Vancouver Chamber Choir

The Vancouver Chamber Choir is a flagship Canadian choral organization that facilitates music-making of the highest calibre at regional, national, and international levels. For 50 years, it has been offering distinctive, accessible programs and concerts to engage, inspire, enrich people’s lives by sharing the transformative experience of outstanding choral music. At its core is its goal to ensure musical excellence and security among Canadian choral musicians while providing exceptional and enduring community value.

The Vancouver Chamber Choir’s premiere subscription concert series of 10 productions each year is one of the largest in North America. The organization is also a major touring company, with more than 110 tours across Canada, Asia, Europe, and the Americas to date.  

Proudly advocating Canadian music, the Vancouver Chamber Choir sings countless Canadian works. Its commissions and premieres alone total over 350 new choral works by 150 composers and arrangers, most of whom are Canadian. The choir has made 36 recordings (55 including collections, compilations, and samplers).

Educational outreach is a priority for the Vancouver Chamber Choir. Its award-winning initiatives include programs for conductors (Conductors’ Symposium), composers (Interplay Composers’ Workshops and the Young Composers’ Competition), college and university singers (Focus Professional Development Program), and elementary and secondary school students (OnSite Schools Program). The organization also offers many other workshops and residences at home and on tour.  

The choir has received tremendous recognition for its achievements. Among its many honours are Ensemble of the Year (Canadian Music Council), JUNO and Western Canadian Music Award nominations, Choral Record of the Year (ACCC), and awards from Chorus America, to name a few.

As a fully professional ensemble, the Vancouver Chamber Choir is the largest employer of choral singers in the region, although membership in the choir is not a full-time position. In addition to self-presented concerts and series, Vancouver Chamber Choir seeks opportunities for its singers to be hired by other presenters, whether it’s the full complement of 20 members or smaller ensembles drawn from within.

Jon Washburn founded the Vancouver Chamber Choir in 1971. Currently the choir’s Conductor Emeritus, he led as its Artistic and Executive Director for 48 years, earning acclaim at home and abroad for his mastery of choral technique and interpretation while leading hundreds of concerts, tours, workshops, radio and TV appearances, and more.  A recipient of the Friends of Canadian Music Award from the Canadian League of Composers and Canadian Music Centre, Washburn is a member of the Order of Canada and recipient of Queen Elizabeth’s Silver, Golden and Diamond Jubilee Medals, recognizing his lifetime contribution to Canadian arts and culture.

The Vancouver Chamber Choir welcomed Kari Turunen as its second-ever artistic director in 2019. Prior to his arrival in Vancouver, Turunen was a versatile performer on the Finnish choral and vocal music scene. A former college-level teacher, he continues to be a full-time conductor, clinician, adjudicator and lecturer in Vancouver, Finland and abroad. He has led prominent Finnish choirs, won numerous prizes at global festivals, and is a founding member of Lumen Valo, a professional vocal ensemble of eight voices that has made a name for itself in almost 250 concerts around Finland and Europe. He was educated at the University of Helsinki and the Sibelius Academy where he studied choral conducting (MA) and holds a Doctorate in early music performance practice from the University of the Arts, Helsinki.