More than a Song: Gospel Week comes to BU

The Brandon University (BU) School of Music presents More than a Song, a Gospel Music residency, from Monday, Feb. 2 to Friday, Feb. 6.

Montreal-born singer, educator and CBC Radio host Frédéricka Petit-Homme will be joined by collaborators Myrtle Thomas and Alexandre Paquette. The week will culminate in a musical celebration and final gathering led by the guests and featuring the BU Concert Choir, Chorale and small jazz ensembles.

“As the host of CBC’s Choral Concert, a versatile performer, educator and researcher, the scope of Frédéricka’s work is unique and captivating,” said Marika Galea, an Assistant Professor in the School of Music and one of the residency’s organizers. “Dr. Andrée Dagenais and I have been working on cultivating this hands-on learning opportunity for our students for quite some time.”

Galea said one of the events she is looking forward to, and one that will hold special significance for others in the area of jazz and contemporary and popular music, is a presentation on African American Sacred Music that will take place on Tuesday afternoon. The talk, which part of the School of Music’s Out of Bounds speaker series, will take place from 12:40 to 1:30 p.m., in Room 1-57 of the Queen Elizabeth II Music Building.

The week will also include a series of workshops and masterclasses, with the concluding musical celebration taking place on Friday at 7:30 p.m., in the Kinsmen Rehearsal Hall, Room 1-20 of the Music building. Tickets for the final performance and gathering will be $10 at the door, or free for BU students. 

SCHEDULE OF OPEN EVENTS

(All events take place in the Queen Elizabeth II Music Building)

Monday, Feb. 2

9:30 — 10:30 a.m.: Opening Session, Kinsmen 1-20

5:15 — 7:15p.m.: Masterclass/Rehearsal, Kinsmen 1-20

Tuesday, Feb. 3

12:40 — 1:30 p.m.: Out of Bounds Lecture — Looking Back In Order to Move Forward: African American Sacred Music as a Pathway to Resistance, Resilience, and Renewal, 1-57

2 — 3:30 p.m.: Masterclass/Rehearsal, Kinsmen 1-20

7 — 8:15 p.m.: Conservatory Choir Workshop, 1-57

Wednesday, Feb. 4

5:15 — 7:15 p.m.: Masterclass/Rehearsal, Kinsmen 1-20

Friday, Feb. 6

10 — 11 a.m.: Coffee Meet & Greet, Faculty Lounge

7:30 p.m.: Musical Celebration & Gathering, Kinsmen 1-20; $10 tickets at door, free for BU students

Additional info:

Kinsmen Rehearsal Hall (Room 1-20) is located inside the Brandon University School of Music (Queen Elizabeth Music Building), with access from 19th street between Princess and Lorne. The space is wheelchair accessible through the main (South) doors to the School of Music, and the North door to the hall.

Frédéricka Petit-Homme is a Montreal-born singer, choral conductor, educator, and researcher whose work brings together performance, pedagogy, and community engagement. She has taught at McGill University’s Schulich School of Music since 2005 and is a PhD candidate in music education focused on gospel choir practice in higher education, with attention to transformational leadership and the enactment of Black Dignity through collective music-making.

Her research and teaching inform her approach to building meaningful connections between academic institutions and the communities they serve. She is the founder and artistic director of Ensemble Nigra Sumand the creator of More than a Song, a gospel music workshop series that invites students, educators, and community members into shared musical practice through listening, singing, and reflection.

In recent years, Petit-Homme shared her work through an interactive Research Alive lecture at McGill University, an invited More than a Song workshop at the 4th International Possibility Studies Conference hosted at the University of Cambridge, and a co-authored paper selected for presentation at the 2024 Social Impact Music Making Symposium in Copenhagen, Denmark. 

Beyond her academic and community-based work, she hosts Choral Concert, a weekly national radio program on CBC Music and CBC Listen, where she highlights choral music from across the Americas and Europe. Drawing on her experience as a first-generation Canadian, her work reflects a practice of artistic citizenship grounded in collaboration, and care.

Myrtle Thomas is a Montreal-born vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, and educator whose work spans performance, coaching, and music pedagogy. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts and a Graduate Diploma in Advanced Music Performance Studies in classical flute from Concordia University and a Master of Music in Jazz Performance from McGill University’s Schulich School of Music. Her musical development has been shaped by mentorship in both vocal and instrumental traditions, including study with vocalist Ranee Lee, American composer, vocalist, and multi-instrumentalist Camille Thurman, and composer/arrangers Joe Sullivan, John Hollenbeck, and Christine Jensen.

Grounded in classical and jazz traditions and informed by deep roots in gospel music, Thomas approaches music education as a practice of translation across styles, communities, and ways of learning. Her interest in accessible and community-oriented pedagogy has led to collaborations with learner-centered initiatives and to the commissioning and publication of her first article, How to Improve Singing: The Ultimate Beginners’ Guide, by Musiprof, a modern music school serving learners across Canada. Working with students, she explores learning through listening and imitation, stylistic translation, and the body as a rhythmic engine. Her work emphasizes curiosity, adaptability, and the development of an integrated musical voice across traditions.

Alexandre Paquette is a Montreal-based bassist, musical director, arranger, and educator whose work spans performance, production, and collaborative music-making. Over the past three decades, he has built a wide-ranging career as a bassist on television productions, in recording studios, and on international tours. His performance and musical direction credits include work with artists such as Corneille, Lara Fabian, Oliver Jones, and Claude Dubois, as well as leading gospel ensembles including the Montreal Jubilation Gospel Choir, Jireh Gospel Choir, and the Montreal Gospel Choir.

Alongside his performance work, Paquette maintains an active practice as an arranger and producer. His projects span more than 50 album releases across diverse musical genres, reflecting a sustained engagement with collaborative production and music-making across a range of performance contexts.

Grounded in the gospel tradition, Paquette’s work is shaped by a commitment to collective music-making and artist development. His leadership and collaborative approach have led to longstanding roles as a musical director within Montreal’s gospel community, including his current position as musical director at Église Nouvelle Vie, the largest French-speaking church in Canada. In December 2025, he led a team of 60 performers, and production staff for La Symphonie de Noël, a sold-out Christmas production presented to a 7,000-seat audience.

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