Copyright 2000 by Edward Willett

I love choral music. If you do, too, then you owe it to yourself to take in the Prairie Choral Festival this weekend in Regina.

My personal love of choral music grew out of my upbringing in the Church of Christ, which worships with a cappella congregational singing (no instruments). In church I sang all four parts as I grew up, starting out as a boy soprano and eventually metamorphosing (as boys are wont to do) into an alto, a tenor, and finally a bass/baritone, which is what I am now.

My dad was a chorus conductor, and I sang in his chorus in high school, then in my university chorus, then, after moving to Regina, with the Regina Philharmonic Chorus, and finally with the University of Regina Chamber Singers.

There was nothing like Juventus in Weyburn when I was a kid, but if there had been, I probably would have sung with it, too.

Juventus was formed in 1994 in response to parent's desire for a quality musical experience for children aged six to 18 in a group setting. It has grown rapidly since then. In its third season, it began offering subsidies for members whose families experienced hardship in paying the annual fees and scholarship for members to attend choir camp, and in the same year established a junior choir for children aged six to 11 with limited previous musical experience. In the fall of 1998, a third choir, an intermediate choir for children aged nine to 13, was added.

The director of all three choirs is Diana Woolrich, who has ensured that the choir is committed both to musical education of its members and the excellence of its performance. That excellence can't be doubted when you look at the choir's long list of awards and achievements. It's twice been a finalist in the National CBC Amateur Choral Competition, has three times represented the province in national music festival competition, placing second in the George Mathieson class last year, and has been invited to perform in St. John's, New York City and Ottawa, among other places.

Juventus is hosting this week's Prairie Choral Festival, which is a juried, non-competitive festival open to treble-voice choirs--in other words, girls' choirs and children's choirs. Approximately 400 choristers will be here from Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta. You'll be able to hear Regina's own Juventus Concert Choir, Juventus Intermediate Choir, Luther College Girls Choir and University of Regina Conservatory Children's Senior Choir, plus the Moose Jaw Children's Choir, the Moose Jaw Festival Singers, the Mount Royal Children's Choir, the Saskatoon Children's Choir, the Schola Cantorum Cantilon Chamber Choir, the Swift Current Children's Choir, and the Winnipeg Mennonite Children's Choir.

The choirs will be taking part in workshops led by Bruce Pullan, the distinguished conductor of the Vancouver Bach Choir and a fine singer in his own right who has performed with many of the major choral and orchestral ensembles across Canada. He's conducted massed Canadian choirs at Carnegie Hall and has given master classes and clinics in locales as widely separated as Cleveland and Tokyo--and now, Regina.

Besides taking part in workshops, the choirs will have the opportunity to give an informal concert of some of their individual repertoire Saturday evening, March 11, at 7:30 p.m. Holy Rosary Cathedral, and will also perform at various local churches on Sunday morning. The weekend culminates with a gala concert at the Saskatchewan Centre of the Arts on Sunday at 3 p.m., featuring a massed choir made up of all 400 voices.

Pinned above my desk at the Weyburn Review was a piece of paper (unfortunately lost now) on which is written a quote to the effect that there is no music made by any instrument that can compare with that made by human voices, "where the same are well ordered."

The young voices you can hear at the Prairie Music Festival this weekend will be extremely well ordered.

As I said, if you love choral music, you owe it to yourself to hear them. And if you don't, or think you don't, you owe it to yourself to hear them even more. Listen well, and you may learn to love choral music the way I, the children who will sing in Regina this week, and countless other choristers and listeners throughout history, already have.

Posted March 26, 2002