If you go to a McMaster University Choirs performance, there are a couple of things you’re pretty much guaranteed to experience.  

You’ll definitely see two choirs — one mixed voice, one with treble voices.  

You’ll hear choral music in many languages from across the globe, often by living composers who have offered feedback on their pieces. You’ll likely see performances of pieces that include movement or clapping, or the choir placed around the room instead of on a stage. 

What you won’t see is a sea of heads bent over black music folders, only singing music that makes up “traditional” Western choral repertoire.  

“I believe that the audience deserves to see a show — and that young people who sing are never just singers: They’re capable of being artists,” says Melanie Tellez, a Hamilton-based choral conductor who has been director of the McMaster Choirs since 2022.   

“Our choristers work on actually embodying the music — we’re not just thinking about how it should sound, but how it feels, what it should look like, and what they’re trying to communicate to the audience.”  

The choirs, made up of students, staff, faculty and alumni from across campus, will be showcasing their talents in two very different ways this spring.  

The first will be at their spring concerts, held at Melrose United Church in Hamilton on April 5 at 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. 

The second will see them travelling a little farther afield than Hamilton: They’ll be in Cork, Ireland, one of 10 competing amateur choirs at the annual Fleischmann International Trophy Competition. 

“The experience of touring as a choir can be the most life-changing artistic experience,” says Tellez, who herself has toured extensively as artistic director of the Hamilton Children’s Choir and as a singer.  

“I’m always looking for opportunities to enrich the lives of the singers I work with — and this competition gives them the unique chance to connect with and learn from similar choirs from around the world.” 

In addition to the competition, in which the McMaster choristers will present a 12-minute program of unaccompanied music, they will also join other competing choirs for a series of outreach concerts and workshops, as well as a gala concert in which all of the choirs will sing together.  

These include two more choirs from Canada, as well as groups from Germany, Spain, Latvia and Norway. 

“There’s a really celebratory, connected and collaborative nature to the festival,” says Tellez.  

“You end up meeting all of the other choirs, and you end up cheering each other on.   

“You very quickly realize that you’re all the same — you’re from different places, but you’re really the same because your love of choral music brings you together.” 

The McMaster Choirs will perform their competition repertoire, as well as other works, at their spring concerts at Melrose United Church on April 5, at 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. Click here for tickets or or more information.