14th Annual Singing August 26

Reminder that the 14th Annual Central Ontario All-Day Sacred Harp Singing is Saturday, August 26. Check out the Facebook Event for more information. We are again at the lovely Detweiler Meetinghouse located one kilometre west of Roseville, Ontario.

This is Ontario shape-note singers’ biggest event of the year, and one you absolutely shouldn’t miss!!! For more info and/or to volunteer to help, contact chair Jan May.

Singing starts at 9:30 am.

Join us for our 13th Annual Central Ontario All-Day singing

We return to the Detweiler Meetinghouse in North Dumfries on Saturday, August 27th. This is near Cambridge, Ontario. We start at 9:30 a.m., take a break midday dinner on the ground, and then continuing singing until 3:30 p.m. There will be a social on Friday evening, preceding the event. Details in this flyer. Tell us you are going on the Facebook event page.

12th Annual Singing photos

11th Annual All-Day Singing Photos

Special Cooper Book Singing August 25 1-3:30 pm

In honour of this being our tenth anniversary Central-Ontario singing we’re doing something special. On the Sunday after the Saturday all-day singing there will be a new Cooper Book Singing at Trinity Anglican Church, 12 Blair Rd., Cambridge, Ontario. And as a special, special treat the singing will be lead by led by Karen Willard, a Seattle alto singer and shape-note music publisher who did the beautiful typesetting in the revised edition.This book is different from our usual Denson book, and has many different styles of tunes and harmonies. We will have loaner books on site. Contact s.nicoletta@rogers.com.

Central Ontario All-Day Sacred Harp Singing

Always the Saturday before the fourth Sunday in August. This is a traditional singing from The Sacred Harp, 1991 edition (the “Denson Book). Singers and listeners are welcome to attend. Join us at the Detweiler Meetinghouse (1855) the only surviving meetinghouse built by Mennonite pioneers in Ontario – 3445 Roseville Foad, North Dumfries, in the Waterloo Region of Ontario, Canada.

The next annual singing will be held from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, August 22, 2015. We will hold dinner on the grounds. Ontario singers are requested to bring plenty of ready-to-serve food to share. (There are no warming facilities.)

About the Toronto Shape Note Group

COME AND SING with the Toronto Shapenote Group the third Wednesday of every month from 7:30-9:30 pm. We sing from the The Sacred Harp, 1991 revision song book. Experienced and not so experienced singers are welcome, and loaner books are available.

We gather in the Music Room of Bloor Street United Church at 300 Bloor Street West (near Huron).

That’s a very short walk from the Spadina station on the Bloor line. There’s paid parking behind the building; there may also be on-street parking in the surrounding neighbourhood. Before 7 pm, enter by the westernmost (courtyard) door off Bloor: the one with the “300″ above it. After 7 pm, use the door at 470 Huron St., off the parking lot.

We also have a more informal singing earlier in the month at someone’s home. The day and time are variable, so join our mailing list to keep informed. You can join the email list by contacting Pleasance Crawford at pleasancecrawford at rogers.com

We have been singing together since the Fall of 2000. For years we met at St. Stephen-in-the-Fields Anglican, but their financial difficulties forced us to move to Bloor Street United.

We have connections with many other Ontario Shapenote groups, and we all gather together in August for the Central Ontario All-Day Sing (with dinner on the grounds, of course!).

BBQ, Indie Rock & a Toronto Shape Note singing

One of our singers, Timothy McCready hosts an annual giant BBQ and all-day music-fest at his house (June 14). This year he invited our group to make a house call and see how The Sacred Harp mixed with punk, indie-rock, alt-country and rap. We think it went quite well. In fact we ended up getting recorded and you can hear the result  and a moving review at blog Mechanical Forest Sound.
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