About
Mission Statement
The Winnipeg Singers is a professional choir dedicated to choral excellence through diverse programming and collaboration.
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The primary purpose of The Winnipeg Singers includes:
To connect with an ever-increasing audience by performing a wide range of repertoire, performed at the highest level.
Within that repertoire, to commission, promote and perform music by Canadian and by Manitoba composers during our annual four-concert season produced in Winnipeg. To premiere other new works and perform a variety of works by Canadian and Manitoba composers.
To collaborate with other artistic groups in Winnipeg and beyond.
To nurture talent within the choir.
To represent Winnipeg, Manitoba and Canada as we tour provincially, nationally and internationally.
To impact Winnipeg’s choral community and specifically young singers, by giving the opportunity to attend and perform at Winnipeg Singers concerts. To provide mentorship for Winnipeg’s young singers by giving opportunity for them to collaborate with Yuri Klaz and The Winnipeg Singers.
To reflect the diverse cultural backgrounds represented by our audience through programming and performing choral works that reflect these backgrounds, inclusive of Aboriginal peoples.
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To continue to be one of the finest choral ensembles in the country, based on the quality of our programming and performance.
To expand our role of mentorship by providing increasingly more outreach to schools and young singers.
To continue to impact on the artistic community by collaborations with groups, and with guest artists of national and international stature. To be successful in this vision The Winnipeg Singers is hopeful of more financial support so we can hire high profile guest artists.
To expand our commissions by doing one each year, offering opportunity to Canadian composers. To be successful in attaining this vision The Winnipeg Singers is hopeful of more financial support.
To increase our season by adding more performances. To be successful in attaining this vision again we are hopeful of increased funding.
To raise financial compensation to singers and to staff. Increased compensation will allow us to achieve some of our other goals by increasing the commitment to the choir from singers and increasing the time commitment of staff. In order to achieve this we require increased financial support.
To represent Winnipeg, Manitoba and Canada by touring regularly; provincially, nationally and internationally, thus raising the profile of the choir and increasing commitment.
To continue to perform new works by Canadian performers. To continue to program works that reflect the varied cultural backgrounds of our audience, including that of Aboriginal peoples.
To increase our impact on social media in order to expand our audience and to connect with our existing audience.
Board of Directors
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
Yuri Klaz
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Pat Wray
EXECUTIVE
Ron Lambert, Board Chair
Vic Hooper, Vice Chair
Brad De Ryck, Treasurer
Jodie Borle, Secretary
DIRECTORS
Mariannina Raimo, Marketing
Joy Plohman, Member at Large
CHOIR REPRESENTATIVES
Bruce Waldie, Choir President
Jodie Borle
Dawn Marie Wilson
Artistic Director & Conductor
Yuri Klaz
Yuri Klaz was born in Petrozavodsk, Russia, where he was a graduate of the music college and the conservatory of music. He received his Masters degree in conducting at the St. Petersburg State Conservatory. In 1982 he became an associate professor of choral and orchestral conducting at the Petrozavodsk Conservatory. In 1987 Mr. Klaz was appointed the artistic director and conductor of the Chamber Choir of the Karelian Art Centre in Petrozavodsk. Under his direction, the choir led an active concert life and participated in national (Russia) and international concert tours and competitions in Germany, Finland, Estonia, Ireland, and Norway, where the choir received numerous awards.
In 1995, by decree of President Boris Yeltzin, Mr. Klaz was awarded the prestigious title, "Honoured Artist of Russia" and received a silver medal for exceptional achievement in the development of art in Russia. Mr. Klaz came to Canada in 2000 to become the artistic director and conductor of the Winnipeg Philharmonic Choir.
In addition to the Philharmonic concert series, he has prepared the choir for performances with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, Brahms’ German Requiem in 2003, Mozart’s Requiem in 2006 and most recently Vaughan Williams A Sea Symphony. He has conducted performances at the WSO New Music Festival each year since 2001. Mr. Klaz made his debut as conductor of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra to critical acclaim in a concert featuring The Winnipeg Singers and the Winnipeg Philharmonic Choir in March 2005. In 2006 Mr. Klaz made his conducting debut with the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra in Mozart’s Mass in C minor (Robert Levin edition) again with the combined forces of The Winnipeg Singers and The Winnipeg Philharmonic Choir.
In April of 2003, Mr. Klaz was appointed the artistic director and conductor of The Winnipeg Singers. In the past four years he has conducted the Singers in performances of many major choral masterpieces including Bach’s Mass in B minor and Christmas Oratorio and Rachmaninov’s All Night Vigil and the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom.
Mr. Klaz has attended four World Symposia on Choral Music, most recently Kyoto in 2005, where he conducted The Winnipeg Singers, honoured as an invited choir. He has written numerous articles devoted to the choral and artistic activities of Sibelius, Kuula, and Madetoja. An active teacher and conductor, Mr. Klaz has toured the northern United States giving conducting seminars. Since his arrival in Canada, Mr. Klaz has attended two Association of Canadian Choral Conductors (ACCC) conventions, 2004 in Winnipeg, where he was a clinician and 2006 in Victoria.
The Choir
SOPRANO
Jan Byrd
Marni Enns
Kyra Krassnigg
Celina Morphy-Siemens
Kristal Peters
Dawn Marie Wilson
Ainsley Wray
ALTO
Jodie Borle
Brittany Dheilly
Donnalynn Grills
Angela Neufeld
Susanne Reimer
Pat Wray
TENOR
Jane Kehler
Craig Kremer
James Magnus-Johnston
Doug Pankratz
Lorenz Sarrondo
Stuart Sladden
Gregory Wiebe
BASS
Nicholas Borkowsky
Blake Collis
Greg Cooper
Steve Ens
Paul Forget
Alan Schroeder
Bruce Waldie
Regarded as on one of Canada's finest choral ensembles, Winnipeg Singers perform a diversity of choral music to the highest standard.
The Winnipeg Singers consists of 24 professionally trained voices, performing music that spans the times from the Renaissance to the present. Each year the choir commissions new Canadian works and premieres other new works for its Manitoba audiences. It presents a concert series each year, engaging some of North America's finest musicians as guests. The Winnipeg Singers have performed joint concerts with such diverse organizations as Shakespeare in the Ruins, The Ron Paley Trio, MusikBarock Ensemble, Winnipeg's Contemporary Dancers and Les danseurs de la rivière Rouge. The Singers regularly appear as guests of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra, and have given concerts and workshops for local social agencies, business firms, and high schools.
The Winnipeg Singers, established in 1972, has twice been recognized for its excellence in choral music by the Canada Council with the awarding of the Healey Willan prize. The choir is regularly heard on local and national CBC radio. In July 2005, the choir represented Canada at the 6th Taipei International Choral Festival and at the 7th World Symposium on Choral Music in Kyoto. In July 2016, the choir toured Germany, Austria and Italy. At the 2016 International Choral Festival in Florence, Italy, The Winnipeg Singers was recognized with the “most outstanding choir” award. In 2019 the choir toured Spain and Finland and was awarded the "best choir award" at the Barcelona International choral festival. The group is in the planning stages of its next international tour.
Rehearsal Pianist and Accompanist
Cary Denby
Cary Denby graduated from the Faculty of Music at the University of Manitoba in 1990 and since then, has made a living as a freelance accompanist playing for numerous choirs, soloists and ensembles. Currently, Cary is a staff accompanist at the U of Manitoba, playing for students individually as well as the choral ensembles. Cary has had the privilege of being involved with Canzona, Manitoba Opera, Saskatoon Opera, Dry Cold, Rainbow Stage, and the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra
Our History
The Winnipeg Singers can trace its origins to a choir begun in the 1930s by composer and voice teacher W. H. Anderson for radio broadcast on the CBC.
This choir, known as The Choristers, performed secular music and on occasion offered public concerts. Filmer Hubble, who conducted the group for a national weekly CBC radio broadcast of sacred music called Sunday Chorale succeeded Anderson in the 1950s. This choir also performed a series of yearly concerts. Hubble was succeeded by a student of W. H. Anderson, Herbert Belyea, also a composer and voice teacher. In the early 1970s, William Baerg was asked by the CBC to form a group of singers which would perform concert broadcasts. This choir, the CBC Winnipeg Singers, was devoted to the exploration of both sacred and secular works from all eras and initiated the form of The Winnipeg Singers as it exists today. In 1973, when the CBC was no longer able to support the choir, The Winnipeg Singers began to produce its own annual concert series, which it has done ever since.
Artistic Directors & Conductors
William Baerg (1973-83)
John Martens (1983-93)
Wayne Ridell (1993-95)
Mel Braun and Vic Pankratz (1995-99)
Rudy Schellenberg (1999-03)
Yuri Klaz (2003-present)
Tours
1989
The Winnipeg Singers conducted a three-week tour of Austria and West Germany, serving as choir-in-residence at the Classical Music Festival in Eisestadt, Austria.
1999
In the spring of 1999, they toured Alberta and Saskatchewan.
2002
The Winnipeg Singers performed at the Toronto International Choral Festival in June 2002.
2004
In May of 2004, the choir performed at the Gala Concert of Podium 2004, the national biennial convention of the Association of Canadian Choral Conductors, held in Winnipeg.
2005
The Winnipeg Singers traveled to Taiwan and Japan in July of 2005 where it was honoured to represent Canada at the 6th Taipei International Choral Festival and the 7th World Symposium on Choral Music in Kyoto. While in Japan, the choir performed in Setagaya, a sister-city of Winnipeg, in Tokyo at the Canadian Embassy and in Kobe for a Symposium sponsored satellite concert.
2016
European Concert Tour - On July 9, 2016, the Singers landed in Frankfurt to start their 16 day tour. Performances took place in Rothenburg, Regensburg, Munich, Salzburg, Venice, Florence and Rome. The highlight took place at the Florence International Choir Festival, where they were the winners of the Golden David, the award that goes to the best overall choir at the competition. The Singers also won two of the three categories it entered: chamber choir and sacred.
The choir departed Rome for Winnipeg on July 25, 2016.
2019
On to Europe II - July 3-19, 2019
Spain July 3-11
The international competition of choirs “GOLDEN VOICES OF BARCELONA” - recipient of the Grand Prix Award
Finland July 11-19
Five city tour performing is the most unique and prestigious venues Finland has to offer.
2020
As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, The Winnipeg Singers produced their first professional video, “Video Launch”.
Recordings
The Winnipeg Singers are regularly heard on local and national CBC radio. They have released four CD recordings, O Praise Ye the Lord, Prairie Voices, Swingle Bells, and Sid Robinovitch: Choral Odyssey. The Canada Council, with the awarding of the Healey Willan prize, has twice recognized The Winnipeg Singers for their excellence in choral music.