, the Heebee Jeebees. This was a sign of things to come.

A NEW APPROACH (1995-2008)

When Brian Farrell was asked to become Calgary Choral Society’s new Artistic Director, he indicated he would only be interested if the group was ready for a change. Over the first decade of his leadership, the group began performing off-book with an expanded repertoire of music. They sang over the years with more performers, including Raghav, David Thiaw, Cuba Libre, Steve Pineo Trio, Tim Tamashiro Quintet, Johnny Summers, Lindsay Ell, Tim Williams, and others.