“At AVHC, we bring together the stir in our hearts and raise our voices in solidarity, passion, and storytelling of peoples, places, and times. I believe there is nothing quite as powerful as the joining of many individuals in song, nothing quite as pure nor as enduringly strong. AVHC is a unique place for the bright lights of youthful souls who seek a choral, musical, educational, and social opportunity of transformational potential. It is a place to be wholesomely and jubilantly human.”

The Program

The Annapolis Valley Honour Choir (AVHC) is a nationally recognized community organization known for its excellence in music education and capacity for community building. It has been a mainstay in the Valley’s cultural fabric for over 30 years.  Artistic Director Heather Fraser, former alumni, curates a program for each of our choirs that not only teaches them the fundamentals of music, but stretches their minds and fills their hearts at the same time.  

Currently there are over 160 choristers ranging from Grades 3-12 in three choirs, representing communities from the Kempt Shore to Granville Ferry.

The AVHC’s goal is to provide an accessible, comprehensive, professional quality musical education for youth. We are focused on nurturing healthy voices, strong musicianship and engaged community volunteers and leaders. The AVHC program offers the chance for choristers to work with professionally trained faculty in weekly rehearsals and workshop settings. It includes a full music literacy (theory/sight-singing) program, chorister apprenticeship leadership program, performances, community engagement, and cultural exchange travel opportunities. 

The choir provides a unique and powerful means for young people to express themselves both musically and individually. Repertoire is chosen with great consideration for musical pedagogy and skill building, teachable moments, and messages with which youth can connect.  We sing a diverse range of songs and learn music that makes our choristers think critically and feel deeply. Programming includes music by contemporary, traditional and classical composers, across a wide variety of styles and time periods. We sing music by local artists, Nova Scotians, Canadians and from cultures around the world.

Leadership

Our Chorister Apprenticeship Program that provides mentoring experience to selected members of our Senior Choir and Intermediate Choir. Working with their respective choirs each week, the apprentices are an integral part of the musical and caregiving team and serve as positive role models for the younger choristers.

Performance

The choirs present at least two full-length concerts each season and perform at community events throughout the region. Choir outreach has raised money for, and understanding about, a variety of community projects. For example, in 2017 the choir hosted “Shall We Dream”, a weekend of workshops and concerts on music as a means of cultural understanding, facilitated by guest artists from Toronto. In 2015, the choirs presented a concert with “VOX: A Choir for Social Change” to raise money for the “Don’t Be Afraid” campaign against homophobia - a program that provides assistance and education to LGTBQ youth within the Valley community.

The choir also takes part in the Annapolis Valley Music Festival and other festivals in Nova Scotia. They have won their classes at both the local and provincial level and have been sent to represent Nova Scotia at the National Music Festival on numerous occasions – most recently in 2019. 

Travel

The AVHC mandate gives high priority to developing a worldly musical education and valuable life experiences. Accordingly, the choirs travel every two to three years, both within Canada and abroad. In April of 2023, the Senior Choir was selected to sing in Carnegie Hall, New York as part of a National Concerts production that brought choirs from across Canada together.  Also the Intermediate Choir completed an Experiences Canada Exchange to Toronto.  Destinations of previous trips have included Portugal and Spain (2019), Cuba (2016), Vancouver (2015),  Budapest, Vienna, and Venice (2013), Paris and Prague (2008), Barcelona (2003), Germany and Austria (1998), and Great Britain (1993).