Though music styles are always changing, love for music always remains. Soon, choir members from over the years will gather to celebrate a significant milestone in the Pembina Valley's history of music.
“2024 marks the Central Manitoba Choral Association’s 40th season,” says Heather Clyde, the president of the association. “We're very excited to be celebrating such a milestone. We have had many years of great choral experiences.”
Clyde herself has been a part of the association for many years.
“I have been a part of the [CMCA] on and off since I started teaching in 1999,” she says. “I took a little break, . . . but [I’m] glad to be back at it again.”
Since the 80s, the association’s activities have included choral workshops, jazz workshops, and its youth choir.
“The Central Manitoba Youth Choir [CMYC] is kind of our big event of the year every year, so this is 40 years of that — 40 years of youth from grade 10-12 from all over the Central Manitoba region singing together, practicing together, and making memories together,” says Clyde.
To celebrate four decades of music, the CMCA is holding a reunion in October. Clyde says that interest is mounting already.
“There are so many people that have already signed up,” she says. “There are people from all over Manitoba, Canada, [and] people from as far as California . . . that want to take part in this event.”
Shelley Friesen, who has also been involved with choral association on and off for a long time and now sits on its board, is one of the former CMYC choir members looking forward to the reunion.
“I was one of the original members of the very first CMYC . . . and I had two kids of my own involved,” she says. “When they became involved, I got on the board and just realized what an incredibly special thing I got to be a part of way back when, and my kids got to be a part of [it] as well.”
According to Friesen, taking part in the CMYC is a singular experience from beginning to end.
“It is an amazing event where these kids get together. They've been auditioned. They wait patiently . . . for a letter that tells them they made it,” she says, adding that waiting for a letter in the mail is a part of the special process. “Then those fifty voices get together and are committed to two full weekends of intense practicing and spending loads of . . . time together and just connecting.”
For Friesen, the intensive nature of the program creates a close-knit community with its own traditions and rituals.
“This opportunity to have a reunion, to bring people back across four decades, I think, will be an amazingly rich time,” she says. “[It’s a chance] to meet people who have sung through the decades who got that same feeling that you got when you got that letter in the mail that says, ‘you made it, and you're a part of this very special and amazing and incredible group.’”
For singers who were a part of the choir during COVID-19, the reunion will be a special opportunity to meet other singers in person. During the pandemic, while the CMYC did “everything it could” to continue operations virtually, the members did not get the same in-person experience.
As for the reunion itself, in the true fashion of the CMYC, it will be filled with music.
“It's going to be a full day of CMYC rehearsing-type [activities],” says Clyde. “You're going to go in, you're going to learn some amazing music. And then at the end of the day, there's going to be an incredible concert. That concert will also feature this year's Central Manitoba Youth Choir as well.”
According to Clyde, the event will have a nostalgic flair.
“It's going to be an incredible day,” she says. “It's going to have all the types of traditions that you might have had in the CMYC, and it's going to feel just like coming home.”
The 40th reunion will take place in Winkler on October 19th. The rehearsal day will be led by conductor Kristel Peters, and Leanne Regehr Lee will be the accompanist. For the complete details of the event, see the CMYC’s reunion website here.
Clyde notes that the event will be an interesting mix of people.
“[There are] not many experiences where you get somebody that's 19 all the way to 55, so it's going to be [a] super generational [event] where everybody is singing together . . . at so many different places in their lives, but all coming together.”
The CMYC’s 40th reunion website even includes who has registered so far, so past and present members can get a glimpse of who is attending.
“We would just really love to sing with you. We have representation from almost every single year that the choir has been in existence,” says Friesen. “I'm looking forward to meeting everyone and singing with everyone.”
To reconnect with the CMYC, click here.
~With files from Robyn Wiebe~