History of the Chorus
In 1978, the Managing Director of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra asked Jean Ashworth Bartle to form a children’s choir to accompany the TSO in a performance of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Ballet. Having trained outstanding national prize-winning school and church choirs, Ms. Bartle was firmly established in the music education community, and was a logical choice for this artistic undertaking.
Jean carefully selected and trained 46 singers from school and church choirs across the GTA and gave 2 performances and did a recording of the Nutcracker Ballet under Andrew Davis. Also in that first season, the Chorus gave two performances of Orff’s Carmina Burana, again with the TSO, but this time with legendary conductor, Klaus Tennstedt.
In its second season (1979-1980), Ms. Bartle established a Board of Directors who incorporated the organization.
The Toronto Children’s Chorus is one of the leading treble choirs in the world today because of the legacy and vision of Jean Ashworth Bartle. From its onset, she continually developed and challenged the choir with advanced repertoire, tours, recordings and performances so they could reach new heights of excellence.
Today, the Toronto Children’s Chorus now has close to 5,000 alumni who have graduated from the program.
Elise Bradley became Artistic Director in 2007 and continues the legacy Ms. Bartle established. Ms. Bartle is now the Conductor Laureate of the Toronto Children’s Choir.
