Valley Festival Singers
For thirty years, the VFS have been delighting audiences with choral music. Tony Funk, hired as artistic director in 2005, has attracted a strong following of singers and audience members alike. This 60 voice choir sings music from all eras. Students who would like to sing in this group are invited to audition; you may also take this ensemble for CBC credit.
Tony Funk (Choir Director)
tony.funk@columbiabc.edu
As well as teaching music and theology at Columbia Bible College, Tony Funk is active as a choral director in British Columbia. Past opportunities have included working with the award winning Vancouver Cantata Singers for 11 years, 5 years as assistant director. During his final year as Associate Director, Tony had the opportunity to work alongside interim director, distinguished Canadian conductor, Wayne Riddell. A long standing member of the choir, Tony developed his sense of Baroque and Romantic choral music style under past director James Fankhauser's leadership.
Over the past number of years, he played a major role in preparing and performing Bach's B Minor Mass, St. John Passion, Handel's Dixit Dominus, Messiah as well as Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610. In 2000 he prepared the choir for Bernard Labadie and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra's Bach Cantata concerts.
Choral singing opportunities have including singing with Alice Parker's professional choir in New York City. During the summer of 2000 Tony had the privilege of singing Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610 for Festival Vancouver under the direction of Baroque master Stephen Stubbs.
In addition to regular teaching duties at Columbia, Tony directs the West Coast Mennonite Chamber Choir. Formed in 1991, this group of amateur singers has recorded with such celebrities as Canadian tenor Ben Heppner, and German soprano Edith Wiens. The choir's eleventh CD features up and coming soprano Melanie Krueger. The choir donates all proceeds (over $550,000 in CD sales) to the work of the Mennonite Central Committee Supportive Care Services. The choir can be heard frequently on CBC, and has been featured by Bob Kerr from Off The Record.
Tony has spent numerous summers in Whitehorse, Yukon, directing the Summer Music Festival Choir, as well as the Canadian Association of Mennonite Schools 500 Voice Mass Choir in Saskatoon and Abbotsford. He has directed his college choir across Canada, in Germany and the University of British Columbia Singers in Mexico. During the summer of 2001, he was invited to join the faculty at the Nelson Summer Songfest. For 2002, Tony will be Simon Carrington's assistant at the Nelson Summer Songfest.
In addition to studying with Alice Parker in New York, Tony has studied Lieder singing with the late Erik Werba in Ossiach, Austria. While on study leave in 2000 to complete his Master of Music degree, his favourite activity was singing bass in the renaissance men's group Sacred Harp, directed by Erik Hannan.
