Join our Acappella Choir

Hi we're Pacific Spirit Voices a local Burnaby acapella choir looking for new singers.

Who we are

It's been tough 5 years since the pandemic and we lost a lot of singers. Right now we have a core group of about 10 singers. We were previously an all-male group but now we decided to open up our group to both voices and we have a couple female members. Despite this we're still trying to get new members and grow back to our previous size (we were previously 80 people about a decade ago). Right now the median age of our singers is still 60+ but we are trying to get younger singers.

How to know if you may be interested

Really we're just looking for people who enjoy singing and enjoy performing and being on stage. We have a couple pretty great musicians in our choir but for the most part we're a group who just enjoys making music and going out into the community singing to people. We are VERY SUPPORTIVE and we want each member to succeed. So whether you're first starting out and this is your first choir or you have gone on tours with a band we would love to have you!

For the more well trained musicians you may find our music to be a bit simpler than what you are used to or even "elementary". However I promise there are a lot of opportunities to sing in smaller quartet groups performing arranging music and even conducting or leading a group.

I should provide a fair warning though that if you do not have previous music experience or choir experience you will struggle for the first 6 months to 1 year. In the first year you will need to learn and memorize 10-20 songs and this includes the notes rhythms lyrics etc and perform them in a group. But as I said above we are very supportive.

What are the rehearsal and performances like

We have one rehearsal a week for 2.5 hours. It's pretty relaxed but we are encouraged to be learning music during the week and to make and send recordings so that the choir director can provide feedback. That way during the rehearsal we can focus on tuning chords working on vowels etc. We perform 8-12 times a year and we have our standard repertoire of "Polecat" songs. In the past we used to travel to competitions regionally as well as flying to other cities for music conventions.

Our future

In the next year we want to grow back to 20+ members and the eventually back to 50+ (hopefully). Having more singers will allow us to perform even more because with our small size we currently have too few singers to perform at certain events if some people are sick/away etc. I think in today's world where everyone is online and working from home there is value in meeting up and going out every week and making music. It's good to break up the week and have something to look forward to.

Ok how do I check you guys out

Come to one of our rehearsals (every Tuesday 7pm). You can find out more details on our website such as the address: https://www.pacificspiritvoices.ca/

Once you come in find "Bruce" who is our contact for new members. If you have questions you can email us. We rehearse basically every week so it's pretty safe to just drop by.

When you come to visit a rehearsal for the first time you're not required to be participate you can just sit in the pews and watch. But if you're confident in your ability to sightread music you can be "part of our choir". Heck if you want to learn some of our music before you come to a rehearsal that would be even more awesome and just let us know (contact us) and we'll send you the music in advance.

Host or Publisher Pacific Spirit Voices