Toronto Beach Chorale prepares for upcoming season with three performances, seeks singers and volunteers

By ABBY RUSSCHEN

The Toronto Beach Chorale (TBC) is kicking off its 2025-26 season and inviting members of the community to join in on stage or behind the scenes.

TBC is a local, audition-based choir made up of 40 enthusiastic singers that participate in the season’s events. Singing classical choral music, the TBC has three scheduled performances for the 2025-26 season.

The first performance, Ceremony of Carols, will take place on Sunday, Dec. 14, at 7:30 p.m. at Kingston Road United Church. The concert will feature a serenade of Christmas carols and other seasonal arrangements.

Ceremony of Carols was the first performance that the TBC had ever done, but this time they are incorporating new elements from a 1950s rendition of the production. Mervin Fick, the artistic director of the TBC, said he is “looking forward to this rather hybrid combination of combining those two scores.”

Schubert and the Romantics is the second performance for the TBC’s upcoming season and will be taking place on Sunday, Feb. 22, at 2 p.m. at St Aidan’s in the Beach. The concert will feature compositions from Franz Schubert, Johannes Brahms, and choral music by Felix Mendelssohn and Anton Bruckner.

“We’re doing what will be Toronto Beach Chorale’s first performance of the Schubert Concerted Mass in G Major,” said Fick.

Carmina Burana is the TBC’s final show of the season, scheduled for Sunday, April 26, at 7:30 p.m. at Kingston Road United Church.

This performance is in collaboration with the TorQ Percussion Quartet as well as the Mississauga Chamber Singers ”because Carmina Burana is such a dramatic score with soaring high soprano notes and many experimental effects,” said Fick.

“It’s just more satisfying for the audience to hear it with an enlarged group of singers.”

Tickets for this season’s TBC concerts are $35 for adults and $25 for youth.

Anyone is welcome to audition for the TBC, though it is expected that individuals have choral experience, can read music, and be open for weekly rehearsals on Wednesday nights. TBC also values volunteers who want to get involved without singing.

“If you don’t have the time to sing or you think that you’re much more useful to the choir by welcoming people or providing them information about the concert, handing out programs or helping them to be seated and finding accessibility, then you might want to consider the volunteer pool that’s so essential to the concerts,” said Fick.

For more information on the Toronto Beach Chorale, including opportunities to join, please visit https://www.torontobeachchorale.com