From April 25 to May 3, St. Michael’s Choir School will carry out “Operation Wild Rose.”

The mission both the junior and senior choirs from this 88-year-old, Toronto-based educational institution are choosing to accept is providing musical cheer and transcendence to audiences throughout Alberta.

While there were a couple of Alberta performances back in 2000, this year marks the first extensive tour throughout the prairie province since 1977, 48 years ago.

Geoff Rawlinson, executive director of St. Michael Choir’s School, explained three of the great gifts of these annual tours that began in 1967 with a visit to Martyr’s Shrine in Midland, Ont.

“It allows us the ability to spread our joy of sacred music throughout communities outside the Archdiocese of Toronto, which is very important for us,” said Rawlinson. “It also allows us to collaborate with other choirs, and it provides the boys with the opportunity for cultural enrichment. The ability to sing every week at St. Michael's Cathedral Basilica is very important to us, but also to open up our aperture with the boys and what they experience through different cultures.”

Grade 12 student Sebastian De Re, “a proud alto” who has performed in Newfoundland, the United Kingdom, New York and Ohio since beginning to tour with the choir in Grade 5, expressed why these trips are such a highlight of the year for him and his peers.

“I just think the tour is a great way to share our talent as a different choir wherever we go, and also meet fellow choristers wherever our tour takes us,” said De Re.

The performance schedule begins on April 25 with the east meeting west in Calgary. St. Michael’s Choir School will team up for a Voices in Hope concert collaboration with the local St. John Choir Schola at Knox United Church. The following day the junior choir (Grades 5 and 6) will provide the music during St. Thomas Church’s 4 p.m. Mass.

On April 27, the musical troupe will venture to the ornate The Shrine Church of Our of the Rockies in Canmore, Alta., for the 11:30 a.m. Mass, followed by a recital. They will also visit Our Lady of the Snows Elementary School.

April 30 will see the St. Mike’s senior choir join forces with the Grande Prairie Boys Choir for an evening concert.

It was immediately evident to Rawlinson that a desire to collaborate was emanating strongly out of Alberta.

“We didn’t have to wait too long after we sent out the email invites for us to get responses back saying ‘yes, we want to collaborate,’ ” said Rawlinson. He added that the choir in Grande Prairie was particularly amazed at the invitation as they said, “nobody ever gets all the way up to Grande Prairie.”

There is a particular buzz about visiting Sacred Heart of the First Peoples Parish on May 2. This parish in Edmonton has historically served the city’s Indigenous population and many immigrant groups. Pope Francis visited this house of worship on July 25, 2022, day two of his penitential pilgrimage to foster ties of reconciliation with Canada’s First Nations.

“We're going to be having the ability to learn a lot about native culture,” said Rawlinson. “Everything from learning Cree to making blankets to eating some of their food. I think Bannock is one of the foods we'll be eating. It is something we’re really proud of and something we want the boys to be culturally immersed in.”

De Re echoed Rawlinson’s sentiments about the importance of the visit to the Sacred Heart of the First Peoples Church.

“(We’re) learning about Indigenous culture and being a part of a bigger community of Canadians,” said De Re. “We're going on tour to sing and to share our Catholic mission, but we're also going on tour to learn — learn about Canada, to learn about the land we share and learn about how music can really just transform and connect people.”

On May 3, both the senior and junior choirs will perform at the 5 p.m. Mass and participate in the 7:30 p.m. once-a-month Vespers at St. Joseph’s Basilica in Edmonton.

Maria Conkey, who serves on the school’s artistic staff, previewed some of the musical selections that will be featured during the tour.

“The senior choir is collaborating in Grande Prairie on Four Strong Winds,” said Conkey. "There are things like (English composer John Taverner), and music by Peter-Anthony Togni, who is a prominent Canadian composer and also a choir school alum. There are works by John Rutter. (We have) Canadian compositions — Le Dep, for example, from a fantastic French-Canadian composer named Marie-Claire Saindon. Both of the senior choirs are coming together during the (Voices of Hope concert with St. John’s Schola) to sing Locus Iste by (Anton) Bruckner, which will just be incredible.”

Visit https://smcs.on.ca/ for more information about the tour.