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Trisha Pope
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Community Choirs
"Teaching the world to sing, one community at a time." Ysaye Barnwell
Community choirs provide a home for neighborhood voices. Singing together is one of the great joys of our lives.
Throughout history, groups of people have amassed to sing together for all kinds of reasons. Gone up into the heavens and down into the earth, there are thousands of prayers to a multitude of celestial and pagan Gods and Goddesses. There are choral songs of ritual, celebration, our oneness, our humanity, our longing. There are songs of group mourning and celebration, protest and camaraderie. There are group songs that invoke healing spirits and drive away the evil ones. Church choirs, community choirs, school choirs, choirs of factory and hospital workers all share the joy of camaraderie of song. It taps into the immense possibility of our potential when we sing together.
The power of voices in song can give us many timeless and magic moments. It can tune our hearts together and dissolve boundaries between people. It can heal our heartaches. We can share the load of our suffering with others and let it go into the great unknown. We can create the sound of oneness and joy together.
(excerpt from Awakening Voice by Trisha Pope)
Trisha Pope: Choir Director
Trisha has directed many community choirs in the Montreal area since 1995. To name a few: the Mile-end Choir, Tamarack and the Yellow Door Choir. She has also directed small song circles of 6 – 10 people which are informal in nature and use chanting, vocal play and improvisation.
Trisha composes and arranges music for the particular voices in her choirs. She specializes in gospel and spirituals as well as Native American, Intuit, Aboriginal, Celtic, American folk and shape note. She also loves to direct South African choral songs melodies and Tibetan sound meditations. Many community choirs in Quebec have performed her compositions and arrangements which are often invoke elements of nature through a ritualistic sound. A few of these pieces are: My Words are Tied in One, There’s a River Flowing in my Soul and Zuni Sunrise Song.
Community Rituals
SINGING WORKSHOP DETAILS
