The Chalmers Choir

For more than a century there has been a choir in the present Chalmers sanctuary. Since the previous Chalmers building also housed a pipe organ, it is likely that there was a choir too, but records are not available from the years before 1889.

The present choir is built around a paid core of eight singers, with about fifteen volunteer members. For special occasions it is augmented, as the photograph shows; it was taken at the concert in November 2006, celebrating David Cameron’s forty years as the choir’s director. The choir sings each Sunday morning in a ten-month season (September to June inclusive), and all services are broadcast live. Rehearsals are Thursday evenings in MacCallum Hall, adjacent to the sanctuary.

Repertoire is based upon the English Cathedral tradition, from the Renaissance to the present, and includes substantial components of Canadian music and music by living composers. New music is being added to the repertoire steadily, and the database of available anthems in the Chalmers library now lists well over 800 titles. In most services the choir sings an introit (which may also involve the congregation) and two anthems or motets. For these broadcast services the enhancement of congregational hymns with descants and varied accompaniments is also a regular feature.

At the time of David Cameron’s appointment as Director of Music in 1966, he undertook “to build a choir of concert capability for use in the services of the church”. Following this mandate, the choir sometimes adds concert preparation to its regular responsibilities, and it has been heard in centres as far west as Toronto and London, Ontario, and in eastern Ontario in Belleville, Brockville, Ottawa, and several smaller centres. On Good Friday each year, continuing a tradition now more than a century old, the choir presents the Good Friday concert. In David Cameron’s tenure this has included a good deal of the standard oratorio repertoire, with orchestra, as well as large works from the Renaissance and by modern composers. Since 1989 the Good Friday concert has been a joint production adding the singers of the concert choir Melos to the resources of Chalmers Choir.

The choir’s logo was designed by former choir president Mel Linney: