Here are a few highlights of Margaret’s past engagements with colleagues and communities, exploring the arts.
SummerSounds@Barrington
Since 2016, Margaret has regularly performed in the SummerSounds@Barrington concert series at St. Matthews United Church, sponsored by the Downtown Halifax Business Commission. Each year she collaborates with Scott Taylor and Rick Gunn to create a fun and whimsical offering. Stay tuned for what they come up with in 2025!
Central Zone Players
Margaret has been an active member with the Central Zone Players for over a decade performing in ten of the shows, all written by Dan Steeves. This group began as a workplace wellness initiative for people contributing in health care environments. Today the troupe continues to have many health care workers, friends and colleagues collaborating together, offering holiday joy to the community.
National Youth Choir Alumni
Formative to Margaret’s music journey was her participation in the National Youth Choir of Canada conducted by Elmer Isler in 1992 and 1993. This incredible program brings together young singers from around the country, who learn and perform works together under the direction of a nationally celebrated choral conductor.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, it was not possible for the National Youth Choir to convene in person. Choral Canada took on the monumental task of organizing a virtual choir instead, and invited National Youth Choir Alumni to participate. Margaret spent many hours learning and capturing recordings of her vocal parts to join this endeavour. The result was an incredible act of collaboration, singing the most important work: All of Us from Considering Matthew Shepard.
Composer: Craig Hella Johnson; Text: Michael Dennis Browne and Craig Hella Johnson
Online Collaboration
In 2020, Margaret’s dear friend Laine Dewolfe offered to create an online choir video for their high school music teacher, Jim Farmer. This project brought together past students who all relearned their parts and then recorded themselves singing. Laine patiently produced this project, working to align all of the separate videos submitted.
At this time, Laine asked Margaret to also collaborate virtually to record a duet of one of their teacher’s favourite songs, Eriskay Love Lilt. This led to Laine producing a separate video of the Eriskay Love Lilt project. These endeavours offered much solace amidst the isolation of the pandemic. A link to the original choir video created for Jim Farmer is available at the link below.