CELEBRATING A LIFETIME OF SONG
Despite its name, globe-trotting Youth Singers of Calgary welcomes members of all ages
There are not many 28-year-olds who can claim to be a 19-year veteran of anything.
But singer, teacher and choreographer Lauren Thompson has had a lengthy career with the Youth Singers of Calgary, starting when she was about nine and continuing to this day.
It’s a common story with the group. With 15 divisions and 500 members aged “three to 93,” the Youth Singers of Calgary is an ambitious, globe-trotting, 30-year organization that has seen at least 4,000 alumni go through its ranks. Nevertheless, it tends to fly under the radar in its home city and is often confused with the Calgary Stampede’s Young Canadians.
“For people who have been involved, for the most part they have always been involved, whether they have stayed in it for years like I have or grown up and send their kids through the program,” says Thompson, who also does marketing for the Youth Singers of Calgary.
“It’s something where you just become really involved and really attached to it just for the love of it. But it’s so funny that the majority of the city don’t know about us.”
And, like many arts organizations, finding the funding to keep the Youth Singers of Calgary afloat is an ongoing challenge. In 2009, the group was left without a home when rent increases forced the choir from its building in Victoria Park.
After a few years without a permanent home, the group relocated to an 18,000 square-foot building on Hastings Crescent and pumped $2 million into renovations. The plan is to eventually own the building outright, which will cost another $3 million. Which makes the Singers’ annual fundraiser — Saturday’s Hearts Out at the National Music Centre — all the more vital.
The goal is to raise $100,000 that night, which will feature performances from two of the Youth Singers of Calgary’s semiprofessional ensembles, the show choir SHINE and the a cappella ensemble ONCUE.
“We’re very solid but we had to (use) our entire reserve when we lost our space eight years ago and had to move somewhere with these 500 people,” said Shirley Penner, founder and CEO of the Youth Singers of Calgary.
“Soon after that there was the financial downturn and you always kind of feel like these fundraisers have to be successful or we would not be in business. We have to raise a lot of money every year.”
Penner, who was awarded the Alberta Order of Excellence last year, founded the group back in 1985 while working at what was then Mount Royal College. It was meant to be a fairly modest choir for junior high students. Initially there were only 27 members.
Penner reckons that at least half of those original singers have remained a part of the group in some capacity. The attraction isn’t hard to figure.
First there’s the travel. Various divisions of the choir travel abroad each year. At the time of this interview, for instance, members were performing in Hawaii. In 2015, the choir toured China and a trip to South Africa is planned for 2019. Members pay their own way for these international trips.
The other draw is the program itself, which finds members performing everything from Renaissance-era madrigals to pop songs by Florence and the Machine and Hedley.
“Everyone can send in CDs and their suggestions,” Penner says. “Our creative team listens to about 1,000 pieces before they choose the year’s repertoire. They come out with a program, a complete curriculum. There’s an excitement when the students come into the classrooms and see their binders for the first time and see all the music they are going to do that year.”
This year, the Youth Singers of Calgary will perform May 13 at the Jubilee Auditorium. #IAmMusic is its annual main stage show, celebrating Canada’s 150th birthday with a celebration of Canadian songs. Everyone from Leonard Cohen to Corey Hart, Burton Cummings, Gordon Lightfoot and Nelly Furtado will be covered that night.
Thompson has performed everything from Mozart to the Beatles to Australian singer-songwriter Sia over the years. In the past 19 years, she has travelled and performed in China, South America, Costa Rica, and New York City.
“I do not think I would be the person I am today without the Youth Singers,” she says. “I know that sounds cheesy and cliché. But it has really defined my life. I stayed in Calgary for university because I wanted to stay in the Youth Singers, which led me to a career in marketing, which I’ve filtered over the Youth Singers now. It gave me so much confidence as a kid just to get up and be in front of people, to do presentations and speak in front of people and do interviews. It was basic skills I don’t think I would have if had if I wasn’t put on stage and brought out of my shell.”
It gave me so much confidence as a kid just to get up and be in front of people, to do presentations and speak in front of people.