1 Night Queer&Trans Choir
Raise your voice! At this monthly event, we learn a whole song in 2 hours - the goal is to build community and provide an empowering rehearsal in which folks can express themselves, release stress, and find joy in their voices.
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Keep your eyes peeled for future announcements about vocal technique workshops, trans voice workshops, multi-week singing series, and a year-round choir with performances.
How we started...
In May 2025, with a grant from the City of Victoria's My Great Neighbourhood granting initiative, Em Postl (Sweet Flag Voice Studio) and Anna Bigland-Pritchard (ABP Creative Arts) ran a 1-day choir event for the 2SLGBTQIA+ community. We explored our voices in a non-judgemental, trauma-informed, empowering context. The goal was the build community and teach an original arrangement of Chappell Roan's beautiful song, Kaleidoscope. Thrilled by the turnout and enthusiasm, we decided to create a monthly event to continue to build momentum while we did the work of figuring out... "how does one start a year-round choir?"
Monthly 2-hour events
Starting in the fall of 2025, we started monthly 2-hour events on Wednesday evenings. With new, original arrangements of songs by queer artists, we explore our voices, build community, and express ourselves. In these 2-hour events, we have sung:
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Beginning to Feel the Years by Brandi Carlisle
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Without You, Without Them by boy genius
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Silk Chiffon by MUNA
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Sister Winter by Sufjan Stevens
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Fat Car by Tracy Chapman
Who's running this thing?
Em Postl (they/them) and Anna Bigland-Pritchard (she/they) co-direct this choir. They have a mutual love of community, communication, and harmony.
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Em and Anna share the work of conducting, playing piano, leading sectionals, marketing, and picking up snacks. Em does the bulk of the music arrangement, but Anna offers harmony suggestions and edits!
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Em Postl is a queer, non-binary voice teacher, vocalist and herbalist. they graduated from capilano university with a degree in jazz voice performance in 2014 and have a decade worth of diverse teaching experience. committed to ongoing learning, they love to study voice methodologies such as estill and fitzmaurice, and recently completed a gender-affirming voice course led by renee yoxon. em’s teaching stands out for its emphasis on curiosity, body awareness, and self-compassion while creating an environment that encourages growth and creativity. specializing in coaching adults new to singing, assisting seasoned vocalists facing specific challenges, and providing gender-affirming voice coaching for trans and non-binary individuals, em brings a wealth of expertise and sensitivity to their work.
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Anna Bigland-Pritchard is a singer, songwriter, choir director, and ecological and creative community enthusiast. drawing on her classical training (bmus, post-bacc in vocal performance), indie-folk songwriting experience, and studies in expressive arts therapy, anna empowers singers and songwriters with mindful, supportive guidance. equipped with hard-won strategies for overcoming vocal tension, stage fright, and shame, she loves witnessing students or groups discover the magic they didn’t know they had! passionate about the connection between voice and identity, anna creates a supportive, non-judgmental space for queer and allied individuals to explore, express, cherish, and nurture their voices.
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