In Which We Sweat and Sing
Written by Adam Robertson, Bass in Pro Coro Canada
The piercing alarm coming from the TV in the lobby of the Don Valley Hotel & Suites made me snap my head around in surprise. When the clerk at the front desk told me that the cacophony was in fact a tornado warning, I thought for a moment (maybe with a little hope in my heart?) that the afternoon’s workshop with Modern Sound Collective might be cancelled. The first three days of tour had been wall-to-wall travel and singing, and, while exhilarating, was also exhausting. This morning was the first real time we’d had for mental and vocal rest, and it’s all too easy to get addicted to time off! Of course, being scared of a tornado sweeping me away was foolishness. While I might be a friend of Dorothy, I was not the diva herself, and I knew the odds of one landing were slim, so it was off to the workshop.
Coordinating through our trusty WhatsApp group chat, the choir piled into various Ubers and made our way to Trinity-St. Paul’s United Church in the heart of downtown Toronto. The church is a hub of musical activity in the city. Boasting an imposing Neo-Romanesque exterior, it has hosted countless concerts, festivals, conferences, and plays home to numerous renowned ensembles and organizations such as the Tafelmusik Baroque Chamber Choir and Orchestra, the Toronto Consort (another early music ensemble), and VIVA Singers (an organization comprising seven different choirs). Needless to say, we were excited to be part of the building’s story over the next two days.
For the next four hours we would be working with five guest conductors and singing with several choristers from Modern Sound Collective (MSC), a choral organization run by youth, for youth, whose goal is to nurture and inspire young artists through music and professional development opportunities. Though Pro Coro had arrived in the afternoon, Michael had been there all morning. While we were enjoying time off (and severe weather), he had been workshopping with the guest conductors.
Upon entering Trinity-St. Paul’s, I navigated the halls (why are old churches so labyrinthian?) to the sanctuary to discover that this space’s identity as one of the foremost choral performance spaces in the city was well-deserved. Auditorium seating on the floor, amphitheatre style seating in the balcony, comfortable seats, oak floors (oak everywhere, actually) - the acoustics were fabulous. It was also a sauna. The muggy, tornado-conducive air that oppressed Toronto that morning changed not at all upon stepping into the sanctuary. We now understood why Michael had warned us before we left the hotel to bring towels with us to mop up perspiration. I should have listened.
Pro Coro gathered on stage, in chairs, in front of the organ façade at the front of the sanctuary. We split into 4 rows instead of our customary two, making room for members of MSC who would be singing among us, and settled in for, what I was afraid would be, an extremely long workshop. I needn’t have worried - the time flew by (sticky air notwithstanding). The five conductors, each assigned a piece of music beforehand, took turns working on their piece with Pro Coro. While many members of the choir had sung some (or all) of these pieces before, we had barely rehearsed them prior to the workshop, so we were more or less a blank slate for each conductor. Following a sing-through of each piece, the conductor would rehearse certain elements of the work, during which Michael would interject with questions, tips, or words of wisdom.
It was fascinating to watch Michael work with these emerging artists, to challenge them to think and communicate in new ways; and it was fun to sing for these conductors, to watch them take risks and experiment with their music making. Often Michael would ask a conductor to begin a phrase, then immediately stop them and ask them to make a different choice. As a person with a doctorate in conducting myself (thus, having been in that position many times), I got more than a little delight out of seeing the somewhat panicked look in their eyes as they were asked to find a sixth and seventh “different” approach.
Before we knew it, the time was up. Following the workshop, the choir’s evening was free, so many of us went our separate ways, whether that was to Insomnia for a Corpse Reviver (dinner and a show – highly recommend), to a sports bar to watch the World Cup, or to BMV for a mountain of books and comics to satisfy the nerd in you (ok, me).
As I sit in the hotel and write this blog, a particular moment of the workshop stands out to me: Michael ended the session with a short rehearsal of a relatively new work: Nicholas Kelly’s “Wind Rising in the Alleys,” with which no one in the choir was familiar. In 20 minutes it was ready for performance. This perhaps encapsulates why I feel so privileged to sing in a professional ensemble: the joy of discovering new music, the rush of putting together of a new piece quickly, education from a master conductor, and being able to play a part (even a small one) in the developmental journey of young artists. It’s worth braving tornadoes for.