Administrator-Librarian (part-time, averaging 25 hours a week)
Job Description:
The Administrator-Librarian is a key member of the Grand Philharmonic Choir administrative team: a highly organized, detail-oriented, reliable and versatile individual who is responsible for managing critical administrative, technical and financial functions, ensuring smooth operations across the organization.
This position reports to the executive director and is an integral part of a three-person administrative team that supports a family of four choirs (adult symphonic, adult chamber, youth and children), their artistic leaders, concerts and activities.
The successful candidate:
Is highly organized, attentive to detail, and technically proficient in a wide variety of office and data management software such as MS Word, Excel, Google Documents, Canva, etc;
Has excellent organizational skills, managing short- and long-term projects simultaneously;
Has excellent verbal and written communication and interpersonal skills;
Maintains confidentiality and handles sensitive information with integrity;
Has a flexible schedule, in order to allow for variations in the number of hours worked per week, depending on the needs of the organization (there will be times when employees work longer hours than usual, and other times will have a lighter workload);
Is able to move and transport boxes of music in order to retrieve, distribute and collect scores;
Has access to a reliable vehicle and can transport boxes of music and other items between locations;
Has an appreciation of and knowledge about choral music.
Office/Administration Duties:
Manages day-to-day functions of the choir office, including equipment maintenance, office supply management, proper management and storage of records, and basic technical support.
Meets regularly with the executive director, children’s and youth choir co-ordinator, artistic director, and the children’s and youth choir conductors, to ensure smooth operation of the organization.
Oversees and co-ordinates administrative procedures and reviews, evaluates and implements new procedures as required.
Receives and attends to queries from outside the organization, or directs to the appropriate person for response.
Arranges (directly or through volunteers) for preparation and cleanup of rehearsal space for adult choir, including distribution of seating plans, chair setup etc.
Books alternative rehearsal space/community outreach venues when needed.
Supports the board and executive director in planning and execution of the annual general meeting.
Keeps the choir website updated, in consultation with the executive director.
Maintains and advises on changes to existing information systems, compiling data and statistics to support choir activities.
Provides technical support, when required, to conductors, board members, special guest speakers, clinicians and others who are leading activities and meetings.
Ensures that vulnerable sector police record checks are on file and up to date for all choir personnel who work with children and youth and are required to have them.
Is familiar with all policies and procedures of the organization.
Concert and Event Production Duties:
Acts as liaison to visiting soloists, guest artists and visiting composers; creates and sends contracts; assists with travel and hospitality needs; and arranges for remuneration and reimbursement of expenses.
Works as liaison with Centre In The Square staff for other aspects of concert production needs.
Manages the production of concerts and events that are not at Centre in the Square for all choirs, including venue booking, consulting with conductors to meet their production needs, arranging for proper insurance coverage, arranging for staging and stagehands, meeting audio-visual needs, etc.
Ensures borrowing, delivery and return of instruments for production when required.
Member and Donor Management Duties:
Receives inquiries for prospective singers for adult choirs and arranges for auditions or registrations as appropriate.
Forwards inquiries about children’s and youth choirs to Children and Youth Choir Co-ordinator.
Keeps track of membership in all choirs, including registration and payment of fees and uniform charges; follows up with reminders if fees and charges are not paid.
Creates forms for consignment ticket orders from choir members and sends invoices for purchased tickets.
Manages database of donors and donations.
Accounting/Finance Duties:
Records and makes bank deposit payments.
Records all financial transactions of the choir and shares these with bookkeeper, executive director and treasurer.
Keeps official tally of raffle ticket sales, working with volunteers who manage sales.
Prepares quarterly financial statements, in consultation with the executive director.
Handles accounts payable in accordance with established procedures and ensures prompt payment of invoices.
Compiles and records donation information and ensures proper issuing and sending of charitable donation receipts.
Compiles payment information for suppliers and service providers for the purposes of the issuance of T4As.
Works with executive director to retrieve financial records during annual audit.
Librarian Duties:
Keeps a database of the music owned by the choir.
Works with conductors to provide requested music, and makes acquisitions, whether by purchasing new music, or borrowing/renting from other organizations.
Works with Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony and other hired players and soloists to provide them with necessary music for their engagements with the choir.
Prepares/prints, distributes and ensures return of music by choristers and
instrumentalists.
Ensures music library materials are stored in a safe and sustainable manner.
Works with other music organizations to rent from (and to) them to ensure supplies of music are sufficient.
Arranges for additional scores for open public rehearsals.
Collects, catalogues and stores archival materials of the Grand Philharmonic Choir.
Other duties as assigned.
Salary and benefits:
Salary range: $31,000 to $34,000 depending on experience.
Three weeks of paid vacation.
Office in downtown Kitchener with free parking. On the employee’s request, the employer will match employee contributions to the
employee’s RRSP, up to 5% of salary.
A positive and flexible work environment.
About the choir:
The Grand Philharmonic Choir is a family of four choirs in one organization (adult symphonic, adult chamber, youth and children’s choirs). We have been singing since 1922, and we have nearly 200 singers of all ages. We produce 12 to 15 concerts, public outreach events and other events each year as part of our mission to enrich lives through choral music experiences. The choir is a registered charity.
We perform the great choral works, and also contemporary works that speak to the compelling issues of our time. We perform with the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony at Kitchener’s Centre In The Square concert hall, and at other venues. We commission new works frequently, and embrace innovation in our performances.
Our children and youth singers receive a first-rate music education and unparalleled performance opportunities, including performing with the adult choir and symphony orchestra, workshops with top clinicians, and travelling to music festivals.
The choir is committed to employment equity. We encourage applications from equity-seeking groups including racialized people, Indigenous people, people living with disabilities, and members of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community.
Job applicants must be a Canadian citizen or landed immigrant.
Please submit your resume and cover letter by email to Luisa D’Amato, executive director, by Friday May 29 2026 at executive@grandphilchoir.com
Your application will be kept confidential.
Grand Philharmonic Choir
7-871 Victoria St. N, Suite 198
Kitchener, ON N2B 3S4
226 336 7900
executive@grandphilchoir.com
www.grandphilchoir.com
The following people have won our Grand Prize draw on January 12th (license number M853688)
First Prize: $1000 – Michelle Oram, Kitchener, ticket 1118
Second Prize: $800 – Janice Harder, New Hamburg, ticket 0405
Third Prize: $700 – Boma Vivian Enwesi, Kitchener, ticket 1312
Fourth Prize: $500 – Karen McMurray, Kitchener, ticket 0724
Fifth Prize: $300 – Elizabeth Martin, Woodstock, ticket 0670
Early Bird prize winners:
December 1 2025: Tour for up to 4 people, growler, and growler refill, TWB brewery, value $75 – Shauna Heide, Kitchener, ticket 0432
December 1 2025: Gift certificate for 2 tickets to any Registry Theatre sponsored show, value $80 – Kevin Martin, Waterloo, ticket 0736
December 8 2025: Two tickets to a concert of the winner’s choice for The Elora Singers, value $120 – Ed Takhtamirov, Waterloo, ticket 1694
December 15 2025: A basket of gourmet items from Vincenzo’s, value $120 – Julie Service, Guelph, ticket 0957
January 5 2026: $200 cash – Kevin Martin, Waterloo, ticket 0734
Congratulations to all our winners, and thank you for your support!
The Grand Philharmonic Choir, one of the oldest artistic institutions in Waterloo Region, is changing its image with a new logo and look.
“Our new visual identity beautifully expresses the heart of the Grand Philharmonic Choir,” said Mark Vuorinen, the choir’s artistic director. “It honours our long history while celebrating the vitality and inclusiveness of our music-making today.”
In rich tones of burgundy and cream, black and white, with red and orange accents for the children’s and youth choirs, the new palette and logo create “a symbol of connection — between singers, audiences, and our wider community,” Vuorinen said.
The choir has been making music for 103 years in Waterloo Region, and its visual identity has evolved over the decades, as has the music it shares with the community.
“Echoing the beauty and unity of voices raised in song, the Grand Philharmonic Choir’s new visual image reflects the choir’s dynamic community presence and commitment to bring unique and beautiful choral experiences to Waterloo Region,” Vuorinen said.
The design was created by Halifax-based designer April te Bulte, who worked closely over the summer with a team from the choir including singers, staff and board members.
The choir begins its 2025-26 season with Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis, Saturday October 25 at Centre In The Square, Kitchener.
The following people won at our Grand Prize draw on January 20th (License number 853412):
First prize, $1000: Sharon Wadley, Kitchener, ticket 0759
Second prize, $800: Greg Fichter, Kitchener, ticket 0013
Third prize, $700: Weixi Fan, Kitchener, ticket 1015
Fourth prize, $500: Ernie McCullough, Kitchener, ticket 0964
Early bird prize winners:
November 25 – two tickets for Swan Lake with State Ballet of Ukraine at Centre In The Square: John Harder, New Hamburg, ticket 1230
November 25 – two tickets to a show of the winner’s choice at the Registry Theatre: David Imrie, Kitchener, ticket 0702
December 2 – two tickets to a concert of the winner’s choice from Elora Singers: Kate Pasula, Waterloo, ticket 0525
December 9 – $100: Lynda Smith, Waterloo, ticket 0378
December 16 – $200: Tomas Guidolin, Stratford, ticket 1187
January 6 – gift basket from Vincenzo’s worth $100: Ingrid Armbruster, Waterloo, ticket 0254
January 13 – $300: Helen Basson, Waterloo, ticket 0270
Thanks to all for supporting the choir!
We’re thrilled to welcome Greer Schatz to our artistic team starting this fall!
Our Raffle (Licence # M853828) had its final grand draw on November 20, 2023.
Thank you to everyone who participated in this fundraiser for the choir!
The winners are:
Neil Craik of Kitchener, ticket number 835, $1,000 prize
Michelle Oran of Kitchener, ticket number 0916, $800 prize
Angie MacDonald of Goderich, ticket number 0899, $700 prize
Marhee Clifton of Waterloo, ticket number 0530, $500 prize
Early bird draw winners:
Nancy Regehr of Waterloo, ticket number 0438, t-shirt and gift certificate for Apollo Cinema, $49 value
Nancy Regehr of Waterloo, ticket number 0438, tour of TWB Brewery for four plus two growlers of beer, $150
Serena Blanchett of Kitchener, ticket number 0829, tickets to State Ballet of Ukraine, value $123
Helen Basson of Waterloo, ticket number 0699, $110
Helen Basson of Waterloo, ticket number 0700, Vincenzo’s Gift Basket, $100 value
Gemma Ricker of Kitchener, ticket number 1400, Green Goddess gift certificate, and basket of olive oils from the Olive Experience, $128.99
Falcon Ottara of Woodstock, ticket number 1273, $200
A spellbinding new choral and orchestral work about water – and a community’s struggle to protect this precious resource – will be premiered at the final concert of the 100th season of the Grand Philharmonic Choir on May 28 in Kitchener.
Water: An Environmental Oratorio is written by composer Stephanie Martin, with lyrics by playwright Paul Ciufo and guidance from Indigenous environmental activist Vicki Monague. It tells the story of a small community that has the chance to bring in an industrial development that would create jobs, but would also pose a risk to the environment.
This evocative oratorio describes the wrenching debate that ensues, but also explores water on other levels – as an entity with a voice of its own, surrounded by water spirits; and as a life-giving element that has inspired Hildegard von Bingen, Confucius and Goethe, among others.
For the past two years, the oratorio’s creators have worked with the Philharmonic Choir singers and choir artistic director, Mark Vuorinen, while the piece was taking shape. There have been workshops, conversations and recounting of personal history.
Monague, whose own work as a water protector activist provided inspiration for the piece, has brought guidance throughout the creative process. She also is a founder of the United Nations Decade of Indigenous Languages working group.
“It’s been a very collaborative process,” said Vuorinen. “It’s always both exciting and daunting to bring life to a new work.”
“Water is everywhere, around us and in us, yet we rarely stop to consider how much we rely on this essential element,” Martin said.
“We assume it will always be there when we need it, but we don’t appreciate how fragile and threatened this resource is.
“It’s helpful to disrupt our stagnant modes of thinking and consider this Anishinaabe teaching: it is a sacred duty to protect Water. Our existence depends on it.”
Martin is a composer of note, whose works have been performed across North American and internationally. Her cantata, Winter Nights; an opera, Llandovery Castle (about nurses who perished in the First World War); and Babel: a choral symphony, written for the 40th anniversary of the WiIfrid Laurier University faculty of music, have been performed in Waterloo Region by the Philharmonic Choir, other choral ensembles, and opera and choral students at Wilfrid Laurier University.
Martin said she’s excited to start a conversation about water with this new work, which was commissioned thanks to a donation from Dan Leader and Deborah Finlayson of Toronto.
She said she expects listeners to see themselves in some of the roles and complex relationships expressed in the oratorio.
Martin asked, “What will you do when confronted with a difficult decision?”
—–
Water: An Environmental Oratorio will be performed Sunday May 28 at 3 p.m. at the Centre In The Square in Kitchener, by the 140 combined voices of the adult, youth and children’s choirs, the Kitchener Waterloo Symphony, and soloists: Katy Clark, soprano; Marion Newman, mezzo-soprano; Jean-Philippe Lazure, tenor; and Phillip Addis, baritone.
Bruckner’s powerful Romantic work, Te Deum, opens this concert, which is the final performance by the choir in the year it celebrates 100 years of continuous singing.
Tickets ($10 to $40) are available at www.centreinthesquare.com or 519-578-1570.
A chamber version of the work will be performed June 4 at the Huron Waves Music Festival, 3 p.m. at Trivitt Auditorium in Exeter. A six-metre-wide sculpture of the Earth accompanies this performance. For more information, visit huronwaves.ca
For more information contact:
Mark Vuorinen, choir artistic director, Grand Philharmonic Choir: mvuorine@uwaterloo.ca
Stephanie Martin, composer: stmartin@yorku.ca
Paul Ciufo, lyricist: paulciufo@gmail.com
Vicki Monague, adviser: onjibiisaa@gmail.com
Stephanie Martin
Paul Ciufo
Vicki Monague
Mark Vuorinen
Chamber Singers and Adult Choir rehearsals are cancelled for February 27 due to weather. Stay warm, and we’ll see you next week!
Our Raffle (Licence # 853779) had its final grand draw on February 6, 2023.
Thank you to everyone who participated in this fundraiser for the choir!
The winners are:
Kathy Stephenson of Woodstock, ticket number 1621, $1,000 prize
Sarah Moroz of Waterloo, ticket number 0190, $800 prize
Shannon Blake of Toronto, ticket number 0274, $700 prize
Erich Rueb of Kitchener, ticket number 0572, $500 prize
Early bird draw winners:
Janet Craik of Kitchener, ticket number 0491, gift basket from Vincenzo’s, value $100
Jenny Shantz of Waterloo, ticket number 0964, $200
Roger Musselman of Kitchener, ticket number 1320, tour and gifts from Together We’re Bitter Brewery
Tereza Korbel of Waterloo, ticket number 1532, $100
Ellen Couchman of Newmarket, ticket number 0998, $200 gift certificate to Sole Restaurant
Paul Marchment of Kitchener, ticket number 1137, $300