High school makes choir easy to keep in your life. Every September, you know it’ll claim a slot on your timetable, and you’ll once again be surrounded by familiar friends all singing together.
Then you graduate.
September comes around, but this time there’s no choir automatically built into your schedule.
Maybe you’ve moved to Edmonton for university and want to meet people outside your program. Maybe you’re studying music and would happily take every opportunity to sing. Or maybe you’ve started working and miss having somewhere to sing and people to sing with.
But where do you sing when there’s no longer a high school choir waiting for you?
Your Choir Options After High School
Graduation may mark the end of choir class, but it also opens up more ways to keep singing. University choirs are an obvious place to start when there’s one available on your campus, but Edmonton’s choir scene stretches well beyond it.
By joining a community choir after high school, you can learn from new conductors and take on music your school choir may never have had the chance to sing. Plus, you’ll still have opportunities to perform instead of retiring your concert blacks after graduation.
The difference, though?
You’ll sing with people you may never have met through school or work, giving you something to connect over right away before you’ve even learned everyone’s name.
Keep Singing After High School With Resound
Walking into a new choir can feel strange after years of knowing exactly where to stand and who would be beside you. But once warm-ups begin, the familiar rehearsal feeling comes back quickly.
That’s exactly what happens at Resound, the young adult ensemble at Edmonton Youth & Children’s Choirs.
Because Resound is an auditioned ensemble, it builds on the choir experience you and other members already have. The choir takes on challenging classical and contemporary music, then works toward three or four performances across Edmonton throughout the season. Past opportunities have included singing alongside professional ensembles such as Pro Coro Canada.
For singers ready to take on more responsibility within the ensemble, Resound also offers a paid assistant conductor position each year. That can become another step toward working in music: former members have gone on to study music at university, become music educators, and sing with professional ensembles.
Meet Josiah Maxfield
EYCC alum Josiah Maxfield is just one example of what can happen when you keep singing after high school and stay involved in your choral community. As Resound’s assistant conductor for the 2026/2027 season, Josiah brings experience as a singer, section leader, soloist, and music director of the St. David’s Welsh Male Voice Choir.
Josiah has taken his singing beyond Edmonton, too: in 2024, he represented Alberta in the National Youth Choir of Canada/Choeur national des jeunes du Canada. And more recently, Josiah accepted a Johann Strauss Foundation Music Award to study at the Mozarteum International Summer Academy in Salzburg, Austria.
Getting Ready to Audition for Resound
Maybe your school choir asked you to audition, or you know the routine from trying out for solos. This could also be your first time singing for a conductor without the rest of your section beside you.
No matter your audition experience, it helps to know exactly what you’re walking into.
For your Resound audition, bring one or two songs you’ve had time to get comfortable with. After that, you’ll work through sight-singing and ear-training exercises that show the conductor how you approach reading music and navigating your voice part.
EYCC’s conductors aren’t listening for a perfectly polished performance. They’re paying attention to your musicality, your potential, and what you do when something doesn’t land where you planned. Miss a note? Take a breath and keep singing.
You’re also welcome to observe a Resound rehearsal before auditioning. It’s a chance to hear the choir move from warm-ups into repertoire and watch how they work through the music so the room feels a little more familiar when it’s your turn to sing.
And once you’re ready?
You can request an audition with our conductor, Andrew Bortz, at any point throughout the season.
Still in High School? More Choir Is an Option
If high school graduation is still a year or two away but the choir in your timetable isn’t enough, good news: more singing is allowed.
Edmonton Youth Choir is EYCC’s ensemble for experienced high school singers from across the city. It gives students whose schools don’t offer choir somewhere to sing and gives experienced singers a bigger musical challenge.
That challenge builds throughout the season.
The season begins with an annual weekend retreat at Camp Nakamun, where singers have more time to sing together and get to know one another. From there, weekly rehearsals build toward five or six performances throughout the season. Touring opportunities have also taken the Edmonton Youth Choir to festivals, competitions, and exchanges across Alberta, Canada, and the world, including the CBC Choral Competition, where the choir has won first-place prizes.
So, go ahead and add Edmonton Youth Choir to the years you have left before graduation. You’ll get more singing now, and when high school ends, you’ll have even more experience to bring to the choir you join next.
Take Choir With You After Graduation
Your final high school concert was the end of one choir, but it wasn’t a retirement ceremony.
The years you spent singing with others are still important, and Resound gives you a place to continue learning, rehearsing, and performing in Edmonton.
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Resound is an auditioned Edmonton choir for experienced singers ages 18–35. It rehearses weekly in south Edmonton from September through June and performs three or four times each season.
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Yes. Resound conductor Andrew also leads the University of Alberta’s Mixed Chorus, and many of its singers are members of both choirs. A community choir can complement a university choir by giving you another ensemble to rehearse and perform with beyond campus. One choir doesn’t need to replace the other.
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Yes. Resound is an advanced ensemble, so members need previous choral experience. The years you spent singing in a high school, youth, or university choir all count. You don’t need to study music or have professional credits, but you should be comfortable holding your part and learning challenging choral music.
