Parrsboro citizens' choir
Welcome to the Home Page of the Parrsboro Citizens' Choir. We are a small group of enthusiastic singers who join together simply for the sheer joy of ensemble singing.
In the following pages we hope you come to get to know us, and perhaps even feel a desire to come out and give us a try. The group is open to anyone, no auditions and anyone willing to give it a try is more than welcome.
Take a wander through our site, meet the members, see what sort of foolishness we get up to. Our numbers vary from rehearsal to rehearsal, concert to concert but we are slowly improving and have great fun doing so. Mind you, so does how we dress vary from event to event, location to location. Check out our Evolution page for some idea of our 'progress'
This is a very informal site. Not at all professional. But hopefully it reflects the state of mind of our group. We enjoy what we do, hope that people appreciate what we are trying to do, and want so very much that you will understand and appreciate our efforts. Please feel free to comment via the email link on our Contact Us page. We would love to hear from you.
December 2021
The choir made its' annual appearance at the community tree lighting at the end of November. With a good turnout, even in the rain, we were pleased to be able, once again, to contribute to an activity which has such significance in approaching a resumption of some normal events.
November 2021
The choir has resumed rehearsals, in a much altered manner. Proof of immunization is required, and masks are left on unless actually singing. And singing time is limited to 30 minutes at a time when we break for 10 minutes to ventilate the space with fans. But the joy in getting back to sing together is palpable. And we welcomed several new members which is always a pleasure. In addition, Jim Chambers joined the group as our accompanist which has permitted Rob Bentley, who has served so well as accompanist for the past several years, to move to the back row and simply enjoy singing.
September 2021
We have completed seven virtual, socially-distanced performances. The initial one was made with much trepidation by most but as folks became comfortable with the process of singing all on their own, listening on headphones to those recorded already, the end results slowly improve and were fun to do.
You can view these virtual performances at the links below.
One of the recordings, 'Farewell to Covid-19', was the brain child of one of the choir members, Randy Mosher, who started us off with a couple of verses about a year ago. Sharing this with the group, others added a line or two, here and there and we finally put it together which was great fun for all, and has been well received, to the point that it got a brief showing on CTV national news and now has over 50,000 views on YouTube.
Additionally, as a result of the pandemic closures of activities at The Hall (the home of the choir) the president and music director, Rob Bentley, came up with the concept of virtual Social-Distance concerts. With a great deal of effort, and ingenuity, these expanded to weekly events, alternating with virtual open mic nights and before they concluded for the summer, featured one that focused on the choir which looked back at the history and development of the group and is worth watching. You can see this, and all the other concerts, at https://sites.google.com/site/thehallsitelogic/live-web-events,
As of today, Sep 6/21 vaccines have been introduced, some relaxations to the health protocols have come into effect and discussions are under way about resumption of rehearsals by the choir, and indeed all other musical groups at The Hall. However no decisions have been reached and we are still in hiatus, waiting for the province to reach the 75% level of the populace having received two vaccines doses at which point further relaxations may come into effect.
As the pandemic continues to keep us from joining together in song, we have attempted to keep our sense of group, and sense of humour, by continuing to virtually record some music. Individual members come in to The Hall to record their vocal and video performances, which are then mixed and put together by Rob Bentley who has singlehandedly keeping music alive at The Hall for over a year now with these choir performances, Social-Distance concerts and virtual open mic presentations on Sunday evenings. These are broadcast on cable television, on two websites: thehall.ca and parrsborolionsclub.ca and on the local radio.
However these are our last seven performances.