The choir has many sample recordings of live performances that demonstrate its broad range of musical styles and genres. Contact (705) 745-2868 or singers@peterboroughsingers.com for more information.

The most recent recording available for purchase is a 2-DVD set of The Peterborough Singers' performance of Handel's Messiah, recorded by Custom Sound Productions (Cogeco Cable, Peterborough).

A Gift of Song, featuring Pamela Birrell, Measha Brueggergosman, Gary Relyea, Brainerd Blyden-Taylor, Ian Sadler, and Martin Beaver, is inspired by a courageous family's fight against cancer. Just four months after Pamela Birrell had completed an aggressive course of chemotherapy designed to combat breast cancer, she discovered that her three-year-old son, James, had neuroblastoma, a rare and serious cancer. The Peterborough community and the Peterborough Singers, which Pamela's husband Sydney Birrell founded, rallied around the family. Aware that many women and children face cancer alone or with fewer resources, the Birrells, their musical friends and the choir decided to create a CD that would benefit women and children battling cancer: A Gift of Song that voices the hope, faith, and love so essential in winning the battle. (All proceeds are donated to the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation and The James Fund, established at The Hospital for Sick Children Foundation.)

A House in Heaven is an 8½ minute CD of a specially commissioned work from Paul Halley. The title and a recurring lyric come from the words of young James Birrell. Just six years old, James lay close to death in 1999. He was suffering from a rare childhood cancer called neuroblastoma. In great pain and unable to move, he whispered to his mother, "I know Jesus is building me a house in heaven." The touching faith of these words continued to resonate as James improved and enjoyed an all too brief remission. James Birrell died in 2001. A House in Heaven was sung at his memorial service. (All proceeds from CD sales are donated to the Oncology Unit of the Peterborough Regional Health Centre and the James Birrell Fund for Neuroblastoma within The Hospital for Sick Children Foundation.)

Repertoire

The choir presents a varied program each year with concerts ranging from the best of popular music, jazz, the songs of World War II, gospel, and spirituals to the most challenging and beloved works of the classical and contemporary choral music repertoire. The Peterborough Singers regularly commissions new works from upcoming and well-known Canadian composers.

Classical: Major Works
J. S. Bach: B Minor Mass, St. John Passion, St. Matthew Passion
Brahms German Requiem, Liebeslieder Waltzes, Lieder und Romanzen
Britten: Ceremony of Carols, St. Nicolas
Dvorák’s Stabat Mater
Fauré Requiem
Handel’s Messiah
Haydn: Creation, Nelson Mass
Felix Mendelssohn: Elijah
Mozart: C Minor Mass, Requiem
Carl Orf: Carmina Burana
Francis Poulenc: Gloria
Puccini’s Gloria
Verdi Requiem

Canadian/Contemporary
Len Ballantine: Various arrangements of Christmas music for choir and brass
Stephen Chatman: Due North, Due West, How Still It Is
Eleanor Daley Requiem
Srul Irving Glick: The Hour has Come, Sing unto the Lord a New Song
Paul Halley: Earth Mass, Freedom Trilogy, Ubi Caritas, A House in Heaven
Lauridsen: Lux Aeterna, O Magnum Mysterium, Dirait-on
Imant Raminsh: Ave Verum Corpus
Rutter: Children’s Mass, Christmas carols
Mark Sirett: Where Love and Charity Live
Healey Willan: Rise Up My Love, various anthems and motets

Other Notable
William H. Harris: Faire is the Heaven
Howells: Magnificat & Nunc Dimitis, Like As The Hart Desireth the Waterbrooks
Parry: I Was Glad When They Said Unto Me
Stanford: Three Motets, Bluebird
Ralph Vaughan Williams: Five Mystical Songs