About Cantabile

Cantabile Choirs is a community-based performing arts and music education organization serving Kingston and the surrounding region. We believe music has the power to connect people, enrich lives, and strengthen communities.

Through our programs, concerts, and partnerships, we strive to:

Inspire lifelong music-making through exceptional education programs for all ages

Build belonging and well-being through meaningful shared musical experiences

Celebrate diverse voices and cultures through repertoire and artistic collaborations

Remove barriers to participation through bursaries and accessible programming

Pursue artistic excellence through innovative performances and the creation of new Canadian works

Founded in 1996 by Dr. Mark Sirett with three choirs and a vision of bringing people together through exceptional choral music experiences, Cantabile has grown into one of Canada’s leading community choral organizations.

Over the past three decades, generations of singers have performed on local, national, and international stages; toured to destinations including England, Ireland, Prague, Cuba, and New York City’s Carnegie Hall; and represented Kingston through festivals, competitions, and artistic exchanges around the world.

Along the way, Cantabile has collaborated with internationally renowned conductors, artists, and ensembles, commissioned and premiered new Canadian works, and shared its music through recordings and broadcasts heard across Canada and on NPR.

Today, Cantabile continues to evolve as a multi-generational arts organization, creating meaningful opportunities for people of all ages and stages of life to learn, perform, connect, and experience the transformative power of music.

Geoffrey is a conductor, voice educator, and award-winning performer. In demand across the country as a singer, Geoffrey has been engaged by Canada’s finest orchestras and opera companies, including the Canadian Opera Company, L’Opera de Montreal, Edmonton Opera, Vancouver Opera, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Calgary Philharmonic, Edmonton Symphony, Winnipeg Symphony, Victoria Symphony, and Buffalo Philharmonic.

Geoffrey’s debut album VAGABOND with pianist Stephen Ralls, was released in 2011.  The disc includes Vaughan Williams’ Songs of Travel, Butterworth’s Six Songs from ‘A Shropshire Lad’, and Britten’s Folksong Arrangements, as well as premiere recordings of two Canadian compositions by Jocelyn Morlock and Ivan Barbotin. Additional discography includes Brian Current’s AIRLINE ICARUS (Naxos), Vale of Tears and The Heart’s Refuge with the Theatre of Early Music (Analekta), and The Tree of Life and The Path to Paradise with the Trinity Choir (Sony).

Co-producer and music director for the indie opera company Bicycle Opera Project, Geoffrey continues his advocacy for contemporary Canadian music, spending his summers performing all-Canadian operas across Ontario, travelling exclusively by bicycle.

Conductor, composer, pianist and organist, Mark Sirett (b. 1952) is the Founding Artistic Director of the award-winning Cantabile Choirs of Kingston, Ontario, Canada.  He holds both masters and doctoral degrees in choral conducting and pedagogy from the University of Iowa.  Dr. Sirett has taught at the University of Alberta, Western University (London ON) and Queen’s University.

Dr. Sirett has won two international awards in conducting: the Jury Prize for Imaginative Programming and Artistry at the 2002 Cork International Choral Festival, and Outstanding Conductor at the 2004 Young Prague Festival.  In 2009 he was the recipient of the President’s Leadership Award presented by Choirs Ontario for his contribution to the choral art in the province.  His composition, “The Stars Point the Way” was honoured as Outstanding Choral Composition 2010 and again in 2018 for “Words, Stories, Truth” by Choral Canada. He has been awarded Distinguished Alumnus of Grant MacEwan University, Edmonton and The Mayor’s Award for the Arts, City of Kingston, 2019.

He is frequently in demand as a guest conductor and clinician. He has directed the APAC Festival Choir in South Korea, AMIS European High School Women’s Honors Choir, Luxembourg and twice, the Unisong in Ottawa on Canada Day.  In addition he has conducted the Ontario Youth Choir, Alberta Honours Children’s Chorus, Manitoba Provincial Honours Children’s Choir, Saskatchewan Treble Choir Project, Waterloo District High School Festival, Meet the Composer Festival (Des Moines IA), the Peel School Board Honours Chamber Choir and the adult and children’s camps for the Nova Scotia Choral Federation. As a clinician, he has presented for Choral Canada, Choirs Ontario, Nova Scotia Music Educators, Nova Scotia Choral Federation, Manitoba Choral Association, Ontario Vocals Festival, the Royal Canadian College of Organists and the Royal School of Church Music.

As an adjudicator Dr. Sirett served on the Jury of the Cork International Choral Festival in 2009; he has frequently adjudicated choral festivals in Canada including Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Edmonton, Calgary and Winnipeg.  He has been clinician adjudicator for SingOntario, SaskSings, ChorFest Alberta and ChorFest Manitoba.