The MHC Girls Choir practises for two hours per week at the Cultural Centre and regularly performs across at venues locally and elsewhere within Canada.--NEWS PHOTO KENDALL KING
kking@medicinehatnews.com
The Medicine Hat College Girls Choir will soon be jetting off to Europe where they will participate in the International Johannes Brahms Choir Festival and Competition, then perform at a variety of venues in Belgium and France.
Comprised of female singers aged 12-19, the Girls Choir is a touring choral group which regularly travels within Canada, but ventures to international destinations approximately every three years.
The first stop on the group’s upcoming trip is Germany for the four-day competition.
Following the competition, the group will set off for another week and a half of touring, during which they will visit Belgium and France and perform free public concerts at a variety of well-known venues throughout, including the Vimy Ridge war memorial, Disneyland Paris and the Eiffel Tower.
Girls Choir conductor Justine Wilks says the 19 choir members are excitedly nervous for the trip and to showcase the skills they’ve been practising since last September.
“This trip is pretty unique and special for them,” Wilks told the News. “When we go to the competition, they sing with other choirs, they sing their pieces by themselves, they do master classes with other choirs, they will probably learn some new songs that other conductors will teach them and they will likely sing in a mass choir (with the other groups).
“So, they’re going to learn so much seeing all the different international groups that are there and hearing the repertoires that (the other choirs) are singing … They don’t always get to hear that stuff in Medicine Hat at their caliber … So, this will be eye opening for them to hear other groups like them.”
The group will be performing six of the 18 songs in their repertoire at the competition, with several paying tribute to Canada, such as Canadian folk song ‘land of the Silver Birch’ and Inuit drum song ‘Inngiqtuk’ by Mark Sirett. The group will also be performing a song in German, as a way of honouring the competition hosts.
Arianna Vercammen, a second soprano who has been with the group for roughly eight years, says she is excited to compare the group’s performance of the German song to those of the German choirs.
“To hear somebody who’s actually fluent in German sing a German song is way different than someone who speaks English singing a German song,” said Vercammen. “So, that will definitely be cool to experience the different accents (and) hear different music from where everybody else is from.”
Tia Comstock, a second soprano who has been with the group for two years, says she is equally excited to see how the different cultures of each choir manifest in their performances, and to see audiences’ reception to their own performances.
“Music is meant to evoke emotion, whether it be happy or sad, it’s meant to bring on strong emotion,” said Comstock. “(I’m interested to see) how our musical skills can translate in different languages and how people respond.”
The trip, which runs from July 2-15, will end out the group’s 2022/23 season, with the choir reconvening for a new season in September.
Auditions for the upcoming season are currently open. For more information, email jwilks@mhc.ab.ca.
