Welcome
The formation of the MacKay Choristers was inspired by Janet Kalbfleisch, then the president of the MacKay Centre for Seniors. In 1983 Irla Stewart was named the first director and 16 members came together to form a choir. In 2010, it had a membership of about 60. The choir sings locally in two annual concerts, one in May, the other in December, along with the Goderich Harbouraires, and the Goderich Laketown Band. As well, the Choristers have enjoyed singing in Bayfield, Clinton, Gravenhurst, Ilderton, Kitchener, London, Mississauga, Monckton, Niagara Falls, St Mary's, Toronto, Welland and Zurich. In 1989 and again in 1990, the Choristers performed at Toronto's Roy Thomson Hall in the Seniors Jubilee Concert series. Choristers have also participated in four-day workshop/holiday sessions in Muskoka in 1989, 1991 and 1993 and in Stratford in 1996.
Choristers were privileged (in 1993 and again in 1998) to have composer-arranger Don Besig conduct two choral workshops in Goderich. Following his first visit, Don, assisted by Nancy Price, composed and dedicated a song for the Choristers - "Say It With A Song" - which has since become the Choristers' signature piece. Both Nancy Price and the Robert Wood Singers from Welland attended the 1998 workshop.
The MacKay Choristers pay an annual membership to the Ontario Choral Federation (OCF). This keeps the choir in touch with what is going on in the choral music field throughout the province. Some of our members have participated in choral workshops sponsored by the OCF in London and Blyth. Also through the OCF, the Choristers applied and were accepted to sing in an International Festival of Music, "The Joy of Singing", in Toronto in 1993.
The Choristers have made four audio tapes – in 1988, 1991, 1996 and 1999. Five hundred copies of each of the first two tapes, and 690 of the 1996 tapes were made available for sale. The 1999 tape, a collaborative venture with the other musical partners in the "Goderich Sound of Music, 2000" to commemorate the Year 2000, was also cut as a CD. Tape-making projects are challenging fund-raising efforts for the choir and leave lasting mementos for friends and choir members alike.
