Guest Artists

Andrew Craig Fall 2023 Season

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This fall 2023 we are looking forward to workshops and winter concert with special guest artist Andrew Craig.

Andrew is the final guest artist to be featured in ECHO!! Revived, our eighteen month-long digital project funded by a grant from the Canada Council for the Arts. Echo is very excited to host Andrew, a talented and versatile musician—singer, instrumentalist, composer and arranger, teacher—to name a few of his many creative activities. He has directed the music for Harbourfront’s tribute to Quincy Jones, performed twice for Nelson Mandela, and contributed to the public tribute for the late Oscar Peterson in 2008.

In 2013, Andrew founded Culchahworks Arts Collective, a Toronto-based arts organization that celebrates figures and events from African-Canadian, Caribbean-Canadian and African-American  cultural legacies. Dr. Martin Luther King, Bob Marley and Harry Belafonte have received large-scale tributes. Through Culchahworks, and in partnership with the Toronto District School Board, Andrew created the Warriors’ Chorus choir, as a way for young people of colour, who face unique challenges, to reclaim their heritage.

Andrew will be conducting a workshop with Echo on Saturday, September 30 and will perform in Echo’s winter concert on Sunday, December 3. Echo will produce a high quality concert recording.

We are very grateful to the Canada Council for the Arts Digital Now grant, which made possible the ECHO!! Revived workshops and the filming of this concert.

photo: Kenneth Chou

Annabelle Chvostek Open Workshop Feb. 25, 2023

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Thank you Annabelle for a great workshop!
Join us for a community choral singing workshop with singer-songwriter, fiddler and composer Annabelle Chvostek. In-person and Zoom 

Date and time  Saturday, Feb. 25, 10:00am-12:30pm, Toronto EST, 2023
Join Zoom Meeting

Location 
Church of the Holy Trinity 19 Trinity Square, MAP  (beside the Eaton Centre, accessible)
Echo is thrilled to be working with Annabelle Chvostek as a guest artist this term. 
Chvostek is a Toronto-based singer-songwriter, composer and producer whose musical achievements range from folk to jazz to indie pop. She has composed music for dance and film, co-written songs and toured with Bruce Cockburn, and was once in the band The Wailin’ Jennys. 
Annabelle will be teaching Echo and friends some new music. Sponsored by the Echo Choir as part of our Canada Council for the Arts ECHO!! Revived grant project, this workshop is open to adult and teen singers of all genders and all (or no!) experience. You do not need to be able to read music to participate. 

Participants are welcome in-person or on Zoom.
In-person participants are asked to wear masks. 

Payment: suggested $15. Or PWYC, cash in hat style, or 
Tickets can be purchased here: Eventbrite 

Maria Dunn Community Choral Singing Workshop

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Join us for a community choral singing workshop with
singer-songwriter Maria Dunn. Visiting musician and composer Maria Dunn welcomes singers to this Toronto event.

When: Nov. 3, 7-8:30pm in-person and on Zoom
Where: College St. United Church, 452 College St, Toronto MAP

A true preserver of the spirit of folk music, 2022 Juno Award Winner Maria Dunn is often compared to Woody Guthrie for her keen social awareness and unvarnished melodic songs about ordinary people. Her latest album Joyful Banner Blazing (2021) celebrates resilience, grace, gratitude, solidarity, joy and the love that fires our actions to make the world a better place.

Sponsored by the Echo Choir as part of our Canada Council for the Arts ECHO Revived! grant project, this workshop is open to adult and teen singers of all genders and all (or no!) experience. You do not need to be able to read music to participate.

We welcome participants either in-person and on Zoom.
*In-person participants are requested to wear masks.
 Tickets $15.ea can be purchased here: Eventbrite  
Echo and Common Thread members PWYC suggested $15. at workshop, cash in hat style.

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Echo Wine Fundraiser! Thank you for supporting Echo!

We will send you a reminder to confirm the pick up dates, either the weekend of Oct. 20-30 or Nov. 5-6,
East end – 81 East Lynn Ave.
West end – 589 Indian Rd.
or Tues. Nov. 1 at choir practice (Neighbourhood Unitarian on the Danforth)

Songs of Climate Activism with Cassie Norton, Echo Workshop

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Thank you Cassie for your enlivening workshop!
Sing for a better world with Toronto musician, teacher and climate activist Cassie Norton

Tuesday, Nov. 23, 7pm – 8:30pm on Zoom

Echo Women’s Choir welcomes Toronto-based singer-songwriter, fiddler, teacher, composer, and climate activist Cassie Norton for a Zoom workshop! This event is open to our community. Adults and teens of all voices are welcome (ie you do not need to be female-identified to participate). We look forward to learning gorgeous songs of justice and change from Cassie.

Annabelle Chvostek and friends, Echo Choral Music Workshop on Zoom Oct. 5, 2021

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Echo was pleased to present a choral music workshop with Toronto singer-songwriter Annabelle Chvostek live from her Studio Garage on Tues. Oct. 5, 7pm on Zoom.

We learned two songs with some choral arrangements from her newly released album String of Pearls.  Everyone was welcome!
It was also Echo’s first hybrid rehearsal! Annabelle, Alan, Susanne and Alida sang and played live harmony!

Becca Whitla Workshop, “Soul Songs for times such as these”, March 1, 7-8:30pm on Zoom

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Join us for a Zoom workshop of soul-satisfying songs for these times, featuring Echo Choir’s Co-Founder,
Dr. Becca Whitla and cameo appearance by
Emma So Whitla.

Tuesday, March 1, 7-8:30pm, 2022

Echo welcomes back Co-Founder Dr. Becca Whitla to lead a workshop on soul songs for these times. This is a community choral workshop and no prior musical or choir experience is required. You are ready to sing just as you are! Adults and teens of all voices are welcome. Free for current Echo Spring Session members, $15. for our friends. Zoom link will be sent upon ticket purchase.
Tickets $15.ea:  Eventbrite 
 Becca Whitla is the professor of pastoral studies at St. Andrew’s College in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan where she teaches liturgy, preaching, and practical theology. Her book Liberation, (De)Coloniality, and Liturgical Practices: Flipping the Song Bird was released in December, 2020 (Palgrave McMillan). She worked in Toronto for many years as a community music leader. She co-founded and co-directed Echo and worked in the trade union movement developing leadership through choral singing. She is thrilled to be visiting Echo!

   
We look forward to seeing you!
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Songs of Climate Activism with Cassie Norton, Echo Workshop

Thank you Cassie for an enlivening workshop!
Sing for a better world with Toronto musician, teacher and climate activist Cassie Norton
Tuesday, Nov. 23, 7pm – 8:30pm on Zoom, 2021
Echo Women’s Choir welcomes Toronto-based singer-songwriter, fiddler, teacher, composer, and climate activist Cassie Norton for a Zoom workshop! This event is open to our community. Adults and teens of all voices are welcome (ie you do not need to be female-identified to participate). We look forward to learning gorgeous songs of justice and change from Cassie.

Annabelle Chvostek

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Annabelle Chvostek is a Juno-nominated singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist whose musical achievements range from folk to jazz to indie-pop. She has composed music for dance and film, arranged and conducted choral performances, and was once a member of The Wailin’ Jennys. 

Annabelle has been a guest artist at Echo’s Winter 2013, Earth Hour 2015, and Fall 2016 concerts, and provided passionate and creative leadership as our ongoing artist-in-residence from 2016 to 2018. She led our singing of MILCK’s “I Can’t Keep Quiet” at City Hall as part of the global women’s #Can’tKeepQuiet passionate refusal to remain silent in the face of oppression. She led us in a vigorous singing of the Canadian classic “Barrett’s Privateers” in 2015, and has continued to share her gifts as a guest performer in Echo’s fundraising events, and to participate in our Pandemica online performances.

Songs by Annabelle that Echo has performed include “Apocalypse Lullaby,” “All Have Some,” “Black Hole,” “Firewalker,” and “I’ll be your Refuge,” which was written for Echo.  Visit Annabelle’s website for more information, including links to singles “Walls” and  “Belleville Rendez-vous”  from her March 2021 album String of Pearls.

Tahirih Vejdani

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Tahirih Vejdani, Toronto singer and actor

Tahirih Vejdani was the Assistant Artistic Director and Conductor with Echo Women’s Choir for the 2019/2020 season. She brought us an abundance of skill, experience, enthusiasm, and new music, and we thoroughly enjoyed working with her.

Tahirih is an actor, singer, music educator, choir conductor, and composer. She holds a Bachelor of Music from the University of Regina with a double major in Vocal Performance and Music History.

As a conductor and music educator, she conducts the Regent Park School of Music choirs in Regent Park and Jane and Finch, and has led the Nai Childrens Choir, Toronto World Unity Choir, Florivox Women’s Choir and Univox Choir. Over the years, Tahirih has sung professionally with The Nathaniel Dett Chorale, Elmer Iseler Singers, Sing! Festival Singers, the Black Creek Festival Chorus, and is a resident musician at First Unitarian. Tahirih teaches an ensemble singing course at the Center for Indigenous Theatre and is also a private voice teacher.

When she is not teaching or leading choirs, Tahirih works as an actor having performed at various theatres across Canada including the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, The Globe Theatre, Shakespeare in the Ruff, Factory Theatre, Tarragon Theatre, and Driftwood Theatre. Her current creative ventures have led her to playing the mandolin and merlin.