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Our final concert of the year was truly an amazing evening. It showed the skill, the showmanship and the sheer fun that our three choirs and ensembles can engender through their music. The auditorium was packed, and the audience responded enthusiastically to all the different genres of music presented. As usual, the Little Lambs stole the show with their rendition of 'The Three Little Pigs' - and casting the tallest, and most formidable senior boy as the Wolf was a stroke of genius.
This concert for the Senior Choir also turned out to be a lesson in important stage skills other than singing -such as: 1. Standing with hands at one's side (not in pockets) -and focusing for an extended period of time with eyes on the conductor, and having a good singing posture. 2. Knowing your place within your section, and also knowing your place on the stage -and getting to it quickly. We rehearsed the problem of getting ninety people on and off the stage a number of times. 3. Knowing that as the group gets larger, there is a dilution of responsibility - that is, the further you are distanced from the conductor the less connection you feel. Therefore, one has to combat this by conscious effort of will and finding a good sight-line for everyone. 4. Finally, it was gratifying to see that all the music by all the choirs and ensembles was memorized. Not having a choir binder in the hand gives every singer much more expressive freedom. Over the years, I think that this final concert was the best one that the Schola has ever done. There was humour, wit, variety, classical seriousness,-and, as a package, it exemplified the very high musical standards that the Schola stands for. Malcolm V. Edwards.
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Malcolm EdwardsMalcolm Edwards was born in Halifax, England and emigrated to Canada in 1967. He is a graduate of Sheffield College of Education (UK), Trinity College of Music, London, the University of Lethbridge, the University of Montana and has done further graduate work at the University of Northern Colorado. He taught music in junior and senior high school for twelve years in southern Alberta before joining the University of Calgary as a Professor of Music Education in 1980. He retired from the university after thirty-one years of service in 2011. In the community he was affiliated with the Youth Singers of Calgary for 21 years directing the Act Three and Senior divisions. In his retirement, he is now employed as an Adjunct Professor of Music at St Mary’s University, as the Artistic Director of the Calgary Men’s Chorus and as the Senior Choir Director at St John’s Choir Schola. He has held leadership positions within the Alberta Choral Federation, the Association of Canadian Choral Communities, served on the Board of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts and is active as a choral adjudicator and workshop leader in schools and churches. He is the recipient of two awards from the Provincial Federation – one in recognition of advocacy in arts education and the second in recognition of exemplary service to choral music within the Province of Alberta. In 2004 he received recognition from the national body (ACCC) for twenty-five years of service to the Canadian choral community. Archives
May 2026
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