A Serendipitous Search: How Rachel Shaw Found Her Choral Home at Cantala
On a summer evening, while searching on Google for Bass tabs/Wes Montgomery/Cantaloupe Island, Rachel Shaw found Cantala in what could be dramatically described as a torrent of serendipitous fate.
Rachel performs with her band NLP and Deathmask
It was an act of erroneous typing that led her to us as she hit search before she could finish typing the words Cantaloupe. Lo and behold Cantala came up as the first search result on Google.
Intrigued by the name she clicked on the website and was stunned to find out that Cantala was not only based in Toronto where she lives but they were also accepting auditions. She couldn’t shake the feeling that this discovery was meant to be as she had always wanted to join a choir.
Rachel has sung in bands for over 10 years, however she always had a yearning to sing harmonies in a choir.
She emailed Nancy to inquire if she could audition and promptly she responded with a resounding yes! With no expectations other than gaining experience, a couple weeks later Rachel found herself nervously getting ready to audition.
Since then, she’s completed her first year with Cantala singing both soprano and alto and has never looked back.
A firm believer that things happen for a reason, she hopes that this experience will inspire others’ to act upon instinct when an opportunity falls in their lap!
More about Rachel…
She is a practicing multimedia artist currently working in fashion, lifestyle and beauty as a Creative Director. She's worked alongside artists such as Annie Leibovitz, Julia Hetta, Stephen Kidd, Cole Sprouse and Julian Klincewicz.
In addition to her professional practice, she's also a vocalist and instrumentalist in bands NLP and DeathMask Doom (heavy psych/rock/doom). Opening for bands such as legendary British heavy metal band Diamond Head and French heavy psych band Mars Red Sky.
You can see Rachel perform with her band NLP and Deathmask this coming September in Toronto September 7th and 13th as well as with Cantala for their 2024/2025 season.
https://www.instagram.com/deathmaskdoom/
https://www.instagram.com/nlp_band/