Photo Credit: GPRC

By Shane Clausing

Concert Choir

GPRC Concert Choir gears up for first major performance in over a year

Mar 25, 2021 | 5:00 AM

The Grande Prairie Regional College Concert Choir will be giving its first major performance in over a year next month.

The choir will be performing a virtual concert on April 10 at 7:00 p.m. and will live stream it on YouTube.

Tina Alexander-Luna is one of the instructors with the choir at GPRC, who says her students are excited to finally get back to performing on stage.

“The last time our choir had a concert would’ve been winter 2019. I know the students are looking forward to having a performance opportunity for sure.”

In a normal year, there would be between 40-50 people in the GPRC choir. It was made up of students who would take the choir as a course. Members of the community would be involved as well.

As a result of COVID-19 restrictions, the choir’s numbers have dwindled down to under ten students.

While there was a significant drop in members, Tina says they’ve been able to adjust with the times.

“It’s definitely been a challenge, but like many performing arts organizations, we are just trying to make it work with the limitations that we have,” she said.

“We have been able to do some performances over Zoom and we’ve reached out to some local high schools to do performances and concerts for them. It’s just been kind of reworking the things we were already doing and looking at them in a new way.”

Alexander-Luna says they’ve done a couple of concerts for some high schools and added there are a couple of more scheduled before the one on April 10.

The performance will be recorded in advance and then streamed live on YouTube to ensure the quality of the production is high.

All COVID-19 protocols will be taken to ensure the safety of everyone.

While they are excited to get back to performing, Tina says it will be a different experience for her students without people in the stands.

“You feed off of that energy in the room when you have an audience versus a computer sitting in front of you, but we’ll make it work and hopefully we give all these students opportunities to perform.”

The choir will be performing a range of classical and contemporary pieces. Some of the music performed will also be from Canadian composers. The choir will also perform some percussion pieces, which Tina says her students love.

“Hopefully, the songs will be fun not only for the singers but for the audience to enjoy over YouTube.”

Those interested in watching the performance are encouraged to register using Eventbrite, which will give you a reminder for the performance on the day of the concert.