Choral Fest 2026
Requiem for the Living by Dan Forrest
Here All Shall Be Well and Cape St. Mary’s by Leslee Heys
Come, and I Will Sing You by Kathleen Allan
Friday, October 23 to Sunday, October 25, 2026
Portland United Church, 50 Newport Crescent, Saint John, NB
Clinician and Conductor: Kellie Walsh
Rehearsal and performance accompanist: Gibson MacMillan
Presented in partnership with Carleton Choristers
Kellie Walsh is Founder and Artistic Director of Shallaway, a choral organization that currently comprises over 400 choristers in nine ensembles from Kindergarten to high school, alongside a team of over 15 music educators. She is Founder and Artistic Director of Lady Cove Women’s Choir, Co-Founder and Artistic Director Emeritus of Newman Sound Men’s Choir, and most recently co-founder of Ullûgiagatsuk, the Inuit Youth Choir from Nunatsiavut, Labrador.From deep and proud roots in Newfoundland and Labrador, she has gained renown internationally for embracing the medium of choral singing as an opportunity to explore empathy building, sociocultural identity, and civic engagement. Walsh has worked across Canada, the United States, South America, Europe and Asia advocating choral music as a medium to unite people and cultures. Walsh believes the arts can play a transformative role in shaping communities' futures.
About the Conductor and Clinician
Most recently, Walsh’s leadership in this realm is documented in Sing the World Better which premiered on CBC Gem May 14, 2026. Sing the World Better is a documentary which chronicles ten weeks with Lauda, a pioneering youth ensemble within the Shallaway Youth Choir, one of only a handful of choirs in the world to embrace all neurotypes. NBCF is especially eager to have bring Walsh to New Brunswick to inform and inspire our participants about what an inclusive choir that is successful and thriving can look like. Learn more here!
About the Work
Dan Forrest's Requiem for the Living is a modern masterpiece. Written in 2013, this forty-minute work reimagines the traditional mass for the dead as also a prayer for the living to find peace and rest.
The work's five movements take us on a journey from a hushed plea for mercy, through turbulent passages drawn from Ecclesiastes and Job, to an Agnus Dei of aching longing and a Sanctus whose perspective moves from our everyday life to eventually include all of the cosmos. The work concludes with a deeply moving meditation on eternal light, comfort and peace.
Come sing with us and learn why singers and audiences everywhere are praising this beautiful and moving work.
Read more about Requiem for the Living and Dan Forrest, including the text Forrest selected for his work, here: http://www.danforrest.com/requiem
Registration and About the Weekend
Early-Bird registration deadline: Thursday, September 3, 2026
Accommodations in Saint John, pre-rehearsal and Choral Fest weekend schedules, and other detail of the Choral Fest weekend, will be confirmed and announced this summer.
Registrants are responsible for their own accommodations in Saint John.
Late registration will be available the evening of Friday, October 23 and the morning of Saturday, October 24 for those who work or otherwise cannot attend Friday rehearsal.
Click to download the poster!
