About the Vancouver Cantata Singers

The Vancouver Cantata Singers is one of Canada’s preeminent, award-winning choral ensembles. Known for its exceptional artistry, technical virtuosity and exquisite tonal blend, the choir maintains the highest standards of performance in repertoire encompassing 500 years. On Canada Day, 2019, the Vancouver Cantata Singers was awarded the prestigious Canada Council for the Arts Healey Willan Prize, for the fourth time - more than any other ensemble in the history of the award. The VCS was also awarded Best Performance of a Canadian Work and First Place in the Adult Mixed-Voice Category at the National Competition for Canadian Amateur Choirs. A mainstay on the Canadian music scene for over 60 years, the VCS has maintained the highest levels of artistry in choral singing while continuing to reinvent and redefine itself creating innovative and extremely successful collaborations with acclaimed regional as well as international artists and ensembles.

The Vancouver Cantata Singers is one of Canada’s preeminent, award-winning choral ensembles. Known for its exceptional artistry, technical virtuosity and exquisite tonal blend, the choir maintains the highest standards of performance in repertoire encompassing 500 years. On Canada Day, 2019, the Vancouver Cantata Singers was awarded the prestigious Canada Council for the Arts Healey Willan Prize, for the fourth time - more than any other ensemble in the history of the award. The VCS was also awarded Best Performance of a Canadian Work and First Place in the Adult Mixed-Voice Category at the National Competition for Canadian Amateur Choirs. A mainstay on the Canadian music scene for over 60 years, the VCS has maintained the highest levels of artistry in choral singing while continuing to reinvent and redefine itself creating innovative and extremely successful collaborations with acclaimed regional as well as international artists and ensembles.

Artistic Director Paula Kremer

Born in Vancouver and educated at the University of British Columbia and the Vancouver Academy of Music, Paula Kremer has studied choral conducting at Eton College, Westminster Choir College, the Eastman School of Music and the University of Michigan. An…

Born in Vancouver and educated at the University of British Columbia and the Vancouver Academy of Music, Paula Kremer has studied choral conducting at Eton College, Westminster Choir College, the Eastman School of Music and the University of Michigan. An accomplished vocalist and pianist, Paula studied voice with Phyllis Mailing, Bruce Pullan, Marisa Gaetanne and Laura Pudwell, and piano from Margot Ehling. A permanent faculty member of the School of Music at Vancouver Community College, Paula teaches choral techniques, voice and solfege. She was previously the director of Vancouver Bach Choir ensembles for young adults, the Vancouver Bach Youth Choir and Sarabande Chamber Choir. Paula joined the alto section of our choir in 1994, and has been the Vancouver Cantata Singers’ Artistic Director since 2013.

Read More

Composer-in-Residence Craig Galbraith

A native of Saltspring Island, British Columbia, Craig Galbraith is one of Canada's exciting young composers. He has won awards including the Karen Keiser Prize in Canadian New Music and first prize in SOCAN’s Hugh Le Caine Award, for an…

A native of Saltspring Island, British Columbia, Craig Galbraith is one of Canada's exciting young composers. He has won awards including the Karen Keiser Prize in Canadian New Music and first prize in SOCAN’s Hugh Le Caine Award, for an electroacoustic work, Silhouette. He was also a prize winner in CBC’s National Competition for Young Composers, and received its People's Choice award. He performs frequently as a tenor with various choral ensembles, and sat on the Artistic Directorship of the Canadian Contemporary Music Workshop (CCMW) from 2004-2012, an entity dedicated to promoting emerging composers. Galbraith's music has been performed by many distinguished artists and has been broadcast frequently on CBC radio. He has received numerous prestigious commissions, including those for Soundstreams, the Elmer Iseler Singers and Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, the Gryphon Trio, musica intima, and Tapestry New Opera Works. In 2012, Mr. Galbraith received his doctorate in composition from the University of Toronto, and now lives in Vancouver.

Read More

Awards

Four time winner of the Canada Council Healey-Willan Grand Prize for Canadian Amateur Choirs

2019

Healey-Willan Grand Prize

Best Performance of a Canadian Work; First Place: Mixed-Voice Adult Choir

2011

Healey-Willan Grand Prize

First Place: Chamber Choir

2010

National Competition for Canadian Amateur Choirs

First Place: Contemporary category

2008

Healey-Willan Grand Prize

First Place: Chamber Choir

1984

Healey-Willan Grand Prize

Press

The Georgia Straight (May 2019)

Vancouver Cantata Singers discover Scandinavian Treasures

The Vancouver Sun (May 2019)

Songs from the North

The Georgia Straight (February 2019)

Vancouver Cantata Singers look to Björk for cosmic sonics of Musica Universalis

The Georgia Straight (November 2018)

With Threnody, Vancouver Cantata Singers give voice to lost Indigenous women

The Vancouver Sun (May 2018)

Vancouver Cantata Singers celebrate 60 years

The Georgia Straight (May 2018)

Vancouver Cantata Singers tap joy, and a new Jocelyn Morlock work, for their 60th anniversary

Vancouver Classical Music (December 2017)

The splendours of authentic and traditional performances of the Messiah

The Georgia Straight (August 2017)

Performers bring light to dark Passion at Vancouver Bach Festival

The Vancouver Sun (November 2016)

Sixties psalms: Leonard Bernstein’s hit gets Vancouver treatment

The Vancouver Sun (September 2016)

Choirs give back at ReSounding Ryerson Benefit

Photos

Staff and Directors

General Manager: Melissa Duchak

President: Beth Helsley
Past President: Sarah McNair
Vice President: Jesse Read
Treasurer: Christina Cho, C.A.
Secretary: Jim Sanyshyn

Members at Large:
Hilary Carle
Trevor Mangion
Melody Yiu

Singers' Representative:
Sarah McGrath