The choir has limbered up, done breathing exercises, loosened up larynxes and is set to explode with its latest composition, What Music Means to You.

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“Music: An inspiration. Music: An Invitation. Music: Is relaxation.  Music: My revolution. Music: My absolution. Music: My constitution. Music: My own solution, my rejuvenation.”

It’s no accident the choir members bring plenty of conviction to these lyrics. They are lyrics Le groupe MusiArt lives by. And had hoped to continue living by.

The choir is a music-therapy group of about 25 singers and musicians first formed in 1998 to support psychiatry patients at the MUHC’s Montreal General Hospital. Some members have professional experience, but most are simply eager amateurs. They have become a community unto themselves. Music is their lifeblood. Music has kept them afloat in otherwise troubling times.

Over almost three decades, the bilingual MusiArt choir has distinguished itself, cutting three albums of original compositions and touring Canada and France.

But the end appears nigh. Members learned last week that the choir would have to disband and that one of its two musical therapists and directors, Julie Migner-Laurin, will lose her job because of donation shortfalls at the MGH.

The choir will be going out with what is certain to be a bang for one final concert, March 19 at the Allan Memorial Institute.

Troupers are understandably glum, still trying to process the news during what may be one of their last rehearsals together in a makeshift MGH room-turned-studio. Their enthusiasm has clearly not wavered.

The MusiArt choir falls under the domain of Valentine Weber, director of the MUHC’s multidisciplinary services........

© Montreal Gazette