Choralescence

Summer is usually so devoid of music not in some distant ‘bowl,’ meaning especially choral music in our neighborhood, that there is room for singers to fall back on their own devices for musical experience. This summer is like the rest, except for a sprinkling of things to hear and things to do over the next 30 days.

First is one of two Repertory Opera Company events, the fundraising concert “On Their Own” this Sunday at 2 p.m. at the First Christian Church of Pomona. It should be a good show.

The next item is a real choral concert, and the price is right (free), offered by the Mountainside Master Chorale in two weeks, at 3:30 p.m. on 11 August. This is called “Songs of Travel: Quebec Tour Concert,” for they are doing just that a couple of days later.

The next weekend has two events of much different natures happening simultaneously, at 5:00 p.m. on Sunday, 18 August. In Claremont, at St. Ambrose Episcopal Church, Francine Nguyen-Savaria will preside over the Voice and Polyphony workshop, followed by a fundraising meal. A few miles west, “The Manly Men of Opera” concert will celebrate the glories of low voices singing alone or all together, presented by the Repertory Opera Company of Pomona.

The last event to mention is an hour away from our area, but should be worth the trip for serious fans of William Byrd. The group Jouyssance is hosting a sing-along of the Byrd Mass for Four Voices at 3:00 p.m. on Sunday, 25 August, in St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church in West L.A. The church is located at 11555 National Blvd., West L.A.

The suggested donation is $15; if you want a score reserved, you should make contact via Facebook.

With no idea yet of something to tempt you to the ROC events, I have two other links to share. One is the Tallis Scholars singing the Agnus Dei of the Byrd Mass for Four Voices, and the other Stile Antico singing a piece by Thomas Campion that some friends of mine will get to share this weekend in Upland.

I’m a couple of days late here, but I’ve been a little busy with rehearsals and practice. Two persons who read the last post have sent in news of more music this coming weekend, now added to the list of musical possibilities below. That, friends, is how this is supposed to work – people with local musical stuff share it with others. So now the four organizations providing music this weekend include the Claremont Chorale, the Vineyard Touring Opera Company, the Mountainside Master Chorale and the La Verne Church of the Brethren.

The Between Two Colleges area (Rancho Cucamonga to Walnut) is about to go into the summer ‘season,’ where most choirs go dormant. Still, there is hope for local opportunities to engage in choral learning and listening. There is the possibility of a sight singing group in Ontario, and a vocal workshop now to be held in Claremont in August, both with choral singers in mind. Whenever there’s concrete news of these opportunities to share, they will be posted here. Until then, there are two Youtube links of basic vocal warm ups at the end of this page.

Please send your suggestions for summer choral learning and singing.

June Performances

Saturday, 8 June, 2:00 p.m., Vineyard Touring Opera Company, Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci and Act IV of Verdi’s Rigoletto, Claremont

Saturday, 8 June, 3:00 p.m., The Claremont Chorale, “Thirsting to Sing,” including music by Pinkham, Rutter, Verdi, Walker, Dickau, Petker, and others, in Claremont

Saturday, 8 June, 8:00 p.m., Vineyard Touring Opera Company, Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci and Act IV of Verdi’s Rigoletto, Claremont

Sunday, 9 June, 3:30 p.m., The Mountainside Master Chorale, Claremont, “Sure on This Shining Night: Music by American Composers,” with music by Lauridsen, Whitacre, Houston, Thompson, Stroope, and other, in Claremont

Sunday, 9 June, 3:30 p.m., The Claremont Symphony Orchestra, Fundraising concert with the Spectrum quartet, Claremont

Sunday 9 June, 7:00 p.m., La Verne Church of the Brethren Sanctuary Choir, “Crossin’ America Tour” Kick Off Concert, La Verne

Saturday, 22 June, 2 p.m., Repertory Opera Company, La Traviata by Giuseppe Verdi, in Pomona

Sunday, 23 June, 7 p.m., Southland Symphony Orchestra, “Spirit of America” with music of Copland, Gould, Sousa, Berlin, and others, in Ontario

Wednesday, 26 June, 7:30 p.m., Repertory Opera Company, La Traviata by Giuseppe Verdi, in Pomona

Friday, 28 June, 7:30 p.m., Repertory Opera Company, La Traviata by Giuseppe Verdi, in Pomona

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Here are a couple of links to basic warm ups for my friends in church (and other) choirs who haven’t had much vocal training. You might find these helpful to do before choir rehearsal or before morning service singing. As usual, other suggestions are welcome – feel free to use the comments function for your suggestions.

Chris Bruerton of the King’s Singers – three basic warm ups

Christopher Jacklin – vocal warm up exercises

The Between Two Colleges area will be chock full of music for the thirty days that begin this Thursday at Cal Poly. The list below has ten events in Pomona, Walnut, Claremont and Ontario featuring local chorales, college choirs, community orchestras and our area’s own opera company.

Curiouser and curiouser…as though a memo went out to local music people last year with a concert series theme, three of the groups in the upcoming concerts below seem to be part of a game of musical tag that began with the 17 February benefit concert, ‘If Music Be the Food Of Love.’ The Chaffey College choirs were ‘it’ next, in a concert of the same name, singing the piece by Dickau, ‘If Music Be The Food of Love,’ this time with text from Heveningham, not Shakespeare.

The Dickau piece and the same text set by Gwyneth Walker appear on the Claremont Chorale program about appetites that includes a popular paean to the pleasures of coffee drinking, and Verdi’s best known song about drinking stronger stuff. Meanwhile, the Cal Poly choirs will sing this coffee drinker’s favorite and more music on drinking in a program of common vices.

The last group to be ‘it’ in this mostly accidental concert series would be the Repertory Opera Company. (on 22, 26 & 28 June) as it presents the opera from which Verdi’s Brindisi comes, La Traviata. The ROC is sharing not only this song, but as circumstances have developed, sharing the stage with the Claremont Chorale, as its soloists join with the Chorale as it sings the music of Verdi on June 8.

Here’s to coincidence!

Choral Concerts and more, 30 May to 28 June

Thursday, 30 May, 8:00 p.m., Cal Poly Pomona Kellogg Chamber Singers and Concert Choir, in “The Usual Vices,” from drinking and dancing to desire.

Friday, 31 May, 8:00 p.m., Mount San Antonio College Chamber Singers and Concert Choir, ‘Spring Celebration of Choral Music,’ no program information available.

Saturday, 1 June, 8:00 p.m., Mount San Antonio College Chamber Singers and Concert Choir ‘Spring Celebration of Choral Music,’ no program information available.

Saturday, 8 June, 3:00 p.m., The Claremont Chorale, Claremont. “Thirsting to Sing,” including music by Pinkham, Rutter, Verdi, Walker, Dickau, Petker, and others.

Sunday, 9 June, 3:30 p.m., The Mountainside Master Chorale, Claremont, “Sure on This Shining Night: Music by American Composers” with music by Lauridsen, Whitacre, Houston, Thompson, Stroope, and others.

Sunday, 9 June, 3:30 p.m., The Claremont Symphony Orchestra, Fundraising concert with the Spectrum quartet, Claremont

Saturday, 22 June, 2 p.m., Repertory Opera Company, La Traviata by Giuseppe Verdi, in Pomona

Wednesday, 26 June, 7:30 p.m., Repertory Opera Company, La Traviata by Giuseppe Verdi, in Pomona

Sunday, 23 June, 7 p.m., Southland Symphony Orchestra, “Spirit of America” with music of Copland, Gould, Sousa, Berlin, and others, in Ontario

Friday, 28 June, 7:30 p.m., Repertory Opera Company, La Traviata by Giuseppe Verdi, in Pomona

The ‘May Basket’ appears to have been a hit and run reverse of today’s Halloween practices, with a basket of flowers or sweets left by children anonymously on neighbor’s doors. Our musical May Baskets are to be delivered on stages at Chaffey College and the University of La Verne in mid May, not May Day, with a mix of treats by Handel, Mendelssohn, Gershwin, Hogan, Hairston, Palestrina, Franklin, Morley, Tallis and more than a dozen other composers in a range of styles and periods from Renaissance Polyphony to modern Gospel. Dates and times for these concerts and those of other colleges and local chorales follow.

Saturday, 11 May, 7:30 p.m., Chaffey College Concert Choir, & Chaffey College Ensemble Singers – ‘If Music Be the Food of Love,’ Chaffey College Theatre. Music by Tallis, Palestrina, Morley, Sweelinck, Handel, Mendelssohn, Dickau, Hogan and others (call 909-652-6067 for more information)

Tuesday, 14 May, 7:30 p.m., University of La Verne Chamber Singers and ULV Gospel Trio, Anointed, in “I Am In Need of Music” Morgan Auditorium, University of La Verne . Music by Brunner, Davies, Gershwin, Hairston, Hogan, Franklin, Smallwood and others.

Thursday, 30 May, 8:00 p.m., Cal Poly Pomona Kellogg Chamber Singers and Concert Choir, in “The Usual Vices,” from drinking and dancing to desire.

Friday, 31 May, 8:00 p.m., Mount San Antonio College Chamber Singers and Concert Choir, ‘Spring Celebration of Choral Music,’ no program information available.

Saturday, 1 June, 8:00 p.m., Mount San Antonio College Chamber Singers and Concert Choir ‘Spring Celebration of Choral Music,’ no program information available.

Saturday, 8 June, 3:00 p.m., The Claremont Chorale, Claremont. “Thirsting to Sing,” including music by Pinkham, Rutter, Verdi, Walker, Dickau, Petker, and others.

Sunday, 9 June, 3:30 p.m., The Mountainside Master Chorale, Claremont, “Sure on This Shining Night.” Including music by Lauridsen, Whitacre, Houston, Thompson, Stroope, and others.

You may dispute the ‘Maying,’ in this heading, but it is certainly a month with a college choir focus. If you stretch the month just four days, starting four days ago at University of La Verne, you have every college choir in our area in concert in just five weeks.

The Pomona College Glee Club sang Thursday and will sing again Saturday afternoon, at 1:15 p.m. on 4 May, promising chamber music by Tallis, Hensel, Brahms, Verdi, Lauridsen, etc. Also Saturday, at 8 p.m. on 4 May, the Claremont Orchestra and Concert Choir will bring to Claremont the first of two performances of the Haydn oratorio ‘The Creation,’ with the second performance at 3 p.m. this Sunday, 5 May.

On Friday 10 May, at 12:15 p.m., the Friday at Noon concerts of the Claremont Colleges will feature the other chamber sized ensemble of the colleges, the Claremont Chamber Choir, in a program including music by Beethoven, Britten, Fanny Mendelssohn, Whitacre and others, also in Claremont.

The next day, on Saturday, 11 May, at 7:30 p.m., the Concert Choir and Ensemble Singers of Chaffey College are singing a program titled ‘If Music Be the Food of Love,’ that includes music by Tallis, Palestrina, Morley, Sweelinck, Handel, Mendelssohn, Dickau and Hogan at the Chaffey College Theatre (call 909-652-6067 for ticket and address information). You may remember a program with the same title but wholly different performers in February, a coincidence that also includes a couple of composers in common.

The next Tuesday night, on 14 May, the University of La Verne choral ensembles will be holding their Spring Choral Concert at 7:30 p.m. in Morgan Auditorium at ULV. Program details are unavailable at this time.

The western end of the area between two colleges brings up the end of this spate of concerts with Cal Poly Pomona’s Kellogg Chamber Singers and Concert Choir singing at 8:00 p.m. on Thursday, 30 May, and the Mount San Antonio College Chamber Singers and Concert Choir singing two concerts, first at 8:00 p.m. on Saturday, 31 May, then again at 8:00 p.m., Saturday, 1 June. Details regarding these programs are not yet available.

There you have it – seven colleges, twelve choral ensembles, and eleven concerts in 35 days.

Enjoy!

The discovered theme for April choral music ‘between two colleges’ happily turns out to be choral collaboration, for three of five programs in the month involve at least two different choirs.

First, with the most choirs and ensembles of the five April programs, though perhaps not more singers, is the benefit concert ‘Bread On The Waters: feeding hope through song,’ at the First United Methodist Church of Upland (262 N. Euclid Ave., Upland) at 4 p.m. on Sunday 14 April. The concert features church choirs from Upland, Colton, Cucamonga, and Ontario, plus two local a cappella choruses and the Repertory Opera Company of Pomona. The free will donations given will go to support area hunger relief, in particular the work of the Inland Valley Hope Partners. Expect choral anthems, spirituals, Renaissance polyphony, and opera music, too.

At ‘Bread On The Waters,’ you may expect the Repertory Opera Company to present a preview of its own production of Mozart’s Magic Flute, which is to follow at 3 p.m. the following Saturday, 20 April, at the First Christian Church of Pomona.

On 23 April, the Musician’s Club of Pomona Valley program at Pilgrim Congregational Church is another example of choral cooperation,with the PCC choir offering ‘Gloria,’ by Mark Hayes, being joined by a number of guests usually singing with local chorales, and by the local a cappella ensemble that shares a name with this page doing a short program of its own. A further offering of the Hayes work, with chamber orchestra will be in the 28 April services at PCC.

The Pomona College Choir and Orchestra will perform the Brahms Nänie and the Haydn Mass in B-flat, “Theresienmesse,” the next weekend, first at 8 p.m. on Friday, 26 April, then again at 3 p.m. on Sunday, 28 April at Pomona College’s Bridges Hall of Music (aka Little Bridges), in Claremont.

That leaves one last local at least partly choral event in April at the University of La Verne, where the ULV music department will present “Gospel Fusion: Gershwin and Beyond,” at 8 p.m., Monday, 29 April, a program that includes both the University of La Verne Choir and the Kol HaEmek Choir of Covina among others.

Enjoy

The Mozart I heard last week was just the advance guard of a spring surge of choir, a tide that peaks over the last nine days of March, beginning with the Claremont Chorale this Saturday and ending Easter afternoon. The list of concerts and church services with choir is only a fraction of what’s happening in the between two colleges area, from Rancho Cucamonga to Walnut and nearby. New services (or concerts) will be added when possible. However, if you know of special music by a choir in our area by the end of the month, you can tell us about it by making a comment on this posting.

Saturday, 23 March
3:00 p.m., The Claremont Chorale, The Seasons by Haydn, in Claremont
5:00 p.m., St. Joseph Catholic Church, Upland, English service with choir
7:00 p.m., St. Joseph Catholic Church, Upland, Spanish with choir

Sunday, 24 March – Palm Sunday
8:30 a.m., Grace Lutheran Church, Upland; Stabat Mater by Verdi.; Passion story with children’s singing interspersed.
9:00 a.m., Claremont United Methodist Church, service with choir
9:00 a.m., St. Joseph Catholic Church, Upland, English service with choir
9:30 a.m., Cucamonga United Methodist Church, service with choir
10:00 a.m., Bethel United Church of Christ, Ontario, service with choir
10:00 a.m., Claremont Presbyterian Church, St. John Passion by Ferguson
10:00 a.m., First Presbyterian Church of Upland, service with choir
10:00 a.m., La Verne United Methodist Church, A Celtic Hosanna by Martin;
10:00 a.m., Saint Ambrose Episcopal Church, Claremont, service with choir
10:00 a.m., Pilgrim Congregational Church, Pomona, Ride on King Jesus, Hogan
10:00 a.m., Trinity United Methodist Church, Ontario, English/Spanish service with choir
10:15 a.m.; Upland Brethren in Christ Church, choir joined by Debbie & Jerry Burgan of the group We Five
10:30 a.m., Ontario First United Methodist Church, service with choir
10:30 a.m., San Dimas United Methodist Church, service with choir
10:45 a.m., Claremont United Methodist Church, service with choir
10:45 a.m., Ontario First Church of the Nazarene, service with Sanctuary choir
11:00 a.m., Grace Lutheran Church, Upland; Stabat Mater, by Verdi; Passion story with children’s singing interspersed.
11:00 a.m., St. Joseph Catholic Church, Upland, English service with choir
11:15 a.m., St. Joseph Catholic Church, Upland, English service with choir, Parish Hall
1:00 p.m., St. Joseph Catholic Church, Upland, Spanish service with choir
1:15 p.m., St. Joseph Catholic Church, Upland, Spanish with choir, Parish Hall
4:00 p.m., Mountainside Master Chorale, Lux Aeterna Dubois and Lauridsen, Claremont
5:30 p.m., St. Joseph Catholic Church, Upland, English youth mass with choir
6:00 p.m. New Song Ladies Choir, Cal-Baptist University at First Presbyterian Church, Upland

Thursday, 28 March
6:00 p.m., Saint Ambrose Episcopal Church, Claremont, O taste and see, Vaughan Williams
6:00 p.m., St Mark’s Episcopal Church, Upland, service with choir
6:45 p.m., First Christian Church Pomona, service with choir
7:00 p.m., Cucamonga United Methodist Church, part of Harvest Of Sorrows, by Martin
7:00 p.m., St. John’s Episcopal Church in La Verne, service with choir
7:30 p.m., Claremont United Methodist Church, service with choir
7:30 p.m., Pilgrim Congregational Church, Pomona, service with choir

Friday, 29 March
6:00 p.m., First Presbyterian Church of Upland, service with choir
6:00 p.m., Trinity United Methodist Church, Ontario, English/Spanish service with choir;
7:00 p.m., Cucamonga United Methodist Church, part of Harvest Of Sorrows, by Martin
7:00 p.m., Ontario First United Methodist Church, service with choir
7:00 p.m., St. John’s Episcopal Church in La Verne, service with choir
7:00 p.m., Upland Brethren in Christ Church, Tenabrae Service with choir, instrumentalists, and readers
7:00 p.m., San Dimas United Methodist Church with La Verne United Methodist Church, at San Dimas UMC, Canticle of the Cross by Martin, sung by the combined choirs
7:00 p.m., St Mark’s Episcopal Church, Upland, service with choir

Saturday, 30 March
7:00 p.m., St Mark’s Episcopal Church, Upland, Easter Vigil service with choir
7:30 p.m. Claremont United Methodist Church, Easter Vigil to 9:30 p.m., Sanctuary choir, children and dance choirs

Sunday, 31 March – Easter Sunday
8:00 a.m., St. John’s Episcopal Church in La Verne, service with choir
8:00 a.m., St Mark’s Episcopal Church, Upland, Easter Eucharist with choir
8:30 a.m., Claremont Presbyterian Church, service with choir
8:30 a.m., Grace Lutheran Church, Upland; Five Mystical Songs, by Vaughan Williams to poetry of George Herbert
9:00 a.m., Claremont United Methodist Church, service with choir
9:00 a.m., Ontario First Church of the Nazarene, Upon This Rock by Choplin, Sanctuary choir plus instrumental ensemble
9:00 a.m., St. Joseph Catholic Church, Upland, English service with choir
9:15 a.m., St. Joseph Catholic Church, Upland, English service with choir, Parish Hall
9:30 a.m., First United Methodist Church, Upland, Upon This Rock by Choplin
9:30 a.m., Cucamonga United Methodist Church, service with choir
10:00 a.m., Bethel United Church of Christ, Ontario, service with choir
10:00 a.m., Claremont Presbyterian Church, service with choir
10:00 a.m., First Christian Church Pomona, service with choir
10:00 a.m. First Presbyterian Church of Upland, choir and chamber orchestra
10:00 a.m., La Verne Church of the Brethren, Sanctuary choir
10:00 a.m., La Verne United Methodist Church, Hallelujah Chorus by Handel, One Faith, One Hope, One Lord, by Courtney
10:00 a.m., Pilgrim Congregational Church, Pomona, God’s Right Hand and Holy Arm, Scott
10:00 a.m., Saint Ambrose Episcopal Church, Claremont, He is Risen, and Alleluia, Mawby, choir and brass
10:00 a.m., St. John’s Episcopal Church in La Verne, service with choir
10:00 a.m., St Mark’s Episcopal, Church Upland, Easter Eucharist with choir
10:00 a.m., Trinity United Methodist Church, Ontario, English/Spanish service with choir
10:00 a.m., Upland Brethren in Christ Church, Gloria in excelsis Deo, by Vivaldi, The Heavens Are Telling; Christ the Lord is Risen Today; orchestral ensemble, choir and contemporary band
10:30 a.m., Ontario First United Methodist Church, service with choir
10:30 a.m., San Dimas United Methodist Church, service with choir
11:00 a.m., Claremont United Methodist Church, service with choir
11:00 a.m., Grace Lutheran Church, Upland; Five Mystical Songs, by Vaughan Williams to poetry of George Herbert
11:00 a.m., Ontario First Church of the Nazarene, Upon This Rock by Choplin, Sanctuary choir plus instrumental ensemble
11:00 a.m., St. Joseph Catholic Church, Upland, English service with choir
11:15 a.m., St. Joseph Catholic Church, Upland, English service with choir, Parish Hall
1:00 p.m., St. Joseph Catholic Church, Upland, Spanish service with choir
1:15 p.m., St. Joseph Catholic Church, Upland, Spanish service with choir, Parish Hall

March is almost ‘icumen in,’ though we’re still shy a few hours. February hasn’t been totally lacking for singing satisfaction (friends of mine made it possible for me to enjoy some Morley, Tallis, Campion and Byrd), but the next 31 days will offer choral singing in much larger doses, no more than on the 31st day of the month, Easter. With some digging and cooperation of others, a list of various cantatas and great works will appear in a couple of weeks, likely including music by Handel, but also plenty of anthems and cantatas, etc., by lesser known composers, some of whom are still breathing.

If you happen to be singing some of this special music somewhere ‘between two colleges,’ say from Rancho Cucamonga to the east and Walnut to the west, you are invited to send in your information so that others may read of your efforts.

In the meantime, you can start filling out your choral dance card with Mozart, and Cal Poly Pomona in La Verne on 9 March, then Haydn, with the Claremont Chorale, in Claremont on 23 March, and, on Palm Sunday, 24 March, Dubois and Lauridsen courtesy of the Mountainside Master Chorale.

I thought I’d end this sneak peek at upcoming events with a touch of the Mozart Requiem, here with Sir Colin Davis and the Bavarian State Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. Enjoy

No purely choral events this month, but there’s a nice span of time and types of music to sample for those inclined. First, the Repertory Opera Company (more on them in a moment) is presenting “Serenades of Love,” a concert of duets and choruses appropriate for Valentine’s Day this Sunday, 10 February, at 4 p.m. in Pomona. There will be music of Mozart and Rogers and Hammerstein, Bizet, Rodgers and Hart, and more.

The next weekend, at 5 p.m. on Sunday, 17 February, a benefit concert titled “If Music Be the Food of Love” will feature a variety of small ensembles performing mostly early music in support of the homeless ministries of the Cucamonga United Methodist Church. The ensembles include the Gregorian Schola of Los Angeles, the Ad Hoc Consort, the Village Pipers of Claremont, and the Renaissance Club. You should expect Gregorian chant, Renaissance dance, sacred and secular music spanning centuries before Bach. The location is the Cucamonga United Methodist Church on Archibald Ave. in Rancho Cucamonga. There will be a free will offering.

The last known (to me) bit of choir outside of worship and between two colleges this month will be when the Chino UMC Sanctuary choir joins the 26 February Pomona Valley Musicians’ Club on Tuesday, 26 February at 7:30 p.m. in the Musicians’ Club program “Leprechauns and Lassies… or Airs from the Isles.” There will be tenor, piano, harp, tin whistle and choir. I think the kilts will be imaginary. The location will be the Chino United Methodist Church.

Of course, the bulk of choral music this month will be in the service of God, and some of it will fall next Wednesday, being Ash Wednesday. Unlike Christmas Eve. Palm Sunday and Easter, however, these services are not trumpeted, and I’ve no idea of who is doing what or where. If you’re singing that evening, I hope the music is both meaningful and beautiful.

My last note is a salute to the work of the Repertory Opera Company for its ingenuity and perseverance in outreach and cooperation (although they will probably call their efforts promotion, not outreach). In the last three years the ROC has initiated program ad exchanges with both of the local chorales, among others; it has taken the opportunity to join in at least one multiple church choir benefit concert for local hunger relief, helping make that event a success; it has also found a grant to fund and execute a special opera performance for a couple hundred Pomona high school students, helping to expose students to the kinds of music they would be unlikely to hear otherwise. In doing these things, the Repertory Opera Company has been setting an example in how to do good with others for the good of all, even while exposing others to their particular art.

My musical link for this week is a little encouragement from Thomas Morley for our art by way of the the King’s Singers:

Sing We and Chant It

Here’s the mid-season concert lull, with a background humming of college choirs and local chorales preparing for major March concerts, and the dozens of local church choirs about to enter Lent leading inexorably to their Easter musical peak. With this hum of choirs hard at work let’s take advantage of the lull to think about ‘us’ and ‘them.’

This ‘us and them’ business is not just for teens and politicians; it’s for anyone who deciding who to trust, who to ask for help or who to help. We are always asking, consciously or unconsciously, who is our friend, our colleague, our neighbor

Who is our choral neighbor? Late last month, at 4 p.m. on 23 December, close to 600 people joined in the annual Messiah Sing Along of the Claremont Symphony Orchestra at ‘Little Bridges’ in Claremont, for the second performance of the afternoon. That afternoon more than a thousand people shared an experience of being in a large choir singing the music of Handel. Were we a community? Maybe yes, maybe no, but we who were there are certainly neighbors in some larger community.

The same day of the Messiah sing along NPR broadcast a story of a very different kind of ad hoc choral group (Choir! Choir! Choir!). The setting was not a concert hall, but a bar in Toronto. The music was not close to Handel, but older pop/rock songs arranged simply for amateur choral singing. There’s no orchestra, just a guitar. and, instead of an annual event with a thousand people, around a hundred young adults show up every week to join in the experience of singing chorally with others.

Imagine that these two ad hoc choirs existed only ten miles apart, not two thousand. Would our two groups of singers belong to a common community? Would we be neighbors? I think we would, despite differing ages and musical tastes, because of a characteristic we share: the feeling comes from the act of singing together. Young or old, religious or irreligious, popular or traditional choral music, there is something in that which we share.

What does this have to do with your choir or mine? Can the ensembles with which I sing be good neighbors to yours? Can we help each other in any way? Can we cooperate for our mutual good or for the good of our community however we define it? If you take the time to search the Internet for chorales doing outreach (try using ‘chorale outreach site:org’ for search terms), you will find that many ensembles answer this with a ‘yes.’