Mailing Address
579 Parkdale Ave., Ottawa, ON, Canada
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About Our Choir
The Canadian Centennial Choir (CCC) is an amateur community concert choir of approximately 70 voices. It was established in 1967 to celebrate in song the centenary of Canadian Confederation. Through the efforts of dedicated founding members, the Choir was constituted in 1968 as a non-profit, charitable organization. Since 2013, the choir operates under the Canada Not-for-profit Corporations Act (NFP Act).
The CCC is governed by a constitution and directed by an elected board. The Choir's annual general meeting is held annually; at that meeting, the members of the board are elected.
Our History
In 1966, at the invitation of the Canadian Centennial Commission, the late Nicholas Goldschmidt pulled together members of existing Ottawa choirs to help celebrate Canada’s Centennial; thus the Canadian Centennial Choir was born. The first assignment of the new 200-voice choir was to sing O Canada on Parliament Hill at midnight on December 31, 1966, and again on the same date in 1967 to bookend centennial music celebrations in the capital. The Canadian Centennial Choir sang at the official opening of the National Arts Centre in 1969 and returned in 1970 to perform the Canadian premiere of Beethoven’s only oratorio, Christ on the Mount of Olives, one of several concerts to be broadcast on CBC Radio.
The Choir has acquired a reputation for versatility, performing a repertoire that stretches from the choral masterworks of Bach, Handel, Mozart, Fauré and Britten to popular folk songs and traditional carols from around the world. The Canadian Centennial Choir also meets the challenge presented by contemporary Canadian composers such as Srul Irving Glick and Derek Holman. In recent seasons the choir has showcased works by local composers: we have commissioned and premiered works by Patrick Cardy, Peter Churchill, Michael Bussière, Nicholas Piper and Laura Hawley, as well as Earth Song by Jan Järvlepp. Commissions have also been awarded to Eleanor Daley, Patrick Wedd, Pamela Houston and James Caswell.
