That sound you hear passing Gravenhurst High School (GHS) on Wednesday nights? It’s The Cellar Singers tuning up for their 47th season! Their first rehearsal at GHS is Wednesday night, the first concert is on October 19th, and you’re invited to join in.
If you’ve ever wanted to experience singing with an established, auditioned community choir, rehearsals are open to anyone who loves to sing and can read music, and there’s no obligation for checking out The Cellar Singers. Just introduce yourself to Artistic Director Mitchell Pady. He’ll be happy to find you a spot among the sopranos, altos, tenors, baritones and bass performers. An open rehearsal means you don’t have to audition: you just come and see whether singing with The Cellar Singers is something you would like to do. You may find that sitting in prompts you to become a chorister – or entices you out to one of the group’s five concerts this season.
October 19th sees Dylan Bell taking The Road Home to Orillia
The first concert kicks off with the return of Orillia’s own Dylan Bell and other members of the award winning a capella jazz group, The Hampton Avenue 4 (Debbie Fleming, Tom Lillington and Suba Sankaran round out the 4). Bell trained under the Cellar Singers’ accompanist Blair Bailey, and is now making a name for himself producing for The Nylons and getting nominated for Junos with Sankaran in the indo fusion group, autorickshaw.
The Cellar Singers will sing several original tunes from Hampton Avenue 4 and each of ‘the 4’ will display their unique talents as well. The concert is entitled The Road Home for good reason as Bell returns to perform in Orillia after many years on his own musical journey. To hear a sample of Hampton Avenue 4, click here for “Making Lemonade”
Messiah with full orchestra in Bracebridge and Orillia
This year, The Cellar Singers will again perform Handel’s Messiah with a full orchestra and acclaimed soloists in Bracebridge on December 12 (and again in Orillia on December 14). The 2015 concerts include Light Perpetual, featuring requiem mass settings by the incredible Canadian talent of Eleanor Daley, and by one of the foremost French composers of the 20th century, Gabriel Fauré. His Requiem in D minor, Op. 48, the choral setting of the Roman Catholic Mass for the Dead, is the best known of his large works.
How to buy tickets
Full season tickets are on sale now online at TheCellarSingers.com/Tickets or from any chorister. Tickets for The Road Home, October 19th at St. Paul’s United in Orillia – and also for Messiah in Bracebridge – are also on sale online or you can get them at Chancery Lane Co in Bracebridge, or Arts at the Albion in Gravenhurst. (Submitted Photo: Mitchell Pady, Artistic Director for the Cellar Singers)