{"id":175121,"date":"2018-08-05T22:31:59","date_gmt":"2018-08-06T02:31:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=175121"},"modified":"2018-08-05T22:31:59","modified_gmt":"2018-08-06T02:31:59","slug":"nova-scotia-toronto-mass-choirs-come-together-song-saturday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/08\/05\/nova-scotia-toronto-mass-choirs-come-together-song-saturday\/","title":{"rendered":"Nova Scotia and Toronto mass choirs come together in song on Saturday"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
File Photo: Deborah Sangster, recently elected president of the Nova Scotia Mass Choir, said Saturday that their diversity is what makes them so successful. (Photo<\/a> by TEDxToronto\/Flickr<\/a>, CC BY 2.0<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

HALIFAX \u2014 Two award-winning Canadian\u00a0gospel\u00a0choirs wowed unsuspecting pedestrians on a busy waterfront Saturday morning with a surprise performance, signifying a cross-country harmony between the two groups.<\/p>\n

The Toronto Mass Choir is in Halifax for the first time to perform a Saturday night show with the Nova Scotia Mass Choir, and members from both ensembles gathered on the Halifax waterfront to give onlookers a taste of what they do.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to make a splash in Halifax,\u201d Karen Burke, Toronto director and conductor, said Saturday morning.<\/p>\n

She said the union of the two choirs is significant because there aren’t many\u00a0gospel\u00a0choirs left in Canada, and both of them have lasted for decades. Toronto’s choir celebrated its 30th anniversary in October, and Nova Scotia’s choir isn’t far behind at 26.<\/p>\n

Though both choirs began with mostly black members, they now have a mix of people from all sorts of backgrounds, with Burke saying the Toronto choir has members from South Korea, Jamaica, South Africa and India.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’re celebrating the fact that cultures are together, so it’s an inter-provincial, but also a\u00a0multicultural\u00a0expression of\u00a0gospel\u00a0music,\u201d Burke said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we come together, it’s evidence of the power of the music and also what happens when people get together for one purpose.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the Saturday morning heat \u2014 35 C with the humidex \u2014 dozens of choir members sang, clapped and swayed to the beat of traditional\u00a0gospel\u00a0songs such as \u201cThis Little Light Of Mine\u201d and \u201cAmen.\u201d<\/p>\n

The group seemed to be a hit with their audience, many of whom sang and clapped along.<\/p>\n

Over the years, Toronto’s choir has won a Juno Award, among multiple others, while its Nova Scotia counterpart has won two East Coast Music Awards.<\/p>\n

Deborah Sangster, recently elected president of the Nova Scotia Mass Choir, said Saturday that their diversity is what makes them so successful.<\/p>\n

\u201cBasically, we’re all humans. We can all get along,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSure, we have differences and we come from various countries and various cultures, but at the core we’re all beings on this planet and we can all unite for the common good for all.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said the Nova Scotia choir’s mandate is to sing for racial harmony and peace, and show people what a\u00a0multicultural\u00a0and multiracial group looks like.<\/p>\n

It’s a sentiment shared by Christoph Ibrahim, a son of Egyptian immigrants who has been singing with the Toronto choir for six years.<\/p>\n

Ibrahim, 26, said he found a sense of community through the group and he’s glad both the Toronto and Nova Scotia choirs share a common goal of unity.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s the joining of two worlds,\u201d Ibrahim said.<\/p>\n

Community-building and togetherness is a common theme for why people choose to sing in choirs, said Angela MacLean, a student minister with the United Church of Canada.<\/p>\n

In March, MacLean presented her graduate research project at the Atlantic School of Theology in Halifax on how singing in a community choir influences someone’s spirituality.<\/p>\n

She said the people she spoke to during her research reported feeling uplifted after a music session with their choir.<\/p>\n

\u201cMusic certainly does do something for the soul, and that definitely came out loud and clear,\u201d she said in a phone interview Saturday.<\/p>\n

In her research, MacLean said several key themes emerged \u2014 the feeling of togetherness, compassionate connection, and a sense of hospitality and belonging.<\/p>\n

She said the act itself of creating music can build communities, break down barriers and forge bonds between people.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have all these different people from all sorts of different denominations, all sorts of different socioeconomic backgrounds, and they’re all singing there together,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd probably the most important thing they learn is that you have to learn to listen to the person next to you.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

HALIFAX \u2014 Two award-winning Canadian\u00a0gospel\u00a0choirs wowed unsuspecting pedestrians on a busy waterfront Saturday morning with a surprise performance, signifying a …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":175123,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-175121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","category-news","mauthors-alex-cooke","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=175121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175121\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/175123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}