St. Michael's Choir School (also known as SMCS, The Choir School, or St. Mike's Choir) is a semi-private Catholic choir school for boys from grades 3–12 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Overseen by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Toronto, the school provides a private music education in joint operation with the Toronto Catholic District School Board, which administers all other academic subjects, athletics programs, and extracurricular activities. The school is affiliated with the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music and is a member of the International Boys' Schools Coalition.
St. Michael's Choir School trains choristers and musicians in classical and liturgical music through regular choral, music theory, and piano instruction, and optional lessons in music history, vocal, organ, classical guitar, and orchestral string instruments. Admission to the school is by audition and students sing in concerts in Canada and internationally and during weekly mass at St. Michael's Cathedral Basilica. In addition to music and the performing arts, the school's alumni include professionals in business, academia, law, medicine, media, and politics.
History St. Michael's Choir School was founded in 1937 by Monsignor John Edward Ronan as a private elementary school to train choristers and provide liturgical music services to St. Michael's Cathedral, where Ronan was Director of Music. Then called Cathedral Schola Cantorum, the school's founding was inspired by Pope Pius X's Tra le sollecitudini and started in a single room at 67 Bond Street, Toronto. Monsignor Ronan was a composer and graduate of the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music in Rome, Italy, and remained principal until his death on October 15, 1962, a date that is now commemorated annually as Founder's Day at the school.
As the school expanded and added a secondary school, it moved into a new building at 66 Bond Street, which was designed by the ecclesiastical architect James Haffa and opened in 1950. In 1955, the school was granted affiliation with the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music, becoming one of six choirs and choir schools in the world to share this affiliation. The affiliation authorized St. Michael's Choir School to grant the degree of Bachelor of Sacred Music, with a specialization in Gregorian chant. In 1966, St. Michael's Choir School entered into an agreement with the Toronto Catholic District School Board, then called the Metropolitan Separate School Board, to place secular, non-music courses under the publicly funded Catholic school system. In 1975, the secondary school expanded further and moved to 69 Bond Street. By 1987, the school was fully funded by government with the exception of its music program, for which students continue to pay fees. In 1987, St. Michael's Choir School celebrated its fiftieth anniversary, and in recognition of this milestone, Toronto mayor Art Eggleton declared June 15, 1987 as the official "St. Michael's Choir School Day." In 1996, the elementary school moved into a renovated building at 67 Bond Street and left 66 Bond Street as an administrative building, auditorium, and rehearsal space for the school's music division.
Notable school instructors have included composer and piano virtuoso John Arpin, who taught piano from 1956 to 1957, and Canadian Opera Company tenor John Arab, who taught vocal from 1954 until his death in 2000.
Concerts and tours St. Michael's Choir School has held an annual Christmas concert since 1939. From 1939 to 1964, Christmas concerts were held at the Knights of Columbus Hall, attached to James Cooper House, before moving to Massey Hall, where the school celebrated 50 years of performances at the venue in 2015. In 2013, CBC listed the school's Christmas concert as one of Toronto's top 13 classical Christmas events of 2013.
Besides the Christmas concert, the school choirs perform during the annual Founder's Day concert in October and the spring concert in May. The choirs have also performed at Roy Thomson Hall and other venues around the city, both on their own and with other musical groups, including the Victoria Scholars Men's Choral Ensemble and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. The school performed for Pope John Paul II in 1984 during his papal visit to Canada and again in 2002 during World Youth Day. The school choir also performed during Queen Elizabeth's Golden Jubilee visit to Toronto in 2002. In 2017, the school opened the Sistine Chapel Choir's Toronto concert, sang during the Toronto Arts Foundation Mayor's Evening for the Arts gala attended by Mayor John Tory, and performed all three parts of George Frideric Handel's Messiah for the first time in the school's history. In 2020, students served as cantors during the state funeral for former Canadian Prime Minister John Turner, with guests including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, former Governor General David Johnston, and former Prime Minister Kim Campbell.
St. Michael's Choir School began touring in 1946 and its choirs have performed across Canada and internationally, including in Nova Scotia, Quebec, Newfoundland and Labrador, the Czech Republic, the United States, Germany, and Trinidad and Tobago. The first international tour took place in 1971, when the school choir participated in the Cork International Choral Festival in Ireland, performed in the United Kingdom, and sang before Pope Paul VI at a general audience in St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City.50th Anniversary Booklet: The Tours . St. Michael's Choir School, 1987. Accessed January 2014. As part of the school's 75th anniversary celebrations in 2013, the school's choirs toured Italy, which included a performance in St. Peter's Basilica and of "Jubilate Deo," a song composed by the school's founder, for Pope Francis in St. Peter's Square. The 2013 tour was featured in a documentary film by Salt + Light Television. During the papal visit to Canada in 2022, the school performed for Pope Francis at the Cathedral-Basilica of Notre-Dame de Quebec in Quebec City, Quebec. More recently, the school toured the United Kingdom in 2023, Michigan in 2024, Alberta in 2025 and Quebec in 2026.
School traditions In addition to concerts and tours, St. Michael's Choir School commemorates Michaelmas, the feast day of St. Michael, on September 29 each year with a Blue Mass given in honour of the city's public safety personnel at St. Michael's Cathedral Basilica. The celebration includes a performance of Thou Royal Knight from Courts on High, the school song composed by Monsignor Ronan in 1942. On November 11, the graduating class provides music for the school's Remembrance Day ceremony at St. Michael's Cathedral Basilica to honour armed forces members who have died in the line of duty.
The school also provides choir services throughout Holy Week, including an Easter Vigil on the night of Holy Saturday. During Tenebrae, alumni return to sing responsories alongside current students in a traditional ceremony where candles are gradually extinguished throughout the service and choristers slap hymnals on pews to create a loud noise in the darkened church. Descended from medieval tradition, the resulting noise symbolizes the earthquake that is said to have followed Jesus's death.
Students are divided into one of four school houses named Ronan, Hopperton, Mann, and Armstrong, which are designed to encourage school spirit, peer mentorship, and student leadership. Each house competes in community events for the annual House Cup award and is represented by senior students known as a prefects. The houses are named after Monsignor John Edward Ronan, the school's founder, Joan Hopperton, the school's first teacher, Kathleen Mann, the first Junior Choir conductor, and Harold Armstrong, the school's first organist and Tenor-Bass Choir conductor.
School symbols
St. Michael's Choir School is named after St. Michael the Archangel and its motto, Bis orat qui cantat, is translated as He who sings prays twice. The phrase refers to song as a noble form of prayer and is sometimes attributed to St. Augustine. The school is also represented by a school crest, which serves as the school's logo and is worn on students' uniforms. The crest's blazon is as follows: The three symbols are one. At the center of the Choir School’s academic effort to make the universe (circle) intelligible to growing minds is an experience of music (treble clef) for the praise of God in Jesus Christ (Chi Rho cross).The school's sports mascot is the Spartan and the school colours are maroon for grades 3–8, navy blue for grades 9–12, and gold. Students wear maroon or navy blue blazers, sweaters, and polo shirts according to their grade level, as part of the school's uniform. The school houses, Ronan, Hopperton, Mann, and Armstrong, are represented by the colours blue, yellow, red, and green, respectively.
Controversies St. Michael's Choir School came under scrutiny after 17-year-old student Kenneth Au Yeung died by suicide by leaping from the Prince Edward Viaduct on December 11, 1997. Earlier that afternoon, Principal John Ryall called Au Yeung and five other classmates to his office about a prank involving potentially libellous remarks linking the school choir director to a sex scandal. The comments mistakenly found its way into print in the school's yearbook, which Au Yeung had helped edit. Ryall and Louise Kane, a longtime teacher, called off-duty police officer Const. Christopher Downer, an alumnus who often visited campus in uniform as the principal's "enforcer." During the meeting, Downer and Ryall threatened the students with criminal charges, questioned them without notifying their parents on the grounds that the investigation was informal, and prevented Au Yeung from contacting his parents, which violated school board policy. It was the latter that Au Yeung's mother Catherine testified as a direct cause of the suicide during the inquiry, which made 23 recommendations, including on the mandatory notification of parents during police investigations and guidelines for police conduct off-duty. Downer and Ryall did not face legal repercussions.
The school was mired in controversy over the removal of its artistic director, Dr. Jerzy Cichocki, a 25-year-plus employee and alumnus. On December 28, 2016, the school sent out a letter to the school community from the school's director, Stephen Handrigan, vaguely outlining Dr. Cichocki's dismissal. Following some backlash from the community, the school sent a second letter from Archbishop of Toronto Thomas Collins, reiterating Dr. Cichocki's removal. Further backlash sparked a student-led petition in support of Dr. Cichocki's reinstatement, which was published on December 30, 2016, and earned almost 1000 signatures. The creator stated that "Dr. Cichocki is by far the most qualified candidate to fulfill this noble mission (of the choir school), having had a connection with the school from the age of eight and possessing three graduate degrees in music.” Despite the significant amount of support, the petition was disregarded by the administration.
School profile
Academic curriculum