Choir Nation Blog

Hello, Choir Nation blog readers! Murray Foster here, CEO and co-founder (along with the unredoubtable Todd Green) of Choir Nation.

Choir Nation Roster

Busy days these days at Choir Nation Headquarters. We’re always approaching new artists to add to our roster, and we’re thrilled that Elliott Brood, Peter Katz and Wayne Peti (Cuff the Duke) have all recently agreed to come on board.

We’ve also added a new Emerging Artists section to our roster – part of our mandate is to create a new revenue stream for musicians, and there are dozens of amazing new emerging musicians who we are thrilled to partner with. For now, our first three emerging artists are Katey Gatta, Sarah Siddiqui, and Laura Tremblay.

Choir Nation Benefit Concert

But what has been taking up the bulk of our time is preparing for our first Choir Nation Benefit Concert, on Tuesday, August 16th at Lula Lounge. This event is designed to benefit our three music charity partners: MusiCounts, Unison Benevolent Fund and Momentum Choir. It will also serve as our unofficial launch party, as it’s the first event we’ve hosted.

At the event, there will be two choirs performing that night with musicians: one made up of KPMG employees and one of Chubb Insurance employees. We’re thrilled to have these companies involved, and from what we understand these employees are excited to be part of the event and singing in a choir, many of them for the first time.

We’ve also just confirmed the two musicians who will be performing as well: KPMG will be backing up the fabulous Miranda Mullholland, doing one cover song and one original song. And the Chubb Insurance choir will be singing with the fantastic Devin Cuddy (again doing one cover and one original). Both of the choir members will be submitting a list of ten cover songs to their respective artists, who will then pick from that list the song they will perform together. I’m sure both artists are very curious about what songs are going to be on that list…

Members of Momentum Choir will also be doing a couple songs that night, but they will be singing without an accompanying musician. Rumour has it that they will be performing a very popular pub standard by Neil Diamond. Attendees should be ready to stand on their table and sing…

The night will also feature a raffle and a silent auction, and we’ve already been able to put together a great list of items, including Blue Rodeo tickets, brewery tours, tickets to the CNE, and even a signed guitar donated by Long and McQuade (we haven’t actually figured out who’s gonna sign it, but it’ll be someone cool).

Todd and I are both passionate about music, and we see Choir Nation and this benefit as an extension of that passion – creating new opportunities for people to sing in a choir, supporting local musicians, and contributing to three music-related charities that we both strongly believe in.

The focus of Choir Nation is team building, and we’re pretty happy to be able to offer companies a team building option that is, we think, quite cool. We hope that you do too – and that we see you at Lula Lounge on August 16th.

Buy Your Benefit Concert Tickets

As Murray and I developed the concept behind Choir Nation, we knew the importance of finding Music Directors who would bring the right blend of professionalism, enthusiasm and fun to our clients’ rehearsals and performances. Not only that, but our music directors also arrange the songs that our choirs (along with their accompanying artist) select.

Music Directors have a huge role to play in Choir Nation, and we are thrilled to have our five incredibly talented music directors: Mike Evin (@MikeEvin), Robbie Grunwald (@rgrunwal), Sarah Jerrom (@sarahjerrom), Alex Smaras (@ofSamaras) and Jacqueline Teh (@JacqTeh).

This group of MDs brings a wealth of experience to the job, including arranging, songwriting, performing and directing choirs.

Read our Choir Nation music director bios.

Music Directors on Choir Nation

Rather than us telling you about what you can expect from our music directors, we went straight to the source to ask them about why Choir Nation is a fit for them, and what you can expect from rehearsals.

Mike Evin:

“Everyone can benefit from singing and making music! I’m drawn to Choir Nation because it gives people (who might otherwise have given up on the hope of doing some cool music) the chance to make music in a fun way and bond with their colleagues. The “musician’s secret” is out – music is ALL about the hang.”

Sarah Jerrom:

“I’m really struck by the concept of choral singing as a corporate team building tool. Singing is a powerful enrichment of life and choral singing brings individuals together in a unique musical experience, as a team. Exposure to choral singing through Choir Nation will uplift individual employees, cultivate culture in and of the company itself and enrich culture the surrounding communities (as exposure to the arts always does).   

Rehearsals will be both fun and focused. We’ll work on relaxing and aligning the body and voice, listening and singing in the group as ‘one voice,’ and learning and preparing fun songs/arrangements for their big performances!”

Our music directors are just one unique way that Choir Nation works with companies to create a fun and inspirational team building experience for their employees!

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Photo Credit: Dan Brown