Mission and History

Mission Statement

The Canadian Orpheus Male Choir is a high quality amateur choir that is a forum for men who love to sing, who want to improve their choral singing and who enjoy fellowship. The choir's goals are to bring a high standard of choral singing to its audiences and promote pride and passion in music among its members and in the community. These goals are achieved through practices, concerts and recordings. The choir is a non-profit corporation and performs largely for the benefit of charitable causes and organizations.

History

The Canadian Orpheus Male Choir was founded in 1977 by Lyn Harry. This Canadian choir reflects the multicultural nature of our country with a membership that consists of men from many national backgrounds. Its repertoire is varied, and includes opera choruses, spirituals, hymns, popular tunes, songs from musicals, ballads and folk songs. The COMC has performed over 460 concerts in venues such as the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, Roy Thomson Hall in Toronto, St. Paul's Cathedral, Westminster Abbey and Royal Albert Hall in London. Major concert tours have taken the choir to the United States, Western Canada, the Maritime Provinces, Continental Europe, Britain and Ireland. Over the years the choir has performed with many guest artists, most notably the bass-baritone Bryn Terfel, baritone Jason Howard, violinist Martin Beaver, tenor Glyn Evans, tenor Aldo Filistad, the Canadian Brass and the Central Band of the Canadian Forces. The COMC, itself a registered charity, has helped raise over half a million dollars to support charities, including the Canadian Cancer Society, the Heart and Stroke Foundation, Child Find and Shelters for Abused Women.