Message from the Artistic Director Each year we try to have at least one concert that deals with an issue. Hence our tour concert last year "We Got Issues." As today is Earth Day, it seemed a good time to celebrate the planet we live on, and make that our issue.

We begin the concert by recognizing we are on unceded Algonquin land and we pay respect to indigenous peoples of North America, who themselves have a great respect for the land on which we live. Traditionally the Navajo Song of the Earth, Hozhonji Song, would be sung at the beginning of an event, such as a Pow Wow, and often again at the end.

Tonight’s concert features the Ottawa premiere of Mark Sirett’s lovely setting of the Pueblo text Treat the Earth Well. We were fortunate to have him come up from Kingston to workshop it, as well as Voices of Earth, with us last month. The first trio of songs ends with the Words of Chief Seattle, from his famous speech ― the themes of respect and honour are set to music by another Canadian composer, Amy Stephen.

Tone Cluster’s Board and volunteers step up to the plate to perform Finnish composer, Mia Makaroff’s Butterfly, made famous by the acappella group Rajaton. If you don't know them, do yourself a favour and look them up on Youtube! Conserving butterflies will improve the environment for wildlife and enrich our lives now and in the generations to come. Check out www.butterfly-conservation.org to see why butterflies matter.

We finish our first half with two more songs to the Earth and for the Earth. Then we invite you to help us fundraise for our next concert by purchasing raffle tickets at intermission!

While the first half is focused on the planet, the second half highlights the people around the world...the ones who can make the difference. The many voices who come together in one song. We are one. We are the Voices of Earth. Kurt Ala-Kantti Artistc Director, Tone Cluster―quite a queer choir

Message from the President

My own life's work centres around two things: celebrating the beauty of the Earth that gives us breath and sharing the music that breathes beauty into us. How perfect that we have a concert that brings the two together on Earth Day.

This season Tone Cluster has been diving into a high energy exploration: from our fall Pop concert to January's cosmic jazz with Rakestar, and onward to the exuberant Show Tune ShowdownTM (next Saturday!) and finally our June 10th concert where TC Does Broadway.

The arc of the season is echoed with this concert, Voices of Earth, all the beauty you've come to expect from Tone Cluster, with a bit of wildness thrown in courtesy of Ghanaian music and dance expert Kathy Armstrong and of course our own Artistic Director Kurt Ala-Kantti.

I hope the sentiments of connection, between peoples, cultures, and our shared planet bring you joy and inspire you.

I also hope we can inspire you to action. Tone Cluster—quite a queer choir, is a choir that does things:

♪ striving for excellence – is more than just part of our mission, it’s why we bring in clinicians, sing such varied repertoire, and attend festivals ♪ supporting our community – is why we program Canadian music, employ local musicians, commission music, and embrace diversity ♪ sharing our music – is why we hold concerts, work with students, make CDs and travel

This is also why we are a choir that needs you. We couldn't be here without you (and we wouldn't want to be). Sponsorship, donations, even just enthusiastically recommending the choir and becoming a regular audience member all help us tremendously.

Sarah Wibberley President, Tone Cluster―quite a queer choir

Kurt Ala-Kantti, Artistic Director

Kurt, is extensively involved in choral music. He is Artistic Director and founder of Harmonia Choir of Ottawa. Kurt serves as Director of Music for St. Thomas Anglican Church, Artistic Director of Cross Town Youth Chorus, Music Director for the Cumberland Community Singers and was the Artistic Director

of the Canadian LGBTQ Choral Festival Unison 2014. In 2014 Kurt was also invited by GALA Choruses to hold a workshop on contemporary choral composers at the Gala Chorus Leadership symposium in Cleveland. With a keen interest in choral performance and excellence, Kurt has been a member of several local choirs singing professionally with the critically acclaimed Ottawa Bach Choir and with Coro Capriccio. He is a member of the Association of Canadian Choral Conductors and the American Choral Director's Association.

Vincent Mar, Accompanist Vincent was born in Montreal, but grew up in Edmonton where he first started piano lessons at age six. After numerous years in the IT field, Vincent became a mild-mannered translator by day and a prolific accompanist by night. Among the groups he has performed with are: the Calgary Men’s Chorus, ¡Olé!, the Chœur gai d'Ottawa Gay Men's Chorus, Suzart Productions, One

Voice Chorus Calgary, and of course, Tone Cluster. Notably Vincent’s first appearance with Tone Cluster was in 2004 at the 7th International GALA Choruses festival in Montreal, where he performed a time-honoured Tone Cluster tradition, namely, the striking of a tone cluster on the piano!

Guest Musician

Kathy Armstrong, African drums and percussion

Kathy Armstrong combines her training in classical percussion and music education with her twenty-five years of studies in Ghanaian music and dance to offer an integrated and community based approach in her work. She received her BMus and MMus from the University of Toronto, studying with Russell Hartenberger and

Robin Engelman of Nexus, and focusing on education and world music.

She travelled to Ghana in 1990 to begin studies with Kwasi Dunyo, and two years later facilitated his first trip to North America. She is the founding director of Baobab Drum Dance Community and teaches at Carleton University. Kathy recently completed an MA in Music and Culture at Carleton, where she received a Senate Medal for her work researching the links between drumming and health and wellbeing. www.kathyarmstrong.ca

Voices of Earth

Saturday, April 22, 2017 * Centretown United Church * Ottawa

Programme

Hozhonji Song (Song of the Earth) Navajo Song arr. Lee Kesselman

Treat the Earth Well - Mark Sirett* Soloist: Alyssa Ahrens

Words of Chief Seattle - Amy Stephen* Soloist: Charles Drouin

MLK - U2, arr. Bob Chilcott

Butterfly - Mia Makaroff

For the Beauty of the Earth - Philip Stopford

Gently (Walk on the Earth) - Brian Tate*

Intermission

Songs from Gahu - Kathy Armstrong*

Africa - David Paich, Jeff Porcaro, arr. Philip Lawson

Voices of Earth - Mark Sirett* Violinist: Brigit Knecht

Many Voices, One Song - Laura Hawley*

We Are One - Brian Tate*

* indicates Canadian composer Before the show and during the intermission, please consider purchasing raffle tickets for an amazing gift basket to support our next concert! Tickets are $2 each or 3 for $5

Tone Cluster Singers

Basses Charles Drouin David Hudson

Dorian Jensen Patrice Mallet Gianluca Ragazzini

Éric Stephenson Adrian Witol

Tenors Robby Bastien-Cleary Roger Butt

Keith Duncanson Tara Fitzgerald

Anton Lovink

Altos Kerry Chalmers Véronique Dupuis

Nancy Illman Margaret Linton Stella Ness

Sue Rice Lorena Zarate

Sopranos Alyssa Ahrens Jan Andrews Deirdre Brown Colleen Glass

Janel Goyette Daniel Joy-Clark Michelle Kowalsky Mary McFadden

Giselle Rivest Sherri Watson Sarah Wibberley

Tone Cluster is a proud member of:

Coming Soon...

Show Tune ShowdownTM, Show Tune Showdown™ is a musical theatre performance game show with a unique blend of singing competition, and Name That Tune with loads of Broadway glitz thrown into the mix. This year three teams of singers from Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet Productions, Orpheus Musical Theatre Company, and Zucchini Productions, sing a selection of Broadway or off-Broadway show tunes for local celebrity judges: China Doll,, Robert Filion and Alan Neal. Each team prepares three tunes to sing and is awarded up to 10 points from each judge. Then, to get some additional points, the team that guesses a song from trivia clues has to sing it with no rehearsal, no safety net – and with just the sheet music and lyrics to help them.

** For more info see back cover **

Tone Cluster Donors

Tone Cluster gratefully acknowledges the support of its many donors. This list reflects donations received between April 14, 2016 and April 13, 2017. Composers: Gianluca Ragazzini, Reena Belford-Schilder Arrangers: Jan Andrews, Deirdre Brown, Roger Butt, Frances Enright, Bridget Grounds, Marg Lee, Vincent Mar, Andrew Sacret, Dennis & Diana Stimson, Dino Testa, Sherri Watson, Adrian Witol Minstrels: Charles Drouin, Keith Duncanson, David Fowler, Anton Lovink, Oona Hayes, Nancy Illman, Patrice Mallet, Dan Miller Thank you also to all the other donors and those who donated through the United Way campaign and CanadaHelps.org. How to support Tone Cluster To help Tone Cluster maintain its reputation as Ottawa’s finest queer mixed choir, we invite you to make a donation. As a registered charitable organization (Charitable Registration #883453102RR0001), the choir will issue tax receipts for contributions of $20 and above. You may also donate online through Canadahelps.org. Tone Cluster’s donation categories are: Maestros ($2000 and over), Conductors ($1000-$1999), Composers ($500-$999), Arrangers ($100-$499), and Minstrels ($20-$99).

Tone Cluster - quite a queer choir

In 1994 a few friends who loved to sing clustered to sing madrigals. After a while, they posted a small ad in GO Ottawa, added more members, and became a gay chamber choir. Tone Cluster has always been a great supporter of LGBTQ causes, and a safe space for many who could not be out in their lives, careers or families. Times have changed, and (fortunately) many barriers have dropped in those 20 years. Tone Cluster has also changed with the times, but is still a close community and a choir. While Tone Cluster started with madrigals, the choir’s repertoire has broadened to include almost every kind of choral music. Tone Cluster has drawn praise and attention from some of Canada’s foremost choral composers, and the choir has commissioned several new works. Tone Cluster's fun and innovative Show Tune Showdown (STS) is now one of Ottawa’s favourite entertainment events. In July 2016, Tone Cluster performed a one hour set at the GALA Choruses International LGBTQ Choral Festival in Denver, Colorado. At the festival, Tone Cluster performed in the prestigious “Coffee Concert” series. The GALA Festival also featured a Show Tune Showdown! Tone Cluster is more and more active in supporting many important causes… and really is Quite a Queer Choir! Thank you for joining Tone Cluster for this concert.

Tone Cluster sincerely thanks... Patrice Mallet: volunteer coordinator

Daniel Joy-Clark: advertising coordinator

The Leading Note: ticket vendor

Gianluca Ragazzini: programme cover, ticket and

poster design, promotion

Colleen Glass, Janel Goyette: raffle coordinators

Jan Andrews: webmaster, programme design

David Hudson, Margaret Linton: music librarians

Centretown United Church: host

and our concert Volunteers:

Ameen Alborany Louis Frève

Susan Gurofsky Alain Lanoix

Christopher Wibberley

Tone Cluster Board of Directors Sarah Wibberley, President

Gianluca Ragazzini, Vice President/Concert Coordinator Jan Andrews, Treasurer

Dorian Jensen, Secretary Janel Goyette, Fundraiser/Outreach Coordinator

Kerry Chalmers, Accessibility Coordinator Keith Duncanson, Choir Liaison