“Climbing Higher” reflects the journey that so many of us across Vancouver Island have been on since the pandemic: we are continuing to venture forward to discover new ways to take back our lives to create something that is full, exciting, meaningful and rewarding, even if it may be different than before.
The choir’s director Karla Mundy has selected a repertoire for this concert that speaks of determination, love, endurance and encouragement, woven through images of bridges, mountains, rivers, and climbing. As always, the music embraces an interesting blend of styles, from funk, folk, gospel, classic pop and spiritual, to New Orleans jazz, and West and South African folk tunes.
We are so pleased to say that the stars have finally aligned for City Soul Choir to be our concert guest. When Island Soul Choir began in August 2007, the choir’s founding director Brian Tate thought that holding monthly rehearsals was just not sustainable. After seeing ISC flourish, Brian decided to create a similarly-structured choir in Vancouver in 2010, to be known as City Soul Choir. CSC’s format has changed slightly over the years, to become an auditioned choir of 100 singers, that rehearses every two weeks. While Brian was still the conductor, and since Karla Mundy “took over the stick” in 2019, we have talked about the possibility of having CSC as our guest. It is now happening, and we couldn’t be happier to share the stage with our sister choir!
Island Soul Choir is a community choir in its purest sense. The choir welcomes members from all over Vancouver Island, from Victoria to Port Hardy to Bamfield, as well as Gabriola, Salt Spring, Cortes, Lasqueti and Quadra Islands. Members don’t need to have any prior choir experience; they may not even know how to read music — they just need to love to sing. There’s definitely safety in numbers for newcomers to find their singing voice within this choir, and we are continuing to offer online-only participation for anyone who is still unsure of participating in person.
Given that Ms. Mundy lives in Vancouver, Island Soul Choir rehearsals are scheduled only five times per session, about a month apart, unlike traditional choirs that rehearse weekly. As the choir completes its 16th year, it continues to be hugely popular in spite of (or maybe more due to) this unorthodox rehearsal format.
NanGo Grannies will partner once again with Island Soul Choir by selling crafts in the theatre lobby before the concert and during intermission, in support of The Stephen Lewis Foundation that helps grandmothers in sub-Saharan Africa countries raise their grandchildren who have been orphaned by AIDS. The Grannies will also be selling baked goods in cooperation with Nanaimo Bakery, in support of Island Crisis Care Support that provides local housing and outreach programs to help people in crisis stabilize and find the support, resources and services they need to recover and be well. We encourage our audience to take advantage of this opportunity to support these truly worthwhile endeavours.
Fantastic! I love the upbeat music!… Loved the range of music and the enthusiasm of the choir!… Well done. A good mix of content… Enjoyed it from beginning to end!… Creative adaptations of traditional scores… Everyone had fun!… Time flew by! Lots of energy… I always find the music uplifting and come away feeling joyous!
