Canadian choir tours South Africa with South African teacher

Sarona Mynhardt started the White Rock Children's Choir in British Columbia, Canada. This June and July, she brings 17 of them to South Africa for a two-week tour. They will perform at the University of Stellenbosch, Christel House in Cape Town, Cape Town's waterfront, St. George's Cathedral, Phalaborwa, Johannesburg and Pretoria. Sarona will meet old friends Jannie du Toit and Christa Steyn, who will perform with the choir in Johannesburg. Another special visit will be the choirs' evening performance at a church in Pretoria, the NG Suid-Oos Pretoria, where Sarona was married and where her daughter Maderi was christened. Sarona was born and raised in South Africa, where she was a member of children and youth choirs for ten years. She completed her teaching degree at the Teachers Training College in Pretoria in 1985, specializing in music, choir directing, drama and special education. She also did post-graduate studies at the Conservatoire of Music at the University of Potchefstroom. After she immigrated to Canada with her husband and two children in 1996 Sarona taught Music in the Surrey School District. She started the choir in 1997 at the Ray Shepherd Elementary School. Highlights have included singing at Disneyland, tours to Italy in 2003 and Hawaii in 2007. She attended choral conducting workshops at Butler University in Indianapolis. Sarona looks for ways to help her students find opportunities in life as well as in music. One of her singers, Karleen Hoffmann, wanted to do volunteer work in South Africa after she graduates from White Rock Christian Academy this year. Sarona contacted a friend in South Africa and Karleen will be an assistant at a Christian school in South Africa, from August to December, working with a nursery and orphanage and a centre for people with AIDS.