Collaborative Foundations

HarbourVOICES! International Festival of Collective Singing Traditions evolved through a deeply collaborative process of conversation and listening with singers, educators, choral leaders, government representatives, and music organizations. Together, we asked how a contemporary singing festival in Canada might better reflect the artistic, cultural, and social realities of our time.

A Festival with Purpose Beyond Performance

From that process, HarbourVOICES! emerged as more than a festival. It is a large-scale gathering designed to foster dialogue, cultivate belonging, and inspire meaningful commitments to community, accessibility, justice, and equity. It is a space where artistic experience and social purpose are not separate, but fully intertwined.

Redefining Artistry and Excellence

Central to this vision is a rethinking of how artistry and excellence are understood. HarbourVOICES! challenges longstanding and often hierarchical assumptions that privilege only a narrow range of traditions, practices, or aesthetics. Instead, we understand excellence as culturally grounded and context specific. Each collective singing tradition carries its own forms of virtuosity, knowledge, beauty, and expressive depth. The question is not simply how a group measures against a single standard, but how it demonstrates depth, integrity, and power within its own tradition, community, and way of knowing.

Who Belongs: A Both/And Vision of Participation

This understanding also shapes who belongs here. HarbourVOICES! welcomes a wide range of singing communities, from professional choirs to folk ensembles, from auditioned groups to church, school, and community based singers, from Western choral traditions to Indigenous and other culturally rooted vocal practices, and everything in between. The festival is built on a both/and vision rather than an either/or one. Difference is not something to flatten or manage. It is part of the artistic and human richness of the gathering.

Designing for Inclusion and Exchange

From programming and repertoire to guest engagement and collaborative creation, HarbourVOICES! is intentionally designed to challenge exclusion, amplify voices too often pushed to the margins, and create conditions for meaningful cross cultural exchange. It seeks not only to present diverse traditions, but to honour them on their own terms and to invite relationship, curiosity, and mutual respect across difference.

The Broader Purpose of Singing Festivals

At its core, HarbourVOICES! proposes a broader purpose for singing festivals. These gatherings can be places where people encounter one another more fully, where dialogue deepens, and where belonging is actively built. Through collective singing, the festival creates opportunities to bridge divides, strengthen understanding, and remind participants of the power of shared artistic experience to move communities forward.

A Living Model for the Future

HarbourVOICES! is offered as a living model of what an inclusive, artistically ambitious, and socially engaged festival can be. It highlights how repertoire, collaboration, leadership, and participation can reshape singing spaces so they are more reflective of the full range of communities they hope to serve. It demonstrates the transformative potential of large-scale participation grounded in respect, curiosity, and shared humanity.

Reimagining the Role of Collective Singing

In this way, HarbourVOICES! is not only rethinking how we define artistry, excellence, and beauty. It is also reimagining what a singing festival can do, who it can be for, and how collective singing can help build a more connected and just world.

Looking Ahead to 2027

Building on the success of 2024, HarbourVOICES! International 2027 is positioned to achieve equal or greater impact. With expanded international participation, increased audience engagement, and enhanced programming, the festival will:

• Elevate Newfoundland and Labrador’s profile as a global destination for cultural tourism
• Strengthen its contribution to the creative economy
• Support continued employment and business growth