Toronto – Roy Thomson Hall continues its 11^th season of Free Noon Hour Choir & Organ Concerts on Thursday, February 28 at 12 Noon featuring 60 young voices of the Bach Children’s Chorus under the direction of conductor Linda Beaupré. Organist Eleanor Daley joins them for an enchanting and diverse program by Mendelssohn, Caldara, Chilcott, Bissell and Daley, and a selection of spirituals and folk songs from Africa, Australia and Cape Breton. The concert is suitable for children age 6 and up.

The one-hour concert is the third of four noontime performances this season, made possible by the continuing generous support of the Edwards Charitable Foundation. The series features outstanding choral ensembles and organists, and spotlights one of the largest mechanical-action instruments in Canada – Roy Thomson Hall’s magnificent Gabriel Kney Organ, a four-manual, dual-console pipe organ with 5,207 pipes and 71 stops.

The Bach Children’s Chorus totals 170 young people (age 6-23) in four separate choirs. The 45 boys and girls in Choir III (age 11-16) and 15 girls from the Bach Chamber Youth Choir (age 16-23) join forces for this performance. Both choirs are multiple winners of the Elmer Iseler Choral Award – the top prize at the Toronto Kiwanis Music Festival; and first place award winners at the provincial level of the Canadian Federation of Music Festivals. Choir III also won top prize in the Children’s category of the 2004 CBC/Radio-Canada National Competition for Amateur Choirs.

Founded in 1987 by Artistic Director Linda Beaupré, The Bach Children’s Chorus has released five solo CDs, and can also be heard on several film and television soundtracks and a video by the Canadian Brass. Past tours include appearances at the Atlanta International Music Festival, at Festival 500 in St. John’s, Newfoundland and at Suas E! Festival in Cape Breton. Choir III’s current season includes working with composer Stephen Hatfield in a multi-choir festival hosted by Mississauga Children’s Choir; and in May, forming part of the Honour Choir for the Children In Harmony Festival in Orlando, Florida. Earlier this season, the Youth Choir performed Schubert’s Mass in G with the KW Philharmonic Youth Orchestra and five other youth choirs under Howard Dyck.

Linda Beaupré was a professional choral singer for many years with the Elmer Iseler Singers and The Toronto Mendelssohn Choir. She has adjudicated at many festivals and has conducted children’s choirs at camps and workshops for provincial Choral Federations across Canada. Since 1991 she has been the Conductor and Artistic Director of the Guelph Youth Singers and was recently named conductor of the 2008 Ontario Youth Choir. She is the winner of the Leslie Bell Prize for choral conducting awarded by the Ontario Arts Council and the recipient of the Guelph YM/YWCA Women of Distinction Award. She has a Master of Music degree from the University of Western Ontario.

Eleanor Daley has been Director of Music at Fairlawn Avenue United Church in Toronto since 1982 and has been the accompanist for the Bach Children’s Chorus since 1995. She has also worked with numerous other choirs, including the Toronto Children’s Chorus, the Elmer Iseler Singers and the Amadeus Choir. An award-winning composer, over 100 of her choral compositions have been published, many of them commissioned and widely performed and recorded by noted Canadian choirs. She has twice received the National Choral Award for Outstanding Choral Composition of the Year by the Association of Canadian Choral Conductors.