Enlivening Toronto’s arts community for 46 years, the award-winning Amadeus Choir is a semi-professional choir of auditioned voices from all parts of the GTA and surrounding areas. The Choir champions the best of choral music and premieres works of Canadian and international composers through a self-produced Toronto concert series, guest performances, and special events. Known well beyond Toronto through tours, festivals, recordings, and national and international radio broadcasts, the Choir collaborates with many professional performing arts organizations in the GTA.
The Amadeus Choir is proud to take a leading role in educating the next generation of choral musicians by providing workshops for conductors, composers, and students. The Choir is known for its strong support of Canadian music, and regularly commissions work from established and emerging Canadian composers.
Founded in 1974, the Amadeus Choir performs a regular series of concerts at carefully selected downtown Toronto venues, presenting well-known artists in works by Canadian and international composers, including major works with instrumental ensembles or full orchestra, as well as challenging a cappella performances.
In 1987, Lydia Adams created the Amadeus Choir’s Seasonal Song-Writing Competition which presents an opportunity to compose a song of up to 5 minutes duration to celebrate the Winter Solstice, Christmas or Chanukah. The competition has grown over the years to include submissions from around the world. It now serves as an inspiration to composers of all ages and experience to write new works, enriching Canada’s outstanding choral tradition. In 1994 the Choir recorded Ring-a-the News! which featured a number of winning carols from this competition.
Throughout its history, the Amadeus Choir has received numerous awards, most recently the Association of Canadian Choral Communities' award for Most Innovative Performance in 2014 for “Music of the Spheres,” a multi-media collaboration with the Elmer Iseler Singers, the Ontario Science Centre, and the Roberta Bondar Foundation.
In 2019, after celebrating the 35-year leadership of Lydia Adams, the Choir welcomed Kathleen Allan as Artistic Director and Conductor.
4386 Sheppard Avenue East, Scarborough, ON, Canada
Additional Info for Choristers
The Amadeus Choir is a group of professional and advanced community choral singers. We hold auditions in the spring, and periodically throughout the year if space permits. The choir rehearses on Tuesday nights in the Don Mills area.