Romance at St. Andrew's Stone Church

For the second year, soprano Ali Armstrong will be filling St. Andrew's Stone Church with beautiful music. Sunday, June 24 at 3 p.m., Ali will delight the audience with a program called Romance on a Summer's Day, featuring romantic music spanning 400 years.

Anyone who has attended Christmas services at St. Andrew's in the past three years, or who was at last year's August concert, will already have been charmed by Ali's voice.

Armstrong is a native of Toronto, and also spends time at her parents' Caledon residence. She has been singing for as long as she can remember. Her early training involved singing in numerous school and community choirs, including the Toronto Children's Chorus, where she gained a deep respect and love for classical music.

She graduated last month from Women's Studies at Queen's University in Kingston, but even with all her attention to her studies, she makes time for music. Throughout university, she sang with Queen's Polyhymnia Singers, and continued with voice training with Ewelina Kwasniewska of the Queen's School of Music. In late April, she gave a solo recital at St. James Church, Kingston.

For the June 24 concert, Armstrong will perform romantic music across the last four centuries. She will be accompanied by Erica Pratt, who regularly plays the 1906 pump organ at events held at St. Andrew's. A grand piano is being brought to the church especially for the concert.

The concert will last about an hour, and everyone is welcome. The church is located on St. Andrew's Road, between Charleston Sideroad (Highway 24) and Escarpment Sideroad. The concert is free, but donations for the church's restoration fund will be collected at the door.