About The Wayne Gilpin SINGERS

Introduction

The Wayne Gilpin SINGERS is an auditioned chamber choir based in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. The choir is helmed jointly by Wayne Gilpin, Conductor; Andrew Gilpin, Accompanist; and Carol Gilpin, Alto.

The SINGERS present an annual series of public concerts and perform on request at social and charitable functions.

Since the inception of the choir in 1998, its approach has been to focus mainly on shorter works, usually presenting Christian-focused concerts for the Christmas and Easter seasons, with an evening of secular repertoire in May or June.

Professional guest artists have been a staple of the SINGERS' concerts from the very beginning. These musicians bring their considerable talents to accompanying the choir, as well as performing pieces on their own. This approach treats the audience to a more varied sonic palette, and provides the SINGERS with an occasional break during performance.

Above all, The Wayne Gilpin SINGERS strives to bring together the best music and the most skilled musicians to produce moving and memorable performances.

Graphic Design by Carol Gilpin & Andrew Gilpin

Another important feature of each Wayne Gilpin SINGERS concert is graphic design. In addition to their efforts in preparing the music, Andrew and Carol work hard to design posters and programmes that are as appealing and exciting as the music they feature.

The Concerts page of this website showcases a wide variety of the concert posters Carol and Andrew have designed over the years. We invite you to enjoy their creative and colourful designs as you browse our past performances.

How We Began (1998)

The Wayne Gilpin SINGERS was organized in January of 1998 and started rehearsals that month, preparing for their first concert in the spring. Among the choristers who formed that first version of the SINGERS were some former students of Mr. Gilpin's (he had spent several years in the early 1970's as a high school teacher in Elmira, a town north of Waterloo).

A mass choir, The Celebration Chorale, was also formed at the same time. The first concert for both choirs was A Celebration in Song, which also featured Mr. Gilpin's Toronto-based chamber choir, Cantilena. This concert was recorded live and released as a double-CD set.

In December of 2009 the SINGERS presented When a Child is Born. Once again composer/arranger Andrew Gilpin added to his "Jazz Messiah", this time adapting "O thou that tellest good tidings to Zion". Originally written for alto soloist and choir, Mr. Gilpin's version was for choir, piano, and string bass.

The SINGERS' 2009-2010 season continued with Amazing Grace, an inspirational selection of Christian songs, and finally We are the Champions, an evening of songs from the 1970s featuring the music of Queen and The Village People, among others.

A New Decade (2010-2012)

Star of Glory featured the choir's 6th annual "Jazz Messiah", and included guest artists Bells of Westminster, a church-based handbell group. In February, the SINGERS took part in A Box of Delights, a combined concert with The Stratford Trio celebrating Valentine's Day. How Sweet the Sound, a concert of inspirational songs and hymns, followed in April.

Unfortunately, because of illness, a planned June concert entitled "A Place to Stand" had to be postponed until the following season.

The SINGERS regrouped over the summer, gathered again in the fall to prepare for their Christmas concert, Love Came Down at Christmas, which featured the 7th annual "Jazz Messiah". An Easter performance was held in March 2012, Lamb of God, followed by the long-awaited musical celebration of Canada, A Place to Stand.

Composer/arranger and choir accompanist Andrew Gilpin pulled out all the stops for this concert, arranging two lengthy medleys of distinctly Canadian music for the choir, and even composing a new ragtime piece for guest violinist Andrea Weber Steckly.

The concert described above was entitled "Thine is the Glory", and was performed at St. Jerome's University in Waterloo, St. John the Evangelist Church in Kitchener, and First United Church in Owen Sound.

For the Kitchener performance, guest artist Bob Brough stood in for Robert Venables, taking on the Herculean task of performing Bolling's "Toot Suite", originally written for trumpet, on saxophone!

Finally, the SINGERS celebrated Canada's 150th birthday in song with O Canada! Beginning with Canada's stirring national anthem, the concert included songs from musical theatre, folk songs, jazz standards, instrumental hits, and even a brand-new piece, "Andrea's Tango", composed especially for the occasion.

And then came March 11, 2020, when the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 to be a pandemic. This was soon followed in Ontario by the closure of schools, shortages of some items in supermarkets, and the general feeling that the situation was extremely serious.

The SINGERS moved quickly to cancel their upcoming rehearsals, then their March concert, and eventually the rest of their season. Those decisions were made for the safety of singers and audience alike, as it became clear that gathering people together posed a public health risk.

As of this writing (November 2020) the activities of The Wayne Gilpin SINGERS are still suspended. Like so many others around the world, we are anxiously waiting to see what happens. Will there be a vaccine? If not, will there be a treatment that renders COVID-19 less of a threat? If not, can we find another way to co-exist with this new disease?

Whatever happens, the SINGERS are looking forward to resuming their musical activities and sharing more of their music with audiences. Stay tuned!