I Powered Up with the Toronto Mass Choir!

Did you know that there was an annual Gospel Music conference in Toronto?
Did you know that there's a Juno Award for Gospel Music?
The Juno Award for "Contemporary Christian/Gospel Album of the Year" has been awarded since 1994.
In 2003, the Toronto Mass Choir won it. They've been around since 1988. 
I had no idea. 


Hollie gave me her hairdresser's business card with information about the TMC and PowerUp, their annual music conference, written on the back. She thought I might be interested. I went to the website. 


Nothing re-ignites the passion for music more than finding out something new about it.  Learn techniques you have never explored before; discover sounds and ideas you’ve never encountered.

It’s time to ignite your passion for Gospel Music! Join Professor Karen Burke and the Juno-Award winning Toronto Mass Choir and experience the joy of singing high energy, dynamic and spirit-lifting music in a gospel choir. Spend time learning great gospel music and meeting people with the same passion.

Everyone who loves to sing is invited to enjoy high-energy, spirit-lifting, hand-clapping, toe-tapping gospel music. Join us on March 2-4 and experience the power!!!


There was a workshop especially for choir directors, and something called "Vocal Boot Camp" that I was really interested in, and the conference was taking place at York University. I hadn't been there since I graduated. I would have the opportunity to learn choir stuff in a classroom! Almost everything I've learned about choir conducting and singing, I've learned informally from fellow choristers. My musical background goes way back to band class in high school, where I did learn quite a bit, including basic conducting, and I did sing in the jazz choir. But, high school was a very long time ago. I signed up. 


The weekend was amazing! I learned so much! And, it was so much fun!!! 


York University looks nothing like it did when I was a student there. It's much more beautiful now. I loved being back in school. 


The workshops were great! I was surprised each time that the description of the workshop was different from what I experienced, but what I experienced was excellent. The workshop leaders were all superb. 


My first workshop was with Professor Karen Burke, the director of the TMC. What luck! She is such an inspiration! Smart, talented, passionate, energetic, and filled with God's light and love, Karen fills a room with her shining presence and has that gift of making you feel like she's speaking to you alone. Each rehearsal was like a continuation of that first class, because Karen explained what she was doing as she conducted. And, it felt like she was doing it just for me. 


The Vocal Boot Camp classes were the most fun. Cassandra Sommers was beautiful and brilliant. We warmed-up and stretched our voices with all kinds of exercises and had a really entertaining group activity where we created and performed fun new versions of well-known melodies using techniques we learned. 


I am still suffering from the effects of my Gospel Dance/Hip-Hop class. I expected to learn some basic steps that I could share with my choir. and maybe get some advice on how to get everybody moving together, how to clap and sing at the same time. I don't really know what I expected. But, I did read in the description that there was no performance for the basic level class. Well, that was true for the Friday class, but I took it on Saturday and we had to perform a dance! I also didn't expect the class to be full of young people. In a class of about 20, I was one of 3 who were over 30, and the oldest by far. I loved it. It helped that the young instructor, JJ Gerber, with his beautiful eyes and encouraging smile was charming, talented, and very patient. Dancing hip-hop and learning a dance routine so quickly was an exciting challenge and I was determined to go through with it. It cost me though. I could hardly walk the next day, and standing up and sitting down still hurt now 3 days later.


The best thing about the classes was meeting the wonderful people, singers and choristers on the journey together, warm and kind. 


The best thing about the weekend was singing in the choir. The rehearsals were excellent. I really learned the most during the rehearsals. The Sunday night concert was thrilling! The TMC performance was slick, high-energy and awe-inspiring, and the York University Gospel Choir was excellent and adorable, as was the Youth Choir. (I think I would have hated it if someone called me adorable when I was in high school and university, but at my age, they look so young. And, I adored them.) I loved the band! I loved singing with a band. Wow! The energy is incredible. Singing in the choir was so joyous, exciting, satisfying, intoxicating that I didn't want the night to end.


The most important lesson that I took home with me was that a choir is a community built on love. Sounds cheesy but it's true.