Come one, come all! Our annual gathering for Music United will be online this year due to the pandemic. Join us for workshops, worship, a cross-Canada hymn festival, and our Annual General Meeting. Program details below, and registration is through Eventbrite. We’re suggesting a contribution of $50 for the event, with options to pay less or more, according to your circumstance. Once you have registered you will be sent a Zoom link to attend. See you on Zoom!
PROGRAM: MUSIC MATTERS 2021
Learning Event – Thursday April 22nd to Saturday April 24th, 2021 – all times listed are Eastern Daylight Time, all events on Zoom.
THURSDAY April 22nd
12:30pm – 1:00pm Introduction to Zoom etiquette and sign-on
1:00pm – 1:30pm Opening Greetings & Worship – Alydia Smith & Friends
1:30pm – 3:00pm Workshop # 1 – In Support of the Church Musician – Fred Graham & Kimberley Allen-McGill
When did you last sing with a choir? When did you last accompany a hymn? 2020 changed many patterns in our lives, including church attendance and employment expectations for church staff. Was your music contract supported? Altered? Cancelled? The United Church has published guidelines to assist musicians and Ministry-and-Personnel Committees to weather the transitions facing all of us. Let’s talk about recent experiences of music leaders, using the new resource (please download in advance of the event) as our focus. The guidelines are available at
https://united-church.ca/leadership/supporting-ministry/ministry-and-personnel-committee-resources
Your view of beneficial changes, disappointments, and plans for the future will be welcome in this workshop exploring the state of music leadership in this United Church of ours. Bring your voice, and your copy of the new resource!
Fred Graham has been in Church Music leadership since 1961. His career has included teaching at all levels, and performances with choirs, orchestras and at the organ in eastern Canada, the USA, Germany and the UK. He has three published hymn tunes, and was associate editor of “Voices United” when he was the Worship and Music Officer at the General Council. He established Canada’s only graduate program in Sacred Music while a member of faculty at Emmanuel College, Toronto. In semi-retirement, he serves as a Lay Worship leader or musician in the GTA upon request.
Kimberley Allen-McGill is the Director of Music at Trinity United Church Ottawa, and for the past 5 years has served as the Music United Convenor in the Ottawa area (now the UCC’s Eastern Ontario Outaouais Region). She began working as a church musician at the age of 12 in a rural Eastern Ontario church, and has been a passionate and noisy church musician ever since! Kim has also had the privilege to work with, and for, Canada’s leaders in the corporate world in a rewarding 35-year career as a senior corporate communications professional. As a hiring manager/director, she developed an interest in leadership development, and human resources. She advocates for positive organizational change in support of efficient and effective teams and workplaces. So far, she’s survived parenthood, three layoffs due to business transitions, breast cancer, and setting up a business and sustaining it during the pandemic.
3:00pm – 3:45pm Coffee House
FRIDAY April 23rd
12:45pm – 1:00pm Gathering Music and Prayer for the Day
1:00pm – 2:30pm Workshop # 2 – How to Create Your Own Virtual Choir – Matt Boutda & Peter Bull
Have you seen Eric Whitacre’s Virtual Choirs? Have you been moved during this
pandemic by the offering of a virtual choir on YouTube – whether in fun or in serious
music-making?
It’s tempting to think that with the hiatus to our regular choir rehearsals, we can replace
them with virtual choir offerings. However, virtual choirs are a joint effort of individual
musicians, and the work of audio/video editing.
Since the pandemic started, this has created a space for creativity and thinking outside
the box. During this time, both Matthew Boutda (video editor) and Peter Bull (audio
editor) have collaborated in putting together 30 virtual choir projects at Leaside United
Church. In this workshop, Matthew and Peter hope to share their insights and the
process of creating a virtual choir. You will also receive a document (pdf), which lists
the suggested steps to take and things to look out for when you are editing.
Matthew Boutda is a conductor, organist, and singer from Toronto, Canada. He holds a holds a Masters of Sacred Music from the University of Toronto, where his mentors included Dr. Patricia Wright (organ), Dr. Lori-Ann Dolloff (choral conducting), and Dr. Swee Hong Lim (Program Director, Master of Sacred Music).
Matthew was twice a recipient of the Wayne C. Vance Scholarship for Sacred Music and the recipient of the Healey Willan Memorial Award, University of Toronto for his outstanding academic achievements.
With a passion and desire for choral music, Matthew is delighted to be a part of the rich music program at Leaside United Church, in Toronto. He is currently the Director of Music, where he plays the organ, conducts, and oversees the Leaside Chancel Choir, Junior Choir, and C-Flats Youth Jazz Band.
As a conductor, Matthew has been the Assistant Conductor of Pax Christi Chorale, a semi-professional and community choir in Toronto for the past three years.
His dedication towards sacred music and research had drew him to serve on the board of directors with the Royal Canadian College of Organists, Summer Institute of Church Music, and the Ontario Guild of English Handbell Ringers. Recently, Matthew helped to form the Uniting Voices Collective. This is a group of musicians that are dedicated to sustaining community through shared song during this time of physical distancing. Uniting Voices Collective has provided and continues to provide interactive virtual sessions that inform and uplift choristers, directors and musicians.
Matthew continues to give professional development workshops with community and church ensembles.
Peter Bull is a jack of all trades as long as it’s music. He is the bass section lead for the Chancel Choir at Leaside United Church. As of the past year, Peter has also been
the staff audio engineer. At Leaside United, Peter has been involved in putting together 30 virtual choir projects.
Outside of the church setting, he is a professional audio engineer and does freelancing projects. Peter is also a producer, composer, music teacher, band leader, guitar
builder, and a touring bass player.
Peter Bull comes from a very musical family. He studied jazz performance at St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia, as well as the Manhattan School of Music in New
York City.
2:30pm – 3:00pm Coffee Break
3:00pm – 4:30pm Workshop # 3 – Our Church’s Music ReImagined: Transitioning to More Meaningful music making amid a Global Pandemic – Mary Meads
March 2020 – when the world changed. And perhaps for many of us, nothing more drastically than the way we engaged with music in our church and community. This workshop will explore how music is used within the church context, including for contemplative worship, community building, and performance and enjoyment, and how these elements of use can be reimagined for the virtual world. The specific focus of the worship will be on the re-imagination of the role of music and music making in a small rural church. Specifically how “music behind the scenes” and community building, if used intentionally with inclusively in mind, can be a powerful spiritual tool at the core of the church’s purpose.
Mary Meads, MA, MTA, is a Credentialed Music Therapist and the *newly appointed* Music and Ministry Leader at her home church Barrie Hill United Church in rural Rockwood, ON. Mary completed her Masters of Creative Arts therapies, Music Therapy Option, at Concordia University, and returned home to set up her private practice, Wellington Music Therapy Services, which has grown to include 8 Music Therapists. After a 5 year appointment as an Alto at St. John’s Parish in Elora, ON, Mary returned with joy to fill the Music & Ministry Leader role at her home church, after the retirement of the previous leader of 35 years. Mary believes in the innate power of music to bring wellness to those who are in need, build community, and provide an outlet for expressions of faith. She is continuously learning about the needs of her community, and is doing her to embrace the new virtual world!
Break time on your own
7:00pm – 9:00pm A Virtual Hymn Festival – with music leadership from across Canada!
SATURDAY April 24th
12:45pm – 1:00pm Gathering Music and Prayer for the Day
1:00pm – 2:30pm Workshop # 4 – The Colonizing Power of Song and Other Ways of Singing – Becca Whitla
Becca Whitla takes us on a journey around the world with two songs. She explores how one of the mission hymn “From Greenland’s Icy Mountains” actually became a song of resistance and hope for Indigenous communities in North America. She also travels with a Latin American corito, El Espíritu de Dios” which we will sing, of course, and explores its multiple versions, from Fred Hammond’s gospel hit, to an Indonesian pop version, to a Scandinavian metal version. The workshop will also feature conversations among us about how culture lives in congregational songs and how we can decolonize what we sing together in church communities.
Becca Whitla is the Professor of Pastoral Studies at St. Andrew’s College in Saskatoon where she teachers worship, preaching, and Christian Education. She worked in Toronto for many years as a music director in both Anglican and United Churches (Church of the Holy Trinity, and Trinity St Paul’s United Church). She also co-directed Echo, a 70 voice women’s choir, and worked in the trade union movement developing leadership through choral singing. Becca recently published her first book, Liberation, (De)Coloniality, and Liturgical Practices: Flipping the Song Bird (Palgrave Macmillan). It is really expensive, but there’s usually a sale every year in November or December, just in time for Christmas! Becca explains what she does at St. Andrew’s in this short video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBsr3uiu0kc&t=12s
See also a video about St. Andrew’s: https://stu.usask.ca/standrews/yourjourney/our-community.php
2:30pm – 3:00pm Coffee Break
3:00pm – 4:30pm Workshop # 5 –Cultivating Calm: When you can’t normalize the situation, can you normalize yourself? A focus on mental health for music ministry personnel – Diane Strickland
Diane Strickland, M.A, M.Div, O.M. (ordained for 33 years) is also a Certified Community and Workplace Traumatologist, Compassion Fatigue Specialist-Therapist and active as a Critical Incident Responder for a national health service provider. Her ministry has included providing post-disaster support on behalf of The United Church of Canada in High River, AB for eighteen months after the floods of 2013, and monthly flyin/flyout in Fort McMurray for nearly two years after the wildfires of 2016. Diane is a retired minister who responded immediately to emerging needs in the pandemic by providing free YouTube resources. She has continued to create workshops and develop resources to support ministers and communities of faith in this challenging time. Before the pandemic curtailed in-person worship and air travel, she had begun serving remote ministry locations for Advent, Christmas, Lent and Holy Week. Diane hopes that the pandemic restrictions will be over before she’s too old to keep on having these wonderful ministry adventures. In the meantime she quilts, walks her border collie and maintains a small practice supporting people.
Break time on your own
7:00pm – 8:00pm Music United Annual General Meeting – all attendees and other Music United members are welcome to join us!
8:00pm – 10:00pm Pub Night to Follow AGM – with live music-making on jamkazam.com, feeding through to our main gathering on Zoom