 Welcome back singers! AOMS will be returning for our Fall 2023 season on September 13, 2023 at 7:30pm!
We are returning to the Kingsdale Community Centre for the fall term, with our winter concert being planned in December at Knox Presbyterian in Waterloo. To register, visit www.aomskw.com/sing-with-us.
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April 22, 2023 $13,000 OTF Grant Helps AOMS Choir Rebuild Waterloo, ON - On Saturday, local MPPs Laura Mae Lindo and Catherine Fife attended the Age of Majority Singers performance of Grow at Knox Presbyterian Church in Waterloo. MPPs Fife and Lindo attended the concert to celebrate the $13,500 Resilient Communities fund grant that Age of Majority Singers received from the Ontario Trillium Foundation (OTF). The funds were used to produce high-quality artistic programming. "Age of Majority Singers offers a safe, inclusive environment for social connection and provides community members with opportunities to foster and share their love of music. It is encouraging that this Resilient Communities Fund grant was able to offer support as AOMS rebuilds and adapts to the effects of COVID-19. Congratulations on the receipt of this grant and your continued success!" said Catherine Fife, MPP for Waterloo. The Age of Majority Singers (AOMS) artistic programming is centered upon themes of social justice, anti-racism and reconciliation. The Ontario Trillium Foundation Grant has allowed the choir to prepare meaningful artistic experiences that enrich the lives of the community through music. “My sincerest congratulations to the Age of Majority Singers on being the recipient of the Resilient Communities Fund grant from the Ontario Trillium Foundation. The Age of Majority Singers is founded in the community, creating a welcoming and accessible space for your adults through music,” added Laura Mae Lindo, MPP for Kitchener Centre. “The OTF grant will allow rebuilding and recovering from the impacts of COVID-19 through purchasing audio-visual equipment, supporting rental costs, and offering choral art programming with flexible hybrid formats to prioritize health and safety. Through this grant, the Age of Majority Singers will be able to continue their work in community through inclusivity and commitment. Congratulations, and I wish you many more years of success.” In addition, the grant has helped AOMS rebuild from the impact of COVID-19 by enabling the choir to recruit both former and new singers through additional marketing and advertising efforts. Finally, the grant has permitted the choir to implement important health and safety measures to facilitate in-person rehearsals and performances. “The Age of Majority Singers is grateful to the Ontario Trillium Foundation for their support through the Resilient Communities Fund as we engage in our first in-person season since the global pandemic began” said Megan Brenneman, Artistic Director of the Age of Majority Singers. “This grant has allowed our community choir to begin the process of safely gathering to sing and rebuild as a necessary and vibrant part of the arts community within the Region of Waterloo”. The Age of Majority Singers is a community choir devoted to creating a welcoming and accessible space for young adults to find and share their joy of music. Their work is guided by the values of inclusivity, commitment, and community. If you wish to learn more about the choir and how you can become involved, please visit the website at: https://www.aomskw.com/ The Ontario Trillium Foundation (OTF), an agency of the Government of Ontario, and one of Canada’s leading granting foundations celebrates 40 years of grant-making in Ontario and making a lasting impact in communities. Last year, OTF invested over $110M into 1,022 community projects and partnerships. Visit otf.ca to learn more. Organization Contact for Media Inquiries: Eric Jackson-Sarkany, Social Media Officer Age of Majority Singers Email: aomsmedia@gmail.com  AOMS is excited to present our first concert in 3 years! Join us on December 11, 2022 at the Victoria Park Pavilion in Kitchener.
Doors & Silent Auction: 2PM Concert: 3PM A word from our artistic director: "The word hearth evokes the idea of a gathering place and a place of warmth. We gather to connect with ourselves, with each other, and the world around us. There is something about gathering with others to sing that moves us - that helps us explore the range of the human experience in relationship to each other and to the earth - joy, beauty, sorrow, pain, hope, love - and so much more. The words “hear”, “heart”, “earth”, and “art” are all contained in this one word - hearth - and so this concert centers around these ideas. Join Age of Majority Singers for an afternoon around the hearth!" - Megan Brenneman. The concert will be performed in two parts, with a 15 minute intermission. Featuring performances and collaborations with Eric Jackson & The Willow River Band. Tickets are available online in advance or at the door for cash/eTransfer. - $20 (Adults) - $15 (Seniors/Students) - Children 11 and under Free Registration is now OPEN for the Age of Majority Singers Fall Choir Season!! Fill out the form below to be added to our list of singers for September. Details regarding rehearsal dates, times, and locations, as well as voice placements, will be communicated in mid-August to all registrants. https://forms.gle/UmNaPcU9RJcvVth69  Age of Majority singers wants to thank everyone for checking out our virtual concert, Branches, on December 11th. The night was filled with music, reflection, and conversation. For anyone who missed it, check it out on YouTube below!  Age of Majority Singers invites you to join us for an evening of music and dialogue around themes of allyship, racial justice and awakening to action.
The program includes excerpts from a panel discussion with Kevin Ramessar, and Jon Corbin, as well as songs and video. Age of Majority Singers is a community choir based in Kitchener-Waterloo, whose mission is to foster a diverse community in which young people can share their love of music. Kevin Ramessar is a multi-instrumentalist, teacher, composer, and conductor whose Broadway credits include Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, To Kill A Mockingbird, Jesus Christ Superstar, and Dear Evan Hansen. Having spent the last 20 years touring internationally, Kevin finds joy in vibrant musical collaborations, and is deeply committed to anti-colonial, anti-racist practices and cultivating more equitable, just, and inclusive communities. You can find out more at kevinramessar.com. Jon Corbin is a Canadian hip-hop artist, spoken word poet, speaker, band leader, writer and DJ based in Milton, ON. He is also a high school teacher and father of five children with his wife, Abigail. Since 2001, first under the name The Runaway, Jon has blessed stages big and small with lyrical themes of faith, love, family, social justice, and personal growth. You can find out more at joncorbinmusic.com. If you would like to support the choir financially, you may make a donation via your ticket registration by entering a value in the 'donation' box as part of your registration, otherwise, you may support us by clicking here.  On October 12th, 2021, AOMS was honoured to be able to spend time at O:se Kenhionhata:tie (Land Back Camp) in Waterloo, Ontario for a night of singing and sharing stories around a fire.
We extend our thanks to the members of the camp for allowing us to spend time in their sacred space, sharing in music together. Our singers learned the pronunciation of the Mohawk word that is the name of the camp. O:se Kenhionhata:tie means 'Willow River' and is what the Grand River was called by the indigenous peoples who lived on and around it's banks until the French settlers arrived and changed the name. It is pronounced "O-see Gon-Yun-Hah-Dah-Jee" On December 16th, 2020, Board Member, Eric Jackson & Artistic Director, Megan Brenneman spoke with Mike Farwell on 570 News to discuss how AOMS has navigated through this new virtual choir setting and provided a brief overview on our upcoming virtual choir season! Click the link below to listen to our segment (scroll ahead to 62min 30sec in the audio).
“I heard a bird sing in the dark of December. A magical thing. And sweet to remember. We are nearer to Spring than we were in September. I heard a bird sing in the dark of December.” ― Oliver Herford
December is upon us, and with it, the final turn of the year, towards the possibilities of 2021, and, most importantly for me, towards the returning warmth.
Usually, this time of the year is filled with the plans of holiday celebrations with family and friends. This year, many of those plans will shift and change, towards virtual gatherings hosted on many different platforms and with many different configurations. Age of Majority Singers wishes all of our members, their families and their friends a warm, safe and love-filled holiday season. We extend our thanks to our members for their commitment and patience during this tumultuous year, and our appreciation for their dedication to continuing to sing, together but apart. With this in mind, we are excited to state that our first virtual choir season will be ready to launch in the New Year! We encourage you to invite your friends, family and neighbours, to sing with us, in their homes, as our Artistic Director will lead the group through some warm ups, vocal exercises and raising our voices in song, even though we remain apart. In order to help us facilitate these voice building sessions, we will be asking participants to provide a small fee for us to be able to provide the platform and technology to bring our sessions to life. If you are unable to join us for the season, but still wish to give, or have folks in your network who are hoping to help an arts organization remain resilient, they can help by donating here. May this season be both merry and bright, and may the new year be full of joyful noise. - Jessica Flood, AOMS Secretary 
A Note From our Artistic Director, Megan
“Should auld acquaintance be forgot, and never brought to mind?”
The traditional song heard around the world on New Year’s Eve, “Auld Lang Syne”, reminds me of the important role that casual acquaintances have in my life. During the pandemic, many of us have been deprived of our ‘weak-tie’ friendships, like those we may experience in choir. This BBC article describes how our interactions with casual acquaintances can bring us new information, new opportunities, spark creativity, and give us a greater sense of happiness and belonging. Choir is not the same when it’s online, that’s for sure, but AOMS is making an effort to stay connected in this way so that people can still maintain a sense of belonging and share their joy of making music, albeit a different way of doing so. As the holiday season and the new year approaches, let’s “take a cup o’ kindness yet” and raise it to our health, happiness, and to each other - our old choir acquaintances. Whether we encounter each other intentionally in virtual singing opportunities, or by chance in the community, I look forward to the next time I’m fortunate enough to see you again. Sending love and light to you all.
Take a moment to learn some more about the Ojibwe' People's history, outside of what we are able to cover in our AOMS sessions in the video above.
 'Our twilight month November is, the evening of the year' - Ruby Archer, 'November' We're drawing closer now to the end of this year; the cold setting in and the days shortening. It's been a year of challenges for many; personal, political, medical, environmental. Age of Majority Singers has faced our own challenges as well, organizationally. We started this year with big plans for Branches in the spring, and for further work in this fall semester, but circumstances beyond our control have shaped this year in ways none of us could see coming. Not being able to sing together has been challenging as a community of choral singers, and your board has been working hard to come up with ways to hold the feeling of community close even if we cannot yet share space with each other. This past week, we had our first virtual voice-building session, over Zoom, and it was deeply moving to watch people's faces as we sang, together but apart, safe in the confines of our own homes but voices raised in unison towards the goal of making music together. We have a second virtual session planned for the evening of December 2nd, please sign up to join us and invite a friend, the more the merrier. - Jessica Flood, AOMS Secretary  A Note from Our AOMS Artistic Director Megan Brenneman Seeing the new and familiar, smiling faces joining us for our first Voice-Building Session this week, reinforced the idea that singing together - even in these strange times, and even while muted online - still has the power to build a sense of community and to bring comfort and healing. A friend recently shared this NY Times article with me, which speaks to this very concept. Age of Majority Singers is doing what we can to “keep the light on” for our pre-existing community, and those who are seeking that connection through music. Enjoy this video of vocal music and spoken poetry from a group of like-minded artists in the Netherlands who are also sending this message - “We are here, waiting for our cue...finding new ways, we push through…” I hope you will join us to “keep the light on” and share the light with others! Support one of our own AOMS family members! Graeme and his band have recently launched the above song. Check them out on social media and share your love!  |
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