Reading Erin Howden’s profile on Toronto’s North Metro Chorus website made us feel excited and slightly intimidated. She’d done everything and sounded superhuman. Background in jazz choreography and an honours degree in business, with her own performance coaching company – gulp! We really had nothing to worry about; she’s lovely, with a genuine smile.
It was a warm summer’s evening and we soon got warmed up and ready. We could feel a warmth radiating from Erin as well and she seemed excited to be working with us, which was really cool. We wondered what we would be doing, looking forward to going the extra singing mile. By mid-rehearsal we were concentrating on quality of sound, performing the sound, emoting from our stomachs, figure skating the shapes in the song and loving it. By the end of the evening we were all smiling warmly – what a fantastic evening!