The long-awaited choir blog post!

Well at least Amy has been waiting for a post about my choir. The title probably scared the rest of you away. But never fear! This isn't going to be some dorky rant about choir music (although Sable from Belle Canto does have a dorky choir blog and it's AWESOME if you're into that sort of thing. It's called The Choir Girl Blog). Anyway, my new choir has been a fantastic experience not just musically but it has also helped me see how good and kind people can be.

For those of you who don't know, I have been singing with the same choir since I was 15. It's a small women's choir called Belle Canto. Not to brag, but, well I guess I'll brag bit. Belle Canto is really good. We've competed all over Europe. We routinely win national competitions. But all that aside, they are one of the smartest, coolest groups of women I've ever been in. I know what you're thinking... choir girls? Cool? Impossible! Well we may not be cool in a high school, mean-girls kind of way but they really are fabulous women and I miss them terribly.

So one of the things that I definitely wanted to do here in L.A. was find a choir to sing in. The fantastic thing about living in a giant city is that there are opportunities to do everything! I googled choirs before we even came here. The first thing that came up was the Gay Men's Chorus of L.A. I figured I wasn't wanted since I'm neither gay, nor a man. They did, however just allow two straight men to join the group. Shocking! The next choir that came up was a big mixed voice (meaning men and women) choir. It had a fairly simple name like Los Angeles Chamber Choir or something but I couldn't help noticing as I looked at the website that every person in the choir was Asian. It wasn't mentioned anywhere but once again I had the sneaking suspicion that I wasn't wanted.

So after much googling I found a small women's choir called Namaste. There were about 20 women in the group and they were all about my age. Sound familiar? It was like Belle Canto all over again. The only glaring difference was that it was a bit more touchy-feely and I was guessing a bit less serious. Last year they had a yoga concert where the choir sang and the audience did yoga. Isn't that so fabulously L.A.? Well it turns out the Namaste choir was going through a transition and weren't going to be singing this year. The conductor pointed me in the direction of Angel City Chorale which is the choir that I now call mine (although I still refer to Belle Canto as "my choir" too which confuses David greatly).

The audition was a bit nerve-wracking because I am not used to singing alone. I'm in a choir for a reason! I was so nervous but the audition went well. The conductor asked if I had perfect pitch! Ha! I way really proud of myself for auditioning though and forcing myself out of my comfort zone (i.e., back-up singer for the fabulous singers in Belle Canto).

Angel City Chorale or ACC is a choir of 150 with both men and women so it is a far cry from what I'm used to. The conductor is a tiny spark of a women of an unidentifiable age. She looks to be about 50 or 60 but she's got the energy of a 4 year old. She's also hilarious which makes rehearsals really fun. The people in the choir are without a doubt the nicest people I've ever met. They go out of their way to make new people feel welcome. There is a man with autism in the choir who constantly hugs people and has a fascination with Swedish vocabulary. He has a tendency to stare but you get used to him. There is also a blind man named Guillermo with a fabulous tenor voice. In concert we stand in different places than we rehearse in so everyone ends up standing by someone new. One of the loveliest moments of the concert for me was when one of the men lightly touched Guillermo on the shoulder and said "it's Bill. I'm standing right behind you so let me know if you need anything".

Rehearsals started in September to prepare for a holiday concert in December. By November I must admit I was getting a bit annoyed and nervous. I'm used to singing in a choir with fabulous sight-readers so not a lot of time is spent actually learning notes. I felt like the 3rd month with ACC was spent listening to the basses learn their notes. I was also worried that the concert was going to suck. We sounded kind of terrible. I didn't think we were going to pull it together. I knew the concert would be fun because the music was really audience-friendly but if I had been able to invite any of the ladies from Belle Canto to the concert I would have probably warned them that it was not going to be a stellar concert.

Well amazingly we did manage to pull it together. The concert was not only really fun but also really good! The conductor had a really casual, affable connection to the audience. When a baby in the audience squawked or the trumpet screwed up she made a joke of it to cut the tension. The music we sang was a great mix of classical and modern pieces. One of the best things about singing in a choir in L.A. (and about L.A. in general) is the diversity. It was so great to sing gospel songs with actual black people! Hannukah songs with actual Jewish people! We even sang a Jewish gospel song!

David brought Asha to the concert and I had taught her the chorus for Angels We Have Heard on High ahead of time which was one of the audience sing-alongs. It was just about the cutest thing ever to see her belting out Latin in the audience.

Last weekend the choir did their 15th annual Tour of Hope which is an all-day event where we go around L.A. to sing to various groups of people in need. We started out on Skid Row (yes, it's actually a place and not just a band from the early 90's) and went on to a retirement home, a home for teenage mothers, and a place for families transitioning out of homelessness. We ended the day with a concert in a church where several groups of people were bussed in. This included women who have escaped abusive relationships, veterans, and people in recovery from addiction. It was truly a life-changing day. When we sang O Holy Night there were several men with tears in their eyes. I don't know if these men were veterans or ex-addicts but either way, they had been through unimaginable things and what we sang had touched them.

So despite a little bit of frustration with the bass section and the choir's inability to pronounce Latin correctly (did I mention that? Despite my efforts to be open-minded I'm still a bit of a choir snob) my experience with Angel City Chorale has been amazing. I've met some great people and have had some wonderful experiences. The Namaste choir might still be doing a yoga concert in a few months and I think I'll do that too. It's an experience, right? I'm trying to stay open-minded. Although did I mention that ACC do the hokey pokey before every concert? That was a bit too much for me...