Vancouver Cantata Singers

The Vancouver Cantata Singers (VCS) is a semi-professional Canadian choir in Vancouver, British Columbia, founded in 1959 by organist and conductor Hugh McLean.

VCS began as a non-auditioned community chorus. Positive reviews from music critics and successful appearances on CBC Radio, eventually inspired the chorus to become an auditioned semi-professional ensemble in the early 1970s when James Fankhauser began to lead the group, winning the Healey Willan Grand Prize in 1984 and a Juno Award nomination for Best Classical Album (Vocal or Choral Performance) in 1994. From 2002 to 2012 the choir was headed by conductor Eric Hannan, who has led the group to win the Healey Willan Grand Prize both in 2008 and 2011. In 2013, long-time VCS member Paula Kremer became artistic director.

In 2009, Vancouver Cantata Singers and the International Collaboration on Repair Discoveries began a collaboration and annually organize a fundraiser together ("Spinal Chord") which benefits spinal cord research and the arts through both non-profit organizations. The choir routinely performs at the Blusson Spinal Cord Centre at Vancouver General Hospital as a part of this collaboration with ICORD.

Although the ensemble's name implies focus on music of the Baroque period, the Vancouver Cantata Singers also perform contemporary music, working frequently with local Canadian composers such as Peter Hannan, Kristopher Fulton, Imant Raminsh, Stephen Chatman, Jordan Nobles and they also perform pieces arranged by members of the choir. Other favoured composers in the VCS repertoire include Felix Mendelssohn, Arvo Pärt, and Franz Biebl.

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