He founded a professional concert choir.
At the time there were only three such choirs in Canada Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. Every other Canadian chorus was formed of amateur enthusiasts, but this one would have singers whose lives were dedicated to choral performance, and who would be paid for that dedication. Pro Coro was formed, and since then has gone from strength to strength, famed across Canada and far beyond.
Gervais had trained in Austria and Sweden and discovered the new kind of choral sound the Swedish choirs had developed, often using new vocal techniques. He decided to create that sound in Edmonton and spent the next seven months training his new choir. Pro Coro’s first concert took place in September 1981, and, like the choir itself, it was revolutionary.