Algoma Festival Choir rises again

Algoma Festival Choir members are looking forward to their first full performance as a group since the start of the pandemic.

The choir will be presenting a 60-minute performance entitled We Rise Again - a collection of songs welcoming spring as well as marking its return to live performances after two years of COVID lockdowns and restrictions - at 7:30 p.m., Friday May 6 at The Machine Shop.

“We Rise Again is a song by The Rankin Family. We did a concert of Canadian music a few years ago at The Machine Shop and this just seemed like a really good way to start again, since we are rising again,” said Stephen Mallinger, Algoma Festival Choir music director.

The performance comes after some of the choir’s members sang two songs with Ensemble Caprice and Ensemble vocal Arts-Quebec April 3 at The Machine Shop.

“That was our first performance since the December 2019 Christmas concert at the Bushplane Museum…that was a lot of fun, that concert we did with the group from Montreal, and everybody’s just really happy to be able to sing again and get out and do something socially as well as creatively,” Mallinger said.

The choir had approximately 50 members pre-pandemic, now at 35 and regrouping.

“I would like it to get back up to 50 members. Right now we’re just waiting for people to feel safe coming out again and I’m sure they’ll be back in September. We’ve been together as a group, many of us, for 20 or 30 years, so it’s a very tight unit,” Mallinger said.

The choir’s season typically consists of three concerts annually, with two during the Christmas season and one in early spring, along with performances at Remembrance Day services, City of Sault Ste. Marie events and Culture Days. 

“We started rehearsing again in March when we were allowed to. We rehearsed for about 90 minutes once a week at Zion Lutheran Church,” Mallinger said.

Songs in the May 6 concert include:

• We Rise Again
• Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring - Bach
• Long Time Ago
• May It Be from the film The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
• For the Beauty of the Earth
• Fields of Gold
• Auld Lang Syne
• If I Were a Blackbird
• Cape Breton Lullaby
• Siúl A Ghrá
• Skye Boat Song
• Farewell to Nova Scotia

“If I had to sum it all up in one word about what it means to sing again, joy is the word I would use,” Mallinger said.

Micheal Connell will be the choir’s piano accompanist for We Rise Again.

Indigenous jingle dress dancers from Manitoulin Island will be there as guest performers.

The choir will also perform Prayer for Ukraine by Mykola Lysenko in a show of support for the war torn country.

“We’ve also invited the high school music students from all the high schools in Sault Ste. Marie and CASS in Desbarats to be our guests for the evening. We just thought this would be a nice thing to do for the community coming out of the pandemic,” Mallinger said.

Tickets for We Rise Again are $25 each and are available for purchase at the Sault Community Theatre Box Office in Station Mall and online at the Theatre’s website.