We wish you a safe and happy Christmas season!
Dear friends,
On behalf of the Shallaway community, thank you for sharing 2021 with us. We wish you a safe and happy Christmas season and look forward to seeing our choristers back starting on Sunday, January 9th, 2022.
Because we could not gather with a live audience for most of 2021, we produced eleven legacy videos that brought Shallaway to a global audience of over a million people. To highlight just two: the choir collaborated with choir alumnus Tim Baker for a special release of “Carry Me Home,” dedicated to all the Newfoundlanders and Labradorians who couldn’t get home for Christmas. This project was sponsored by Genoa Design and received significant media coverage.
As well, our Nobile choristers and the low voices of Lauda, Jubilate, Exsultate and Camerata, performed with celebrated Newfoundland star Alan Doyle on a Leslee Hays choral arrangement of “Ordinary Day.” That Great Big Sea song reminds us about the power of positivity and the beauty of overcoming life's biggest obstacles. The video has had over 600,000 views so far!
On December 4th and 5th, 2021, Shallaway voices filled the Basilica of St. John the Baptist. “Bringing You Joy” featured the voices of over 350 choristers from our eight ensembles as well as the incredible musicians of the Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra. Even masked, you could sense that spark of connection between singers and the audience. As well as relating to and listening to your fellow choristers and the conductor, our choristers now understand, more than ever, how crucial that connection is with the audience. It’s the magic of live performance that we’ve all been missing.
As board co-chair, Elizabeth Beckett said in her welcoming remarks, “We - the Shallaway family - have a lot to be thankful for. We are grateful for the resilience of Shallaway’s artistic and board leadership who worked tirelessly through the pandemic to ensure that our children were safely able to gather to rehearse - to make those incredible music videos and... to sing together - when most choirs - in the rest of the country - could not do any of those things.”
The following weekend we hosted the cutest hour of the season at the "First Flakes" concert featuring Prima. As if it wasn't exciting enough to sing The Mummers' Song with the song's creator Bud Davidge, Santa himself showed up!
As we celebrate Shallaway’s 30th anniversary in 2022, we are committed to expanding on the standards for musical excellence and artistic leadership that have defined our organization and have many exciting events on the horizon.
We look forward to seeing you all at our “Big Fish Gala” in February and spring concert “Sing!” in April. If it is safe to do so, in May, Camerata and Exsultate will represent the province at Choral Canada’s Podium conference in Toronto and will also take part in a cultural exchange to another musical island - Cuba. And in September, Exsultate has the honour of representing Canada at the World Choral Expo in Portugal.
In our 29 year history, Shallaway Youth Choir has never fallen silent and we will not now when we know music and joy are so critical to people at home and around the world. The world has changed and we must acknowledge while we have a strong foundation, the post-Covid19 world will be tremendously difficult for charities.
We encourage those who can to help Shallaway plan for the post-Covid19 world by donating. With your year-end donation of $100, $250 (or whatever you can afford) you can help us meet our fundraising goal of $20,000. Your support will make a real, lasting impact in the lives of Newfoundland and Labrador’s future leaders - our choristers.
There are many ways to make your donation. You can mail a cheque to our office, send an e-transfer to finance@shallaway.ca or support us via our Canada Helps page.
All the best for a safe 2022. Thank you for joining us safely in song.
Thank you,
The Shallaway Team