On the afternoon of Sunday, March 22^nd, at the Community Hall in Sooke, Victoria musician Nicholas Fairbank will conduct his last concert as Chorus Director of the Sooke Philharmonic Chorus and Orchestra. On the programme will be two premières composed by Fairbank: his Earth Cantata composed in 2024, and a shorter work sung in the Irish language for choir, traditional fiddle and two Irish flutes entitled Éileamh na Talún, which in English means The Plea of the Land.

Joining the Sooke choir and orchestra for this concert will be the École Poirier Choir directed by Sandra Arts, Rebekah Janzen, mezzo-soprano, fiddler Kate Rhodes, and Lana Betts and Lanny Pollet playing Irish flutes.

Also on the programme is music by Benjamin Britten (his Welcome Ode) and Aaron Copland (Two American Songs). Britten’s Welcome Ode was composed for Queen Elizabeth II’s Silver Jubilee in 1977, and uses joyous English texts about spring and celebratory dancing. Copland wrote his arrangements of traditional American songs “Ching-a-ring Chaw” and “I Bought Me a Cat” in 1954, and the imaginative orchestral arrangements augment their lively and entertaining quality. The children’s choir will be joining the Sooke Phil Chorus in these two short pieces.

Fairbank’s Éileamh na Talún was written in April of 2025 while in residence at University College Dublin, Ireland. Divided into three parts, the work uses characters from ancient Irish mythology to speak of our need to care for Earth.

The major work on the concert programme is Fairbank’s 2024 œuvre Earth Cantata, a 35-minute work in 7 movements. This piece, too, is about the environment, a theme that the composer has been focusing on in recent years. Using texts by a variety of authors, the piece takes us from a celebration of how the Earth used to be before we began to disregard the care required to maintain it.

Tickets are available on Eventbrite and Pharmasave in Sooke.  For more information visit Sookephil.ca

A free meeting place where voluntary repairers with skills in sewing, carpentry, electrical and bikes can help fix your item on the spot. Plus knife sharpening and tech help with digital devices. For details and to volunteer: www.repaircafenorthsaanich.ca or email: repaircafenorthsaanich@gmail.com.

Cordova Bay United Church
813 Claremont Ave, Victoria, BC

The Victoria Arion Male Choir is one of the newest choirs in Victoria, BC. In 2018, the Arion Male Choir (founded in 1892) merged with the Victoria Male Voice Choir (1907).

Our mission is to maintain the great tradition of male-voice choral music, and to share that music through two more public concerts each year.  The choir also performs at senior residences, at the Victoria Remembrance Day ceremony at the BC Legislature that the Arion choir has done since 1929 as well as other public events.

We support music education through our choral scholarship program, which allows up to four student musicians to sing with us each year. We welcome new members: come and share with us the joy of male choral music!

Our musical director, Sean Lampard-Quicke, joined us in 2020 and our collaborative pianist, Jennifer Mitchell, joined the choir in 2019.

We are actively seeking new singers for our non-audition choir in January 2026, with open houses on Monday January 5^th, 12^th, and 19^th. The choir sings four-part harmony, and our repertoire covers classical, spiritual, folk, and contemporary music.

We meet Monday’s, 7:00PM at Cordova Bay United Church, 813 Claremont Ave. We are also looking for choral scholars. For more information on becoming a member or if you want to know more about the choral scholarship program please contact Jim Johnson at jimmysj@shaw.ca or check out our website at www.vamc.ca.

Pearkes Rec Centre (Behind Tillicum Mall)
3100 Tillicum Road, Victoria, BC

Friday & Saturday: 10 am. to 5 pm.

Sunday:  10:00 am. to 3:00 pm.

Admission $10.00 (Good for all 3 days!)

Victoria Christian Reformed Church, 661 Agnes St, Saanich

The guys will be singing Canadian favorites like Four Strong Winds, Hallelujah, Song for the Mira, Where the Fraser River Flows, and We’ll Rant and We’ll Roar.

Tickets $25.00, 12 and under free. You can get them through VAMC choir members, at the door and soon on line through Eventbrite.

We also will be having a silent auction during the concert which will include 15 generous donors. For more information please contact Jim at jimmysj@shaw.ca or check out our website www.vamc.ca