The Choirs of Grace Church-on-the-Hill
Grace Church supports a quality program of choirs for all age groups. Our Choir of Men and Boys is a professional calibre 40-voice choir which sings at the 11:00 AM service. The St. Cecilia Girls Choir sings at the 9:15 AM service, and the Women's Choir has a flexible schedule. Each choir has a tradition of fine singing, high musical achievement, friendship and camaraderie, respect and fun.
Rehearsal Schedule
Recordings Melva Treffinger Graham, Director of Music
Ron Jordan, Associate Organist
The St. Cecilia Choir
Choir of Gentlemen and Boys
The choirs have professional leadership and challenging projects, but also serve the community through outreach activities. The annual Clothing Sale, a fundraiser for Choirs and Outreach, is held in the Fall.
For a membership interview, please call Melva Treffinger Graham at 416-488-7884 ext. 117 or email her by clicking HERE.
Music Education for Young People
Grace Church on-the-Hill supports children in their musical development in the choirs for girls and boys.
The Boys' Choir serves boys ages 8 to 14 with unchanged voices in serious musical experience with adult male singers. Boys sing challenging classical music in the British choral tradition, in which boy trebles sing soprano in mixed-choir serious music. They enjoy the mentoring of the men of the choir, and make friends with boys who share their interests.
Parents say that this is a boy's most adult experience, providing benefits both in music as well as personal discipline, concentration, vocabulary, reading skills, poise, self-confidence, and overall intelligence. The boys sing Sunday service 7 Sundays in every 8, as well as festival services and concerts.
The St. Cecilia Girls' Choir has members who are 8 to 17 years of age.
The girls sing 7 Sunday services of every 8, as well as festival services and concerts. The girls sing on their own, or with the women in multi-part treble music, and with the men as the soprano line in mixed choir music, providing a variety of musical experiences. As in the boys' choir, singing at this level benefits the child intellectually in many ways.
Both the boys and girls develop long-lasting friendships in the choirs and have opportunities for social gatherings which bring the group more closely together.
The Grace Church choirs completed their seventh tour to England in August, 2007. The Gentlemen and Boys sang in Durham and Oxford early in August. After that tour, the St. Cecilia Choir of women and girls travelled to the UK to sing in Lichfield and Salisbury. Future tours are now in the planning stage.
Choirs for Adult Singers
Adults with musical training are welcome in both the adult choirs. The Men's Choir has 6 professional lead singers and a number of volunteers. Teenage boys whose voices have changed are welcome. The women's choir includes girls 18 and over as well as adults as well as 4 lead singers. Music reading ability is required for both choirs. The men sing every Sunday and the women sing every second Sunday. Both groups have opportunities for concerts and social events.
Rehearsal Schedule
Boys' Choir:
Tuesday 4:30-6 pm, Thursday 6:30-8:30 pm
St. Cecilia Girls' Choir:
Wednesdays 4:30-6 pm
St. Cecilia Women's Choir:
Tuesdays 6:30-8 pm
Men's Choir:
Thursdays 7:30-9:15 pm
Melva Treffinger Graham, Director of Music
Melva Treffinger Graham has conducted the choirs of Grace Church on-the-Hill since 1986. She was educated at the Berliner Kirchenmusikschule, from which she has an Intermediate Diploma in Church Music, and at the Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University, where she earned her M. Mus. Degree in choral conducting. Ms. Graham led church choirs in Ottawa, Saint John, and Halifax before moving to Toronto. She has an extensive teaching background in choral techniques at three Canadian universities, and has adjudicated and led choral workshops all across Canada.
During her tenure at Grace Church, the Choir of Gentlemen and Boys toured in the United Kingdom four times, as well as Montreal, the Maritime provinces, Michigan, and Ohio. The St. Cecilia Choir has grown into a choir of 40 upper voices. The choir sang in England, Wales, and Ireland in 1998 and 2001, and in the English cathedrals of Lichfield and Salisbury in 2007. Both of the choirs have sung numerous concerts as well as making 6 recordings under Ms. Graham in addition to their weekly services at Grace Church. A new CD of Easter music is due out in the fall oif 2009.
Melva Treffinger Graham has also conducted the Dalhousie Chamber Choir of Halifax, the choirs of Brock University, the Hart House Singers at the University of Toronto, and the Toronto Camerata Chamber Choir. Her teaching experience includes work in Toronto at Eglinton Public School, Royal St. George's College for boys, and the Bishop Strachan School for Girls.
Ron Jordan, Associate Organist
Ron Jordan has been an accompanist and performer in Toronto for over 35 years. Ron holds a B.Mus.(Perf) degree from the University of Toronto having studied with Anton Kuerti, Katherina Wolpe, and Patricia Parr. After graduation, his interest shifted to organ performance when he completed the Associate, Fellow, and Choir Master exams of the Royal Canadian College of Organists, winning the Healey Willan and John Sedgewick Memorial prizes. Ron was the Assistant Organist at Yorkminster Park Baptist Church from 1980 to 1985 and again from 1987 to 1996. While currently the Associate Organist at Grace Church on-the-Hill, he continues his interests in composition and piano performance. For additional information, please click here.
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