Winnipeg Boys' Choir
Artistic Staff:
Carolyn Boyes, Artistic Director
Albert Bergen and Spencer Duncanson, Conductors
Megan Dufrat, Deena Grier, Lisa Rumpel, Collaborative Pianists
The 2024-2025 season marks the WBC’s 100th Anniversary: Celebrating a Century of Song. Founded in 1925 by the Men’s Musical Club of Winnipeg, the Winnipeg Boys’ Choir is the oldest freestanding boys’ choir in Canada. Today, the organization comprises three ensembles open to boys ages 6 to 21, dedicated to high-quality music making and vocal training in a nurturing atmosphere. Under the direction of Artistic Director Carolyn Boyes and conductors Albert Bergen (Treble Choruses) and Spencer Duncanson (Senior Chorus), boys and young men learn the deep enjoyment that comes from working hard and achieving excellence as they rehearse and perform music of all genres, in many languages, with a wide range of expression.
WBC ensembles are regularly invited to perform with our city’s finest professional arts organizations. In recent years, this has included performances with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, including Spring Symphony (Britten), Carmina Burana (Orff), The Spirit Garden (R. Murray Schaefer), Brother Heinrich’s Christmas (Rutter), The Snowman (Blake) and the Royal Winnipeg Ballet (Nutcracker, Carmina Burana). A highlight for the choir was singing A Ceremony of Carols (Britten) with the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra in 2015. Collaborations with the city’s finest choirs have included Bach’s St. Matthew Passion with Canzona and world premiers of John Grier’s A Song of Joys with the Winnipeg Philharmonic Choir and Andrew Balfour’s Notinikew with Dead of Winter (formerly Camerata Nova). Guest artists at recent WBC Christmas concerts include sopranos Tracy Dahl and Monica Huisman.
In 2022, the WBC was invited to perform at PODIUM, Canada’s National Choral Conductor’s Conference (Toronto) and an ensemble of WBC Trebles performed Andrew Balfour’s Notinikew, featuring a WBC commissioned piece, at the Montreal New Musics Festival in 2023. The WBC toured to Ottawa (Unisong 2000 and 2017) and Minnesota (2024) and aspires to tour each season going forward. At the 2024 Winnipeg Music Festival, the WBC Senior Chorus was awarded the Lieutenant Governor’s Trophy for most outstanding solo or group performance of the festival.
The WBC’s mission is “To Elevate Voices to be Beacons of Light and Instruments of Harmony in Our World.”
