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The ORYC extends our sincerest condolences to the Wandeler family.  Flo Wandeler was a dedicated volunteer, choir parent, and husband of our former general manager, Ursula Wandeler-Schnewlin, and father of former chorister, Philippe Wandeler. We will miss Flo dearly and our thoughts are with Ursula, Philippe, and Flo’s parents during this time. 

/August, 2022.

With plans in place, the dress rehearsal been had, and the choristers essentially opening their mouths to sing, the COVID-19 case numbers had turned for the worse. The new Omnicron variant had spiked cases throughout the province, and Ottawa is no luckier than the rest. Cases doubling, tripling what used to be the “norm” in our city caused us to need to act fast. In an hours notice, our incredible volunteer team was able to make the difficult decisions to move our live “Messiah: part one with chamber orchestra” online. What started a Friday morning with excitement of the weekend ahead finished the day with sorrow, as we sent out social media posts and email blasts to inform our patrons not to come to the church. 

Not wanting to disrupt what was already said and done even more so, we kept our original concert date and time as the recording date and time. The orchestra graciously joined us, and most of the choristers made it. A commendable few members learned entire solos last minute, as other singers had to self-isolate due to close contacts. Most admirably, even with a day’s time at our disposal, most numbers were recorded in only one take! What an incredible testament to our hard work and intensive practice for an in-person concert. 

We aim to have the remastered recording out for you by Christmas Eve. We are very thankful for everyone who supported this event by buying pay-as-you-can tickets, as well as sponsoring our orchestra via the “Giving Tuesday” campaign. We realize that the event is not as you originally expected, so if you DID support in advance, you have been contacted by email to see if your intent remains. 

Thank you for your continued support of the ORYC, and we look forward to seeing you once again in 2022! 

Now in mid-September, we have made great headway into the new school year, and with such, our new season. With COVID-19 still on the table, our past restrictions that adhere with and surpass local and provincial public health requirements remain in place. To be quite frank, our last season was light on chorister numbers, for clear reasons. This year, we welcome an influx of new members, and a diverse young group!

Once again, requirements for chorister mask wearing, COVID-19 rehearsal questionnaire, capacity requirements, and distancing among other precautions remain. These and more will continue to be in effect for the safety of our choristers, staff, and volunteers.

As for concerts and presentations, we will have to asses as the season continues. As the last two seasons, there will likely be a combination of in-person and streamed virtual concerts. Should restrictions and organization allow, we hope to bring you more musicians: organists, soloists, and even orchestra members to return our concerts to the level our our previous pre-pandemic standards you have grown to know and love.

Thank you for checking back in, and for your continued support of the ORYC!

Finally, after 3 months, we can see each other again! Our first in person rehearsal was July 20. We could have had the 13 outdoors; however it was cancelled due to weather. On the 20, we were able to meet indoors masked and distanced.

Choristers were so glad to meet again; some noting that they had not sang a note since the last rehearsal. It was really moving to have everyone together again.

As our supporters: keep close! We are planning a performance of some sort at the end of August. Considering all restrictions and limitations at the time, we will provide the very best that we can at that exact point in time. Our goal is that we may be able to have even a small audience to sing for.

Lockdown part 2, what an interesting time to run and be in a choir! This only proves all arts organizations’ resilience, hope, and desire to continually make and share music.

At this point, all our rehearsals must be held online. We are meeting at our regular Tuesday time over zoom, with notes from Jamie (our artistic director) on the pieces and their interpretation. Pianist backing tracks, performance notes, and other useful tidbits of information follow the rehearsals in an email summary to choristers.

As soon as we are able, following Public Health guidelines, local health measures and recommendations, and the go-ahead from our collaborative rehearsal space; St Joe’s Parish, we will return to small group rehearsals. As expected, we have no time frame a to if this will happen soon; or in the remainder of our season at all. Now with two digital concerts under our belt (the Coffeehouse digitally edited with individual chorister videos, and Musica Festum recorded live and shared at a later date), we have tools and options to provide captivating online music for our supporters. Our priority is to keep choristers, staff, volunteers, and our audience safe while continuing to make beautiful music to share with our audience and the community.

Please, for the sake of our community and that we may sing in front of you live again soon, remember to social distance, wash your hands, wear your mask, and be responsible in your gatherings. We sincerely hope to be together singing as a choir again soon, and with a live audience shortly after. Check back to the COVID-19 sidebar on ORYC.ca for future updates.

The ORYC is alive and well, and attempting to adapt to conform with the reality of COVID-19 restrictions. After an unexpected close to our 2019-2020 season riddled with zoom calls and piano/conductor video tracks, we’ve been thankful enough to be able to meet with groups in-person.

The choir has started off by rehearsing in three small octet chamber choir groups to respect the 10 person limit imposed on any indoor activities. Then, after Thanksgiving, restrictions were loosened to a 50 person limit, so we could go back to “normal”; but we decided to divide into two groups instead. This gives a new perspective to choir singing due to the group sizing change, and it also helps us remain safer by having less choristers come in contact each week. The choristers are taking the changing adaptations quite well, and we have a great mix of new and returning members!

With new and adapting performances being planned, we know that we will be able to offer an incredible, distanced season to keep our audience intrigued. Despite the current challenges, we continue to be innovative and interest both our choristers and virtual audience in our coming activities. As the COVID restrictions change, so will the ORYC to push on and continue the season!

Any questions, concerns, or inquiries about our precautionary COVID measures we’ve put in place, or general information can be directed to our management team at info@oryc.ca 

Believe it or not getting ready for the ORYC Season each year doesn’t just “happen”.  Although our concert/performance season usually ends by July, when many of our young people head home or to summer jobs, the Artistic and Administrative Teams, and many of our Volunteers are still hard at work throughout the summer months.

There are programs to plan, projects to work on, financials to take care of, Web sites and social media to keep relevant and up-to-date, auditions to manage, information/registration packages to update …and the list goes on! 

Would just like to say thanks to all of our community that give up their precious time over the summer to make sure we are ready to give our young people, our audiences and our supporters, the best experiences possible each season!

It has been another amazing year of retreats, workshops, our own concerts and guest performances.  With our Spring concert and awards presentations May 3, 2019 we will be winding down from this year, but the work really does not stop there.

The concert and planning for our 2019-2020 season is already well underway and we have received many invitations for guest performances so it is going to be yet another challenging adventure. Who knows where you may find us so be sure to check back with us on a regular basis so we can share our plans with you.

If you would like to be on the ORYC Team for next year’s adventures there are many ways to be part of the group.

Of course we need enthusiastic and committed choristers so Auditions for choir members are running through the month of May.  With the age group, 15-25, of our musical members there is always comings and goings each season so there is always room for more.  If you know anyone or would like to join us we hope to hear from you.

Being  a choir member however is not the only way to be part of our community.  We can only support these young people with a strong and dedicated group of volunteers whether it be helping out on a general basis, as a member of the Board or working on specific activities or tasks throughout the year.  If you think that you may have some time or a particular expertise that you are willing to share or would like to know more about the options please feel that you can get in touch.  All are welcome. Visit our volunteer page to send us a note.

Join our Community! Share the Music!