The Windsor-Essex choral community is kicking off the new year with workshops, a concert, and guest performances by the Canadian Chamber Choir during the Windsor Choral Festival, returning for the first time since 2020.

On Saturday, Jan. 14, at 7:30 p.m., more than a dozen choirs including the University Singers and the Canadian Chamber Choir will perform in the Windsor Choral Festival Concert at the Capitol Theatre. Choral groups from across Windsor-Essex will sing repertoire selected by their music directors. The choirs will join voices for a massed finale of a newly commissioned work by Canadian composer Sarah Quartel, conducted by guest clinician Joel Tranquilla, director of choirs at Trinity Western University in Langley, B.C., and associate conductor of the Canadian Chamber Choir.

As a special treat, the Canadian Chamber Choir and Sherryl Sewepagaham will perform three selections on the program. Admission to the concert is by donation at the door, 121 University Ave. West.

The 40-member University Singers is one of three choirs directed by Bruce Kotowich, director of choirs and acting director of the School of Creative Arts. University Singers includes students from across the University, although it is dominated by music students. Dr. Kotowich also directs the Windsor Classic Chorale and the Windsor Symphony Orchestra Chorus.

The festival is organized by Kotowich and members of the Windsor Classic Chorale. The annual event brings together attendees from across Windsor-Essex to share their love of singing with one another. The festival provides free clinics for ongoing vocal training and education, encouraging community through collaborative singing. With an explicit mandate to promote Canadian choral music, it features a Canadian work every year as a massed choir piece in a grand finale concert.

You can also hear the Canadian Chamber Choir and Sherryl Sewepagaham at noon Friday, Jan. 13, during a “SoCA Fridays” recital at the SoCA Armouries, in the Performance Hall. Admission is free. Enter the Armouries at the doors off Freedom Way.

More information is available on the SoCA music website https://www.uwindsor.ca/music/.

—Susan McKee

Heritage preservation is the topic of a panel discussion Wednesday, Jan. 25. It is the first in the Alumni Meet-Ups series of monthly chats on relevant and interesting topics, a partnership between the University of Windsor Alumni Association and Amherstburg’s River Bookshop.

This inaugural event will start at 6:30 p.m. in the store’s second-floor Hole in the Wall community space at 67 Richmond St., Amherstburg.

Featured panellists are:

• Meg Reiner, author of Heritage Buildings of Amherstburg,
• Dorian Moore, a sessional instructor in the UWindsor program Visual Arts and the Built Environment,
• Richard Peddie (BComm 1970, honorary LLD 2001), owner of the River Bookshop, and
• moderator Michael Prue, Amherstburg mayor.

Guests may attend in person or by Zoom videoconference; in-person seating is limited. Click here to reserve a spot for “Heritage preservation in your community.” Learn more on the event website.

The Entrepreneurship Practice and Innovation Centre (EPICentre) will host two workshops in its MakerSpace this month offering an introduction to three-dimensional printing.

Level 1: at 2 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 17, will cover a comprehensive look at the basics of 3D printing. Participants will walk through the entire process, giving them the confidence to start their own projects in their homes, school, or even industries.

Level 2: at 2 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 26, will cover modelling and slicing techniques. Participants will gain hands-on experience with relevant software to create parts of their own.

The MakerSpace is located in the Ed Lumley Centre for Engineering Innovation.

University of Windsor students helped to raise more than $20,000 to build homes for needy families in Serbia and Montenegro — just in time for Orthodox Christmas.

On Serbian Orthodox Christmas, the Association of Serbian Student Philanthropists announced a life-changing gift: help with a new home for impoverished families in Serbia and Montenegro.

The UWindsor club organized a fundraiser in August 2022 to kick off a campaign for Serbs for Serbs Canada, a charity that provides the poorest Serbian families with basic life necessities to enable them to become self-sufficient.

Donations continued after the event and are still coming in, totalling more than $20,000.

“We were overwhelmed and incredibly thankful to our Serbian community and Windsor community friends for coming together to support this charitable event,” said business major Petar Bratić of the Association of Serbian Student Philanthropists.

“It is a true testament to how our community can come together to make a big impact. We can’t thank our sponsors and donors enough for their generosity!”

Serbs for Serbs Canada president Angelina Račić could not be prouder of what these young leaders have accomplished.

“Our charity is made up of all volunteers and to see these Serbian students giving back to create and organize an event in such a short time that raised this amount of money is incredible,” she said. “While we hold numerous successful events throughout the year, Windsor’s surpassed all expectations and will help more than just one family.”

The UWindsor group initially intended to support the Babić family in the village of Šekular. Its home is now complete and furnished. Serbs for Serbs Canada has a policy allocating no more than $10,000 to one family, so the remainder of club funds will help additional families in need, including the seven-child Vujačić household of Budva, the four-child Matović household of Velimlje, and the four-child Slavujevic family of Jarebica.