Onbowen - Music, Ideas and Culture

The Bowen Island Community Choir offered up another spirited and heartfelt choral performance on Saturday, December 12th at Cates Hill Chapel. Director, Ellen MacIntosh was at the helm of a fifty-five voice choir who, with the accompaniment of Sheilagh Sparks, sang jazz, swing, folk, Celtic, sacred and gospel music with gusto and fervor.

Guests Fineen Davis on oboe, Cam Hayduk -- none other than Elvis, Brian Hoover on percussion and choral member Shasta Martinuk on flute, brought additional charm and beauty to the program.

The Community Choir is an open choir and no auditions are required. All are welcome. Rumour has it that the choir is on the lookout for male tenors at this point but of course all singers of both genders and all levels of ability are invited to join. Rehearsals at Cates Hill Chapel begin again on January 11th in preparation for a Spring concert. Please call Choir Manager, Lorraine Ashdown if you have any questions. x2061.

If you wish to view the choral concert, you can either Download the video here [MP4 Video/Audio File - 345.04 MB] ( with Internet Explorer use right-click > save target as, on a Mac use control-click > save link as... ) or you can watch online after the break  

The Community Choir under the direction of Ellen MacIntosh performed a mixed program of choral music on Saturday May 14th at 2:00 and 7:30 p.m. Bowen's own Shari Ulrich took the solo in "Lean on Me" by Bill Withers and closed the show with a rousing fiddle solo in a piece called Soldier's Joy. . Choir member Rob Cairns also graced the stage, performing the solo in "For the Longest Time" by Billy Joel. Bowen's beloved Soprano, Jude Neale, took the solo in Anything Goes.

Ellen and the choir, accompanied by Sheilagh Sparks,  will resume practices in September as they begin preparations for a Winter Concert. The choir is an open group and all residents of Bowen Island are welcome to join. There are no auditions and all that is required is a love of music. If you are interested in singing with the choir, call manager Lorraine Ashdown @ 947-2061 or email lorraineashdown@gmail.com.

You can Download the video here [QuickTime - 270.4 MB] ( with Internet Explorer use right-click > save target as, on a Mac use control-click > save link as... ) or you can watch online after the break. 

On Saturday, May 29th, The Bowen Island Community Choir sang its annual Spring concert. With director Ellen Macintosh at the helm, accompanist Sheilagh Sparks and percussionist Brian Hoover, the choir was in fine form.

The program was varied, opening with Bright Morning Stars, a Kentucky Folk Hymn arranged by Jay Althouse; moving through Vancouver’s own Brian Tate’s We Are One and featuring popular contemporary British composer Bob Chilcott’s I Share Creation. Included in the program was a rousing rendition of The Theme from Spiderman, a sacred chant from the Santeria religion of Cuba and the renowned Hope For Resolution, a song for Nelson Mandela and DeKlerk interweaving a traditional Christian hymn with a Zulu freedom song.

Download video [QuickTime - 301.67 MB] ( with Internet Explorer use right-click > save target as, on a Mac use control-click > save link as... )

or to watch online you can view after the break...