BY KATHRYN-JANE HAZEL
The Malaspina Choir will celebrate 50-plus years of choral singing with a jubilant gala concert this weekend.
Now a choir with more than 75 members, the group began its life as the Malaspina Choral Association in 1970, when six women showed up for the first rehearsal at an old army hut on Kennedy Street.
Directed by Bruce More, then head of Malaspina College’s music department, the choir quickly grew to almost 85 members and gave its first Christmas concert at St. Andrew’s United Church in December of that year.
Since 1970, the Malaspina Choir has had a name change, 12 directors, and seen its numbers rise and fall and rise again. The key to the choir’s enduring success is owed to its attraction to a wide variety of people who love to sing and to an audience that loves to hear them.
Another key factor has been the dedication and commitment of its conductors who have devoted countless hours to the choir – chief among them More, who established the choir and its high standard of performance, and John Capon who continued the tradition of excellence while broadening its audience. More and Capon were followed by Wade Noble, under whose direction Malaspina Choir mastered major works of increasing complexity, and Lionel Tanod who created a strong men’s chorus that was the envy of other Vancouver Island choirs.
Over the years the choir has achieved major accomplishments, performing at the opening of the Malaspina College campus in 1976, producing an LP and CD, singing in radio broadcasts, and reaching the semifinals of the CBC Amateur Choir contest.
The choir also sang for Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip in 1983, at the opening ceremonies of Expo ‘86, and presented Nanaimo with the official Nanaimo Song for the city’s 125th birthday. It has shared concerts with the Vancouver Island Symphony, the Victoria Chamber Orchestra and the Victoria Civic Orchestra.
In addition, it has played an active role in the promotion of choral music in Nanaimo, hosted choirs from across Canada and around the world, and contributed to many of the region’s choirs by welcoming, training and producing talented choristers – and seeing those singers sustain other choirs as the choral community in Nanaimo expanded.
Under the inspired direction of current artistic director, Fiona Blackburn, who holds two music degrees as well as a master’s degree in conducting from UBC, Malaspina Choir has reached a new level of accomplishment.
At 53 years of age, the choir’s breadth of its performances illustrates its growth not just in numbers but also in the range and diversity of its programs.
The Malaspina Choir will hold its ‘Jubilation’ concert at the Port Theatre on Sunday, April 23, at 3 p.m. Tickets can be purchased online at www.porttheatre.com.
READ MORE: Malaspina Choir looking forward to Sing-Along Messiah
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