WEYBURN – The Spirit Singers, a nine-member singing group of Grades 11 and 12 students at Grace United Church, will have the opportunity to perform on the prestigious stage of Carnegie Hall in New York City next May.
Kendra Gonczy, an alumnus of the Greystone Singers from the University of Saskatchewan, directs the group. She heard over the summer about the opportunity to join the Greystones in New York.
“This summer I received an email as a Greystone alumni about an opportunity to join this year’s U of S Greystone Singers to sing at Carnegie Hall. I reached out and asked if they were open to having my oldest choral group join. She said yes right away and the rest is history,” said Gonczy.
They include Jyllian Payak, Brinlee Klapak, Brittany Barber, Calla Hrynewich, Natalie Butz, Donald Alexander, Camden Husband, Tauren Jack and Emerson Jack.
“We told the Spirit Singers about this opportunity at our first rehearsal in September and they took the information to their parents, and all nine said yes to coming, as well as a few parents.”
The group will head down for five days at the end of May for two days of rehearsals, and then will take part in the concert on the stage. There will be 100 singers in the Saskatchewan choir and there will be two other choirs of the same size performing during the concert as well.
“It is definitely a trip and an experience of a lifetime. These nine singers have been together for the past three years as a solid group. Some have been singing together since they were only five years old and others joined more recently,” said Gonczy, who also directs the other groups at Grace United, and is a music teacher at Assiniboia Park Elementary.
“They are a tight-knit group and it has been such a pleasure to work with them over the years,” said Gonczy. “We will be losing four members this spring as they graduate and move on to their next step in life. So this being our last year together, this opportunity could not have come at a better time.”
