Our Chorus

The Accolades are a Toronto singing group  composed of  friendly, enthusiastic women of all ages and varied occupations, with a wide range of musical and non-musical backgrounds, who come together to sing 4-part a cappella harmony.  We come from all over the Greater Toronto Area and gather every Thursday evening from 7:00 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. at Earl Bales Community Centre, near Bathurst, south of Sheppard, to share our love of music and singing. 

We are always looking for singers to join us.  All are welcome to come and observe our rehearsals at any time to check us out, with no obligation.  It would be wise to email our membership coordinator, Lynn first, to check that we aren’t away singing at an area function on the evening you wish to join us.

We sing a cappella, in four-part harmony, primarily in the barbershop style.  We have a varied repertoire, including ballads, show tunes, folk and popular music, and we are always learning new songs.  We learn from a combination of sheet music and audio learning tracks, so it is not necessary to know how to read music.  Our director, Wendy Arnold, has been directing us since the year 2000 and is a very experienced barbershopper.  We gain much from her expertise, as well as from a variety of coaches who are brought in on a regular basis.

Founded in 1968, the Toronto Accolades is a chapter of Harmony, Inc., an international, non-profit, educational singing organization for women.  Harmony, Inc. was founded in 1959 in Rhode Island, and is presently made up of 65 choruses in Canada and the United States.  It provides several events throughout the year where interested members can benefit from coaching and classes in music theory and singing technique.  Every May the chorus competes in Harmony Inc.’s Area 3 Contest and Convention for the opportunity to appear on the International stage in November along with qualifiers from the other five areas. In 2011, the Accolades qualified, for the second year in a row, to compete at the International Contest later in the year.

Our 35-member chorus puts on a show every other year, and sings at community celebrations, health care facilities, social clubs and fund-raising events for many worthy causes.  A portion of what we earn from various performances goes to charity. In the past, we have supported such causes as the Autism Society, Sing Canada, and the Brain Tumour Association.  Our present charity is Sing Canada Harmony, established in 2008 to support Canadian a cappella singing through service to youth and children in schools and communities.