Christmas with the Choir: COVID-19 restrictions mean an online (but still joyful!) holiday concert this year
The Whitehorse Community Choir, “Tidings and Tinsel,” for 2021. COVID-19 restrictions mean an online (but still joyful!) holiday concert.
Barbara Chamberlin
The Masked Singers
It’s been a complicated year for Whitehorse Community Choir. Around a year ago, they went from regularly scheduled full rehearsals to absolutely nothing, and had no idea when or how they’d be able to return.It’s been a complicated year for Whitehorse Community Choir.
Ring in the Holidays with Song
For many, the holiday season would not be complete without their favourite Christmas music. The Whitehorse Community Choir has the perfect solution for those who are loathe to see December pass without beautiful renditions of “Silent Night” or “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen.” The choir’s winter concert, Tis the Season, will be sure to fill …
Choirs celebrate Celtic music
Spring is coming and so is the merry month of May, when a choir director’s fancy turns to … tartan? Yes, the Whitehorse Community Choir will be celebrating all things Celtic in its spring concert, Ceud Mìle Fàilte (Gaelic for A Hundred Thousand Welcomes) on May 3 and 4 at the Yukon Arts Centre. There will be a …
Bah! Humbug!
Christmas—’tis the season to be jolly, for many; but for others, not so much (think “Grinch”!). Perhaps … just maybe … a little balance to the celebrating is in order? This year on Friday, November 30, and Saturday, December 1, the Whitehorse Community Choir will take the stage, at the Yukon Arts Centre, to present …
Bah! Humbug!
Christmas —’tis the season to be jolly, for many; but for others, not so much (think “Grinch”!). Perhaps … just maybe … a little balance to the celebrating is in order? This year on Friday, November 30 and Saturday, December 1, the Whitehorse Community Choir will take the stage, at the Yukon Arts Centre, to …
25 Years and going S(tr)ong
The Whitehorse Community Choir is preparing for their 25th Anniversary Concert, to be held May 4 and 5 at the Yukon Arts Centre.
Taking the Sound of the Yukon to a National Stage
On July 1, the community choir, along with the Persephone Singers and the Chamber Choir, will take their sound to Ottawa. As part of the annual Unisong Choral Festival, they will sing with and for choir members and audiences from around the country and the globe.
A Creative Way to Spend Your Vacation
Artists, musicians, songwriters, general creative types and arts lovers alike might want to think about taking a little vacation time this summer. The Keno City Music and Art Workshop For Adults is returning for its second year, with workshops running July 24th through to August 7th. The event runs for two weeks, in week long …
Like a Boomerang
Exactly five years after releasing her third album, Of Ice and Men, Whitehorse singer Barbara Chamberlin is about to launch a new one titled Boomerang Girl, under the nom de guerre of Queenie and the B’s. Unlike her previous efforts, which were “all over the map” genre-wise, this one hews a straighter line. “It’s all blues kind of stuff. …
Barbara Chamberlin defies categorization
If it’s April and you’re hoping to hear Barbara Chamberlin perform, forget about it. “April is just a killer month,” she says. “I wouldn’t even try to play out that month. It would just be too hard for me.” So what makes April the cruelest month for the Whitehorse musician, teacher and choir director? Well, for …
Barbara Chamberlin defies categorization
If it’s April and you’re hoping to hear Barbara Chamberlin perform, forget about it. “April is just a killer month,” she says. “I wouldn’t even try to play out that month. It would just be too hard for me.” So what makes April the cruelest month for the Whitehorse musician, teacher and choir director? Well, …
Protest and Psychedelia
The Sixties are making a comeback in Whitehorse this week, complete with musicians ranging from Pete Seeger to Led Zepplin. On May 2 and 3, the Whitehorse Community Choir will offer its take on hits songs of the 1960s in its Songs of Peace and Protest concert at the Yukon Arts Centre. Choir director Barbara Chamberlin is …
Collecting songs of the North
Songs tell the stories of places, and the Whitehorse Community Choir Yukon Song Project reflects the stories of the North. The WCC choir director Barb Chamberlain, and Susanne Hingley are collecting poems and writings of the Yukon. The goals: to compile a library of Yukon songs, and to set Yukon poetry/writing to music. “We really …
Singers sing sea shanties
“They are clean drinking songs,” says Barbara Chamberlin, half laughing and half pleading. “There is such a thing.” The conductor of the Whitehorse Community Choir was explaining the name of the spring concert, All Hands On Deck, and wanted to ensure audiences knew that this would be clean fun. Chamberlin, who collects songs throughout the …
The Yukon’s own Lilith Fair
It isn’t easy to mount the Yukon’s own version of Lilith Fair. “It was a lot, a lot, a lot of work,” says President Erica Heyligers of the latest Yukon Women in Music project. “Yeah, a lot of work,” agrees her vice-president, Barbara Chamberlin. And even though the CD, Tether Hooks & Velcro, has been …
Musical benefit for Richard Godson
A man who has helped Yukon musicians for years — as a key organizer of the Alsek Music Festival and as a music teacher at St. Elias Community School – is now being offered help. While Haines Junction’s Richard Godson is receiving treatment for cancer in Vancouver, a musical benefit will be held Saturday, Feb. …
A ‘rase’ by any other name …
Q: What do Brian Fidler, Barbara Chamberlin and Harreson Tanner have in common? A: Those of us in the media often spell their names wrong. I, personally, have allowed two of their names to be spelled wrong in this paper and I remember the circumstances of each one because we editors (and writers) really hate …
Hallelujah, Zombies and the Man with the Octopi Hands
“Zombies. The theme is obviously zombies!” A man wearing a black Mexican wrestler’s mask, with a gaudy, bejewelled cross emblazoned on his forehead, spat poetry at the crowd, reading off a black iPhone. He spoke tersely, repeating himself in French after each tight verse. The man behind the mask finished the last barbed line and …
Hallelujah, Zombies and the Man with the Octopi Hands Read More »
Very Close to Home
Wow! Talk about your Northern content … The cover of Barbara Chamberlin’s latest CD, Of Ice and Men, is the work of renowned Yukon artist, Chris Caldwell, and the songs are about fishing, moose camp, Northern men, ice, ice fog … I believe that this CD is Chamberlin’s tongue-in-cheek look at living up here in …
Christmas Concert is Caliente, Caliente, Caliente
Barbara Chamberlin is loving the wordplay surrounding the Whitehorse Community Choir’s upcoming Christmas show, Christmas Caliente. “It’s music to warm your soul,” she says deliciously. “To warm your Christmas.” Perhaps it should be explained here that “Caliente” is Spanish for “hot”. “Throw away the cold when you walk into the Yukon Arts Centre,” she says, …
Christmas Concert is Caliente, Caliente, Caliente Read More »
Whitehorse Community Choir Goes Out With a Pop
It was within the depressing January weather stats that the Whitehorse Community Choir began its preparation for its Spring Concert, taking place at the Yukon Arts Centre on Friday, May 7 and Saturday, May 8. This year’s concert, entitled Pop Goes the Choir, will see the full choir, as well as its smaller off-shoots, The …
YWIM New Album Features 14 Talented Yukon Women
Storytelling has always been an integral part of Yukon history and tradition, in all its forms and mediums. That’s why this year, the non-profit Yukon Women in Music (YWIM) chose to make it the theme of their fourth and latest compilation album, “Song Rise”, which was just released in November. Under the common thread, Yukon …
YWIM Celebrates a Decade
On Saturday, May 29, a special concert is being held to celebrate a decade of YWIM (Yukon Women In Music). In truth, it has actually been 12 years since the YWIM idea first came about. In 1998, at the home of Lucie Desaulniers, a small but passionate group of women musicians started meeting to address …
Carols and Moonsongs
Who’s in for soaking up an afternoon of heartfelt acoustic and strong songwriting in a peaceful environment, while the snow outside drifts ever deeper? Copper Moon Gallery’s newest music series, Moonsongs, started up on Sunday November 21 to an appreciative and dedicated audience who struggled through a heavy snowfall to attend. Co-organized with Yukon Women …
The Magic of Madrigal
When the Whitehorse Community Choir presents its annual spring concert this week, it will be in a different venue than usual—the Sacred Heart Cathedral on 4th Avenue. It will also be offering musical fare whose origins trace back as far as 14th century Italy, together with items as modern as the Swingle Singers and the …
The Corner of Broadway & Wood
They’re dusting off their blazers and strapping on their tap shoes. Next week, the Grade 11 and 12 students of the Music Arts and Drama (MAD) program at Wood Street School will be going all-out to entertain with their year-end production of the 1980 Broadway musical hit, 42nd Street. Essentially a play-within-a-play, 42nd Street tells …
Girls With Guitars
The Town of Faro will soon be taken over by teenage girls on a mission. Musical instruments in hand, they will immerse themselves in music for a four-day weekend at the first-ever Faro Girls Music Camp, beginning June 2. The camp is being organized by Whitehorse singer-songwriter Kim Beggs and Heather Grantham, who runs the …
Tone and Diction Rule
It’s 7: 25 on a Monday evening. Over the past few minutes, 67 members of the Whitehorse Community Choir have arrived at the Whitehorse United Church and taken their places. Microphone in hand, Barbara Chamberlin calls out, “OK, let’s stand up. Let’s have a massage.” The atmosphere is lighthearted as the singers turn in their …