Accent Singers director leaves post, leaves lasting legacy

“I think music is nostalgia. Music is home. It’s family,” this is a quote from Meredith Hutchinson, the soon to be former director of the Accent Singers, and it sums up her life perfectly.

She grew up in a household where music was constantly being listened to, discussed, played, and promoted. In later years this would lead to a career and a pastime that would leave her mark on the music scene in the Southeast.

“I grew up in a family that contributed to the music and art scene here in Steinbach. And it just feels special that I kind of continued from my grandparents being involved when they were alive. And so, I just feel like this has been a really cool way since moving back to Steinbach to find a place to belong myself.”

Hutchinson is exiting the Accent Singers after eight years at the helm.

“When I first took this job on, I was just looking for a choir to sing in. And eight years later, I’m still, I think, looking for a choir to sing in,” she said jokingly.

She said she is leaving because it’s time to move on as she is feeling “antsy” and lacking inspiration and energy, noting the director’s job is a heavy one and she wants to spend more time with her family. She also said she has taken the choir as far as she can.

“This is such a fun group and it’s been wonderful and fulfilling,” she said.

Prior to Hutchinson’s tenure with the male and female Accent Singers, the group was known as the Accent Women’s Ensemble, an all-female alto-soprano choir founded and directed by Sheila Ardies.

When Ardies left in 2017, Hutchinson took over that season with 15 singers. In her second season at the helm, she had doubled the choir’s numbers and venue sizes. Following COVID, for the 2022-2023 season, Hutchinson got that antsy feeling that she had to make a change.

“And then I feel like I had kind of exhausted my list of women’s only music. And I thought, ‘I’ve got this growing pile of SATB (soprano-alto-tenor-bass) music that I’m just dying to do,’” she said.

The 2022-2023 season would be the last for the Accent Women’s Ensemble as Hutchinson decided to add men to the choir for the upcoming season, which saw the ensemble grow to 75 members. The choir was renamed the Accent Singers, jokingly referring to it as Accent 2.0 by Hutchinson. Some of the women took the news of men coming into the group well and were excited, and some weren’t and left.

“I don’t blame them because they really were loving that women only vibe and I know I was taking that away from them,” said Hutchinson, noting she also missed being a part of an all female choir.

The director and all her singers cried during their last performance as a female choir.

“I don’t regret changing to invite more singers. Plus, I just knew there weren’t a ton of other opportunities for tenors and basses to be singing.”

The new choir sang with the Winnipeg Singers in its first season and then in its second season with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra. Hutchinson said bringing the men into the choir didn’t change her process for choosing songs, it just opened up more possibilities. She also said the men’s voices bring a richer and deeper tone to the songs.

“And these men just hang low there (with their voices) and bring this bass surround sound to the experience and I love that,” she said.

Currently, the choir sits at about 40 singers as young as 18 to some in their seventies, who are performing about three concerts a year. “It’s just become a real nice community of singers,” said Hutchinson. And that is what she will miss the most when she leaves the choir, the moments of laughter and the people.

“(People would email me) and they say this has changed their lives or they were searching for something in their world that was just for them,” she said tearfully.

“I guess I never thought about what starting this was creating, that it was more than just a choir that put on concerts. When I say community, I mean that in the most heartfelt way that these people were looking for friends and a place to belong and a place to feel proud and then to have concerts to invite their families to.”

“And they look so proud to be on stage looking out at their family who’s there to support them.”

For her last performance of the 2025-2026 season, Hutchinson has invited former Accent Singers Ensemble singers back for a final concert together.

“I thought, ‘I want to kind of look back at my whole experience and kind of wrap this all up by looking all the way back through the years.’ So, I’m very excited that quite a few of those women are going to come back and we get to sing together one last time.”

The song Hutchinson has chosen for the women to sing is “Hope is the Thing of Feathers,” a song that gave her the chills and stayed with her since she first heard it. For her final song of the concert, the 42-year-old music teacher has chosen the duet “For Good” from the musical Wicked.

“There’s a line in there that says, ‘because I knew you, I have been changed for good.’ And I feel like that’s such a special line because I look out at these singers, who have just been so supportive and loyal to me and my dream of having a choir when I didn’t even know it was my dream until it was happening.”

“I think they have built my confidence up and they’ve built my skill level up by pushing me to do better because they want to do better. And so I have been changed because of them,’” she said.

Other songs to look out for in the performance are “Magnum Mysterium” by Morten Lauridsen and “Flying” by Cody Fry, arranged by Jennifer McMillan.

Taking the reins over from Hutchinson for the 2026-2027 season is David Sawatzky, a professor of music at Providence College. She said she chose him to lead the choir because he has a lot of experience and a vast repertoire that will “bring a fresh feel to the choir as he has stayed current with the choral scene.”

Hutchinson said she is honoured to have been a part of the Accent Singers and having audiences take the time to see one of the choir’s performances is not lost on her.

“We’re just genuine people bringing our best. And we want audience members to come because they’re looking for a fun, lighthearted, magical afternoon of choral music,” she said.

Hutchinson’s last performance with the Accent Singers is on June 7 at 3 p.m. at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Steinbach. Joining the choir will be the Blumenort School Middle Years Choir, conducted by Shannon Sawatzky and accompanied by Kim Bestvater-Sidorchuk. Tickets at the door are $5 for students and $15 for adults.