Get vocal with Nightwood’s digital Community Choir! Led by the incomparable multi-disciplinary artist and celebrated soprano Teiya Kasahara 笠原貞野, this weekly choir will run Tuesdays from 5:30pm to 7pm ET from February 23 to March 16, 2021. With a focus on simply gathering to get in our bodies and voices and share in singing some familiar feminist favourites, this year’s virtual choir will be a very comfortable, come-as-you-are affair. All voices are welcome!
Commitment Requirement: 4 sessions, 5:30pm to 7:00pm ET every Tuesday from February 23 until March 16, 2021. Consistency is encouraged as the learning of our two songs will be cumulative, but drop ins are still welcome.
*PDF’s and in-house recordings of parts will be shared with the choir when available for those who missed a session.
Fee: participation is free, though donations to this program and our ongoing activities are always welcome.
*** Please note, registration for Nightwood’s 2021 Digital Community Choir is currently at capacity but please click here to join our waitlist. We will reach out to you if spots open up. Thank you so much for your interest! ***
A rehearsal will typically look like this:
- Welcome, Zoom instructions, check-in
- Group warm-up
- Learning new repertoire—over the four sessions we will learn and sing two songs
- Examples of methods of teaching: sheet music, sight-reading, call-and-response, by ear, etc.
- Rehearsing parts of songs learned in previous sessions
- A brief break will be taken in the middle of the session, though participants are encouraged to move, take breaks and turn off screens as needed.
- Check-out
- Have water at the ready. Hydration is great for your voice and overall health.
- Prepare your space to be able to sit or stand for a while
- Wear loose clothing if you can; we’ll be moving… Singing is a WHOLE body experience, not just your mouth and throat.
- Bring a pencil, your device to read the music off of, a notepad/surface for your printed handout, something to record (ie. your phone).
The repertoire will be announced at our first rehearsal. We’ll be learning songs that centre Nightwood’s values:
provocation, empowerment, feminism, inclusivity, integrity, opportunity, respect and bringing community together to elevate women’s voices*
*women including, but not limited to, trans, cis, Two Spirit and non-binary folks.
Your home! All sessions will take place on ZOOM.
Babies and/or kids are welcome to join you at rehearsal.
We welcome you to think of this as a relaxed environment – feel free to keep your screen on or off, create the best lighting that works for you, take breaks, make noise, centre your needs.
If there are any other accessibility needs that we can support, please email taylor@nightwoodtheatre.net.
Materials will be emailed out in advance to reduce printing. Participants are encouraged to use a personal device to read the lyrics/sheet music.
Please reach out with any questions/concerns/requests to taylor@nightwoodtheatre.net.
We’re really excited to meet you all and make music together. Don’t worry if you haven’t sung for years, or if you only sing in the shower, or if you’ve never sung at all. We want to make this a fun, communal experience for everybody.
Teiya Kasahara 笠原貞野 (they/them) is a genderqueer, multi-disciplinary performer/creator, and first-generation Nikkei-Canadian settler of Japanese and German roots thankful to make Tkarón:to their home. Teiya comes from a background of over a decade of singing both traditional and contemporary operatic roles across North America and Europe, most recently praised as “a force of nature” by the Toronto Star for their portrayal in FAWN’s Pandora.
Their new initiative to centre equity-seeking artists, Amplified Opera (co-founded with director Aria Umezawa), launched publicly this October with the inaugural concert series AMPLIFY. Performances this season include The Wager (Theatre Gargantua),Symphony Spooktacular (Toronto Symphony Orchestra), the title role in Madama Butterfly (Windsor Symphony), Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again. (Buddies), assistant directing All the Little Animals I Have Eaten (Nightwood), Beethoven 9 (Kingston Symphony), and the world premiere of their operatic-inspired play The Queen In Me (Amplified Opera/Theatre Gargantua) in 2020. Teiya is a co-founder/member of Queer AF Collective, founder/head coach of the Vocal Dōjō, an apprentice with RAW Taiko Drummers, and is a graduate of Generator’s Artist Producer Training, the Canadian Opera Company’s Ensemble Studio, and the University of British Columbia. For more info visit www.teiyakasahara.com or follow @teiyakasahara.