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Director: Frances Roberts
Argyle Secondary School is located in beautiful Lynn Valley, North Vancouver, British Columbia. The school’s population is approximately 1,200 students, and over 300 students participate in the Music program. Argyle’s Music department gives their band, strings and choral students a strong grounding in a diversity of musical styles and eras as well as basic music theory. Argyle students often have the opportunity to work with Canadian and international music industry professionals.
Over the past 20 years, the Music program has traveled extensively in North America, China, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Italy, Croatia, Slovenia, Austria, Netherlands, Poland, Czech Republic and Germany. The bi-annual trips to Banff for this Festival are a major highlight for our student musicians and Argyle has been participating since 1993.
The Argyle Concert Choir is a non-auditioned Grade 11 and 12 choir class while the Chamber Choir is a newly auditioned ensemble of Grade 9 through 12 students. Both ensembles start anew in September and constitute the senior part of a larger choral music program of six choirs. The choirs meet alternate days in the school timetable and have combined lunch break rehearsals.
Frances Roberts has been choral director at Argyle Secondary for the past 28 years and recently completed her Master of Music degree in Choral Conducting at UBC with Dr. Graeme Langager. She has had the great pleasure, along with her choirs of doing educational workshops with the Finnish ensemble RAJATON, “The Idea of North” from Australia and The Swingles as part of MusicFest Vancouver. Argyle Choirs have also performed with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Vancouver Chamber Choir and Vancouver Welsh Men’s Choir. We are thrilled and honoured to once again be invited to be a part of the Showcase concert series in 2019.