![]() ![]() The Karen Gordon Memorial Scholarship is dear to everyone's heart in Area 1 and Newfound Sound would like to thank the ScotianAires chapter for presenting this scholarship each year. Newfound Sound will certainly make good use of these funds to support their chorus members to avail of coaching and education towards our next Area Convention in 2024. Our hearts are filled with the love and support you have shown to your harmony sisters! In Harmony, Newfound Sound |
Island A Cappella Chorus is excited to announce the
launch of our Mother's Day Moolah 50/50 Cash Lottery. Purchase your tickets now - deadline is May 13, 2023 at 12:01pm. https://rafflebox.ca/raffle/islandacappella/-2
The winner will be contacted to claim their prize. Thank you for your support!
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Between schedules and pandemic restrictions, the foursome found no window of opportunity to connect and mesh their sound. Fast-forward to winter of 2023, a new bass stepped in when the original opted out, and they finally found time to rehearse as a full quartet. Continuing the original goal of singing toward growth and with a focus on tunes made popular “on air” (aka, radio), On Air is looking forward to making music together and sharing their songs at performances and gatherings. In addition to singing lead in her first ever quartet, Jill is the ScotianAires Performance Chair and is a Performance Judge. Heather has been an HI member since 2019 and also sings baritone in Lady Lyrix quartet. Leanne is a retired music teacher, the ScotianAires Assistant Director and Music Chair, and has been an HI member since 2016. Sue is the Director of ScotianAires, a Singing Judge, piano and voice teacher, member of many past quartets, and current baritone with enJOY! quartet. |
![]() Director Rosemary Donkin and President Margie McClelland present Diane Miller with a certificate recognizing her 25 years of membership in Harmony, Inc. |
![]() Timble MacDonald, Jane Brookins, and Helen Reade highlight the chorus at the Town of Oxford "Meet Your Neighbour" night, a community event aimed at helping new residents form connections. |
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For more information, see: | https://issuu.com/area1harmonyinc/docs/area_1_ensemble_-_jan_2023_updated |
Registration for this program is now closed. For more information, please contact info@islandacappella.ca
Join Island A Cappella Director Jamie Feinberg as she leads participants in six weeks of informative, interactive 30-minute sessions to help seniors keep singing in healthy and productive ways.
Find Your Voice: Skills for Seniors Who Love to Sing will take place in person or online.
NO prior singing experience is necessary - just a willingness to have fun and meet new friends who share your joy of singing, in a safe and supportive environment.
Topics to be covered will include:
The sessions are available at NO COST to seniors, thanks to a grant from the PEI Senior's Secretariat. Attendees may choose the in-person or online option or a combination of both!
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For more information, see: | islandacappella.ca/findyourvoice |
Join us at the Park Royal Church on Sunday, November 27th for an afternoon of song in celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Island A Cappella women's barbershop chorus! 2022 marks a very special year for PEI’s Island A Cappella, celebrating 40 years entertaining audiences with its unique blend of four-part a cappella music in the barbershop style. To mark the occasion, it will host Thank You for the Music , a special anniversary show on Sunday, November 27th at 1:30 pm at the Park Royal Church in Charlottetown. The show will also include performances by quartets Harmonix and TAMbre as well as special guests P EI singing/songwriting duo Ava & Lily. Tickets are just $20 each (plus service charge) available through Eventbrite. All proceeds will help offset travel expenses associated with chorus members attending Harmony, Inc’s International Convention and Contest in Louisville, Kentucky in November 2024. Thank you for your support and we look forward to seeing you then! | |
For more information, see: | www.islandacappella.ca/dbpage.php?pg=view&dbase=events&id=166484 |
As part of its 40th anniversary celebrations, the Island A Cappella chorus is offering a six-week series of free singing lessons to members of the public, starting Wednesday, September 14th. . “We’ve been sharing the one-of-a-kind sound of four-part a cappella singing in the barbershop style with Island audiences since 1982; originally as the Abegweit Chimes, then under the banner of Island A Cappella, beginning in 2014,” says chorus president Gillian Nichol. “It’s such a joyous and fun hobby we decided to offer these free lessons as a way for more singers to give it a no-strings-attached try in a safe and fun setting.” No prior choral or a cappella singing experience is necessary to participate in the six-week series which will take place Wednesdays at 6:30 pm to 9:00 pm from September 14th to October 19th. . “I’ve loved my journey so far as the new chorus director, which began in January of this year,” adds Jamie Feinberg. “The music we perform spans the decades, so our repertoire ranges from barbershop standards to songs from musical theatre and rock and roll. We’re looking forward to welcoming women’s voices regardless of age or prior experience, who simply love to sing. Our members represent a range of backgrounds, and we have a variety of learning tools for folks to use including sheet music and pre-recorded learning tracks to sing along with. And there’s always plenty of laughter involved too!” Anyone interested in attending the lessons is asked to email info@islandacapella.ca or call 902-213-4921. Island A Cappella is a member chorus of Harmony, Inc. an international organization of women singers whose purpose is to empower all women through education, friendship and singing. |
Jamie (she/her/hers) is a performing artist, educator, virtual assistant, and life coach, with a B.A. in music from Smith College and an M.S. in community economic development from Southern New Hampshire University. She spent the past five years travelling, teaching and performing across the U.S. with her husband, Ross Malcolm Boyd, while simultaneously developing online music education and virtual assistant businesses. After spending the early part of her career as a professional musical director, arts educator, and performer, she started her own theatre company in New Hampshire in 2010, and in 2020 she completed a life coaching program to help sensitive, aspiring adventurers get the confidence & tools to bring their own dreams to life. In August of 2021, she and her husband realized another dream: returning to Charlottetown (after a honeymoon visit in 2014), where her husband is studying music at UPEI. She’s delighted to find that barbershop is a place where all of her directing, conducting, creative, and leadership skills are well-utilized, and she couldn’t be happier to be making new friends on the island and joining the community that is Island A Cappella. A few more facts about Jamie? She loves the outdoors and dancing, will drop almost anything for great (gluten-free) ice cream, and she refuses to believe that there is any need to lead a conventional life – unless you want to! Although Jamie's official start date is not until the New Year, she can be contacted now at: director_filter_unwanted@islandacappella.ca Welcome, Jamie! |
“We all should know that diversity makes for a rich tapestry, and we must understand that all the threads of the tapestry are equal in value no matter what their color.” ![]() Celebrating our Differences
Harmony Incorporated was founded on principles of Equity and Diversity. Over 60 years ago, a decision was made to break from Sweet Adelines to ensure that women of all backgrounds and colours were welcomed. Today, the differences we see in our small province stretch far beyond colour and background. We have different world views, different family structures, different abilities, different ethnicities, different gender and sexual identities, different citizenships, different languages and hosts of others. As we embark on our own Island A Cappella journey of equity and diversity we are open to new and exciting opportunities, as well as some challenges. At the core is that we appreciate and celebrate difference and that we strive to ensure that all people have access to the same opportunities. My mother, Betty, was a wise woman. One of her first lessons I recall was that ‘there is beauty in difference’. She explained to my three year-old self that the earth would be very boring if flowers, trees, animals and human beings were all similar. She always sought out difference, with the solid belief that we have something to learn from everyone. Some people struggle with the value of difference, arguing, ‘aren’t we really all the same?’ And we are; we are all part of the human race. Although this view comes with positive intent that we should all be equal; in truth, we are not. Our experiences are different depending on our personal and life situations. When we look at the world through our own eyes, we are limited…limited by the fact that we have a roof over our heads when 23 percent of humanity are without. Limited by the language we speak when 95% of the world speak languages other than English. Limited by our ability to read when 17% of people cannot read or write. Limited by having a safe homeland when more than 1 billion people are living in some form of exile from their countries. We are also limited by not knowing that the person next to us may be hard of hearing, have learning difficulties, have an invisible disability, or even be traumatized by home abuse. Appreciating our differences helps us understand ourselves as well as others. We can appreciate our own fortunes, however challenging life may be and continue on a journey to enable humanity to be included, to have similar privileges we do and to work towards a good quality of life, however that may look for them. Because the most significant reality we come to realize is that our own limited views have often held others back from full and active roles in society. By learning about and celebrating our diversity we are enriched beyond measure. Learning about our differences starts with being curious and being open to learn from others. This comes in many forms…. through personal connections (perhaps new members of your community who are from other countries), through books (like The Illegal by Lawrence Hill), through movies (like Pride produced in 2014), through courses (like Indigenous Canada offered free through Coursera), through reading other’s experiences in news reports, and connecting with resources like Pride PEI or the Immigrant and Refugee Services Association of PEI. At the same time, we must always be respectful of others and their right to privacy, taking responsibility for our own learning. The membership of Island A Cappella boasts a range of experiences with different cultures, creeds, abilities, socio-economic status, age groups, sexual and gender identities. We can learn so much from each other. If you have questions, see differences that you don’t understand or may have difficulty accepting, you are not alone! Our Island A Cappella Diversity Leadership Team may be a place to start. We would truly appreciate receiving any questions or comments you have, which could prove great foundation for ongoing learning and future discussion. We welcome you to come join us and be part our own collective journey to respect and include all others. Gillian Nichol (she/her) October 28/21
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This Spring Island A Cappella decided to dive into the Virtual Chorus Video production pool.
Thanks to all of the members who participated and MANY, MANY hours of audio and video editing by our amazing Music Committee Chair, Heather Williams, we produced this video of "Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart" - one of our favourite songs - and we hope you enjoy it too!
Special thanks as well to Sing! The Toronto Vocal Arts Festival for including the video in their live stream broadcast on May 27th.
The video is now available pubicly on YouTube. | |
YouTube Video URL: |
For the past several months the volunteer website team at Island A Cappella has been working on a refresh of the website. We are pleased to be working with Harmony Site to bring our fans, customers, and members a fresh new look with lots of great features. Harmony Site caters specifically to musical groups and we are looking forward to experiencing everything it has to offer. Any questions or concerns please drop us a line on our contact us page. |
Ask us how excited we are to be a part of the roster of performers on Night 1 of Sing! The Toronto Vocal Arts Festival's Aca Night in Canada 1 streaming online Thursday, May 27th at 8:00 (Eastern), 9:00 (Atlantic)!
This is your chance to see the world premiere of Island A Cappella's very first foray into the virtual chorus video community with our performance of "Zing Went The Strings of My Heart."
Buy your tickets now at https://bit.ly/33dqV2d to join us and other a cappella performers from across Canada who will be showcased as a part of the festival.
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For more information, see: | www.singtoronto.com/tickets |