Island Soul Choir Sunday, November 24, 2024 at 3:00 PM PST

A new era is dawning for Island Soul Choir! We are so thrilled to introduce our new Music Director—Tom Arntzen—that we have asked him to be our opening act for our concert so that you, our audience, can get to know him and experience his talent first hand. Tom is an established artist who is well known as a vocalist, keyboardist, composer, arranger, producer, musical director, teacher, and actor. He can sing and play any style of music, and has made a living performing and recording for over 40 years.

Even more, we invite you to explore with us, Tom’s interpretation of what soul music comprises. For this concert, Tom has included Stevie Wonder’s Love’s in Need of Love Today, The Beatles’ Because, the Blues Brothers’ cover of Solomon Burke’s Everybody Needs Somebody To Love, and Jon Boutté’s Tremé Song. He has also included one of his own original songs, as well as his arrangements of a medley of three 60s pop songs, and a traditional Zimbabwean proverb. The choir will also reprise two of Brian Tate’s songs: One Million Voices, a song dedicated to all those who have the courage to speak out against the abuse of power, and Om Mani Padme Hum, a transcendental arrangement of an Sanskrit mantra to create calm and healing.

Island Soul Choir is a community choir in its purest sense. The choir welcomes members from all over Vancouver Island, from Victoria to Port Hardy to Bamfield, as well as Gabriola, Salt Spring, Cortes, Lasqueti and Quadra Islands. Members don’t need to have any prior choir experience; they may not even know how to read music — they just need to love to sing. There’s definitely safety in numbers for newcomers, both in-person and online, to find their singing voice within this choir.

Choir rehearsals are scheduled only five times per session, about a month apart, unlike traditional choirs that rehearse weekly. Now into its 17th year, the choir continues to be hugely popular in spite of (or maybe more due to) this unorthodox rehearsal format. Since resuming after the pandemic, the choir offers membership both in person and online to broaden their reach.