Ottawa Choral Society

On the international stage, the Ottawa Choral Society has performed in Aquila, Italy (1982), Barcelona, Spain (1989), New York City (1991), and has toured Germany and the Czech Republic (1996), and England, Ireland and Wales (2000). Closer to home, the choir has presented concerts in Kingston, Renfrew and Deep River, and has participated in both International Choral Festivals held in Toronto in 1989 and 1993 under the directorship of Nicholas Goldschmidt.

Iwan Edwards rehearses the OCS in Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic, 1996

Former OCS Accompanist Wesley Warren at Munich in 1996

In 1996, the choir joined the St. Lawrence Choir of Montreal and the Ottawa Symphony Orchestra to present Brahms' Ein Deutsches Requiem in Montreal and Ottawa.

In July of that year the choir performed A Sea Symphony by Vaughan Williams at the Lanaudière Festival in Joliette Quebec, with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra conducted by Charles Dutoit. Performances by the Ottawa Choral Society have been broadcast nationally over the CBC Radio network. On CBC television the choir was seen annually from 1977 to 1995 in the Canada Day festivities on Parliament Hill. During the Choir’s most recent international tour to the United Kingdom and Ireland in the Fall of 2000, the Choir presented a programme which featured a number of works by Canadian composers and joined forces with the Belfast Philharmonic Choir and the Ulster Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of Sian Edwards, for a performance of Sir Michael Tippet’s masterpiece, A Child of Our Time. Under the auspices of BBC TV Northern Ireland, a documentary film was made of the Ottawa Choral Society’s visit to Northern Ireland and its participation in this remarkable performance. The tour ended, in the historic City of Bath, with an acclaimed performance of the Fauré Requiem and Lauridsen’s Lux Aeterna, with the Bath Philharmonic Orchestra.

Rehearsing for BBC TV in Belfast, October 2000

Photo: Ed Overstreet