Common Thread Chorus

Like many good ideas, Common Thread was born around a kitchen table – Ellen Long and Eve Goldberg’s - during a conversation on a chilly December night about the power of music to generate hope in the face of adversity. This birth was followed by a full year of visioning and planning during which the founders sought advice from other choirs, contacted composers and arrangers, found a rehearsal home at Cecil Community Centre, and attracted members through innovative outreach. In the spring of 1999, the founding committee of Ellen Long, Eve Goldberg, Sue Goldberg, Christine Almeida, Bob Biderman, and Jessica Ringrose (a group whose collective experience includes community organizing, popular education, choral and community singing, folk music traditions, and social activism) chose Isabel Bernaus to be our first conductor. An accomplished and talented musician and a gifted music educator, Isabel has helped Common Thread establish a solid musical and community foundation.

In September 1999, the degree to which the idea of Common Thread struck a chord in Toronto was evidenced when, to everyone’s amazement, over 100 people walked through the doors of Cecil Community Centre for the first rehearsal! The planners had anticipated  50. Thrilled, but almost overwhelmed, 70 were selected, through a random draw, to form the first year’s choir, a list of “singers-in-waiting” and a “fifth section” of volunteers. Each year there are new people asking to join us and “singers-in-waiting” continue to be admitted.

One of our main goals is to help community groups raise funds for or raise awareness about important social justice issues.