It is time to celebrate! North Island Choral Society (NICS) has reached a major milestone 鈥� presenting classical music for 40 years in the Comox Valley. At its birth few expected a choir specializing in classical music to survive in a smaller community. We did not just survive but we thrived. At its inception the choir had about 35 singers and today we have 75. We are still growing and attracting audiences of over 350 people to our concerts.
The choir was the original brainwave of Christine Purvis. She was the choir鈥檚 first artistic director in late 1983. Her first performance was the ever popular Messiah by George Frideric Handel, an oratorio that the choir has sung many times over the years. After a couple of years Christine passed the baton to her husband Richard Walker due to new family commitments. Other conductors would come and go for a decade until the choir achieved stability with the appointment of a new artistic director 鈥� Paul Colthorpe and new accompanist Elvera Penner in 1995. A partnership that lasted over 29 years until Elvera鈥檚 retirement in 2024.
The choir owes a large debt to the excellence of its long term artistic director Paul Colthorpe who has raised the standard of the choir, tackled increasingly difficult musical repertoire, all with a non-auditioned choir. Paul believes this choir is open for all who share an interest in classical fare. In the early days of the choir the music was more mixed with concerts featuring Celtic music, Scottish music, spirituals, opera and Canadian folk songs. A notable event for the choir was in 1998 when it performed with the celebrity Canadian pianist Frank Mills at the Sid Williams Theatre as part of his final Canadian tour.
Paul has brought an increased focus on the major classical oratorios and in recent years has brought audiences increasingly challenging repertoire. These include works such as Beethoven鈥檚 famous Ode to Joy from his Ninth Symphony, Brahms鈥� Requiem, Verdi鈥檚 Requiem, Bach鈥檚 Magnificat, Mozart鈥檚 Requiem and Haydn鈥檚 Creation. Over the years we have been lucky to have an array of music professionals in the Valley to serve as our soloists. We have benefitted from the glorious voice of Megan Skidmore (2000-2017), the rich baritone of Dr. Chris Bellamy (2005-2023), the high tenor of David Brown from Nanaimo (2006-2017), and expressive mezzo-sopranos Carol Anne Parkinson (1997, and 2015-2024) and Lisa Deith (2007-2022). We have also benefited immensely over the years from a small volunteer orchestra including many top-notch professional musicians that add so much to our performances.
To celebrate our 40 years we have two upcoming concerts at Christmas and another next April. The Christmas concert is a potpourris of some excerpts of our greatest hits over the past 40 years. This will be a musical feast for the season. It includes music spanning the centuries from Bach to Britten, including selections from Handel鈥檚 Messiah. For our April 2025 concert we tackle the infamous Carmina Burana by the German composer Carl Orff which will involve the additional resources of a larger orchestra and a Youth Choir. This will be a fitting tribute to 40 years of success for our choir. This unusual, stellar work is based on medieval poems. It is a secular cantata with forceful multi-faceted music. Not our typical oratorio fare! Orff鈥檚 music is eclectic, stunning and memorable 鈥� a tour de force for both performers and audiences.
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