Chorus Angelicus: Still Singing after Thirty Years
Chorus Angelicus: Still Singing after Thirty Years
“The kids spend three hours a week in rehearsals,” says Bethany Lee, Program Director of Joyful Noise, about Chorus Angelicus, the nonprofit’s children’s choir. “It’s a big commitment.”
Commitment, it turns out, is part of the point.
Chorus Angelicus was founded in 1991 and joined a year later in 1992 by Gaudeamus, an adult chamber choir that is also part of Joyful Noise. The organization is the brainchild of Paul Halley, award-winning composer and keyboardist, who, according to Lee, drew inspiration for the project from the structure of traditional English children’s choirs.
“Halley modeled this choir on ones where the boys would start at a young age and work their way up to the adult choir,” she says. “He started the organization for his own kids to grow up with.” Thirty years later, Chorus Angelicus is still going strong, with many of its choristers still starting in early childhood and staying with the program into their teens.
Lee herself, like founder Paul Halley, is also committed to Joyful Noise both as a devoted staff member and as a devoted parent: her own daughter, now thirteen, began singing with Chorus Angelicus at five years old.
“I could see the difference that it made for her in other subjects,” Lee says. According to her, learning to read music helped to develop her daughter’s math skills, while the structure of Chorus Angelicus helped her in other ways. “It’s a big responsibility and commitment for children, but it teaches them a lot - to be places on time, to have their music, to be presentable. These are valuable skills for them.”
Other staff at Chorus Angelicus have similarly deep links to childhood music education. Dr. Gabriel Löfvall, the Artistic Director, was a member of the Boy’s Choir at the National University of Cuyo as a child, and Andrew Skinner, the Junior Choir Director and Director of Technology, is currently the choral director at Torrington Middle School.
From this well of experience and dedication comes the choir’s careful approach to developing the childrens’ talent. Writer Karen L. Bruno has noted that it is possible for choirs to train technically proficient singers without necessarily giving outlet to their choristers’ own creativity. She argues that choral programs that choose high-quality, challenging music and encourage children to share their own interpretations and understandings of pieces “empower singers to bring their full, human selves to rehearsal, thereby building a stronger community of singers.” [1]
The staff at Chorus Angelicus seem to embrace this philosophy, going to great lengths to both expose their children to the best of what the music world has to offer and ensure that those same children are comfortable offering up their own thoughts and ideas.
“Chorus Angelicus produces concerts at which the young singers share stage with professional musicians, both singers and instrumentalists,” says Dr. Löfvall. “They spend numerous hours of rehearsal and performance time, during which the choristers interact with their older cohort, establishing an atmosphere of learning, cooperation, community building, and deep artistic collaboration.”
In part due to the prestige of the program’s founder, Chorus Angelicus is fortunate to be able to draw on an international network of composers and musicians. Although international travel has been impossible during the pandemic, staff plan to reintroduce this element of the program with a tour to Ireland in 2023.
“Our approach to music education is shaped by these realities,” Dr. Löfvall continues. “The artistic staff at Chorus Angelicus is aware of the fact that personal creative development is critical to the formation of a truly all-encompassing musician/artist, and we make an efforts to acknowledge the individuality of each one of our choristers and to advance it by connecting them to the right colleagues in our fields (voice teachers, composers, instrumentalists, and the like.) The power of collaboration and teamwork is irrefutable and we foster it methodically at Chorus Angelicus.”
On a more personal level, staff go above and beyond to make sure that the environment at Chorus Angelicus is one where children feel comfortable and confident being themselves. Karen Sovak, the retired Angels in Training Program Director, remembers how the Training Choir helped children to overcome shyness and anxiety. “The curriculum for this age group includes a time for snacks and conversation and ends with musical games,” she says. “The children go out the door excited, happy and anxious to share with their families. One reserved child exclaimed after their first performance, ‘That was fun! I want to do it all over again!’ Overcoming fear and enjoying social interactions is huge!”
Despite these efforts, the pandemic has not been an easy time for Chorus Angelicus. With choir-related COVID-19 outbreaks like the superspreader event at the Skagit Valley Chorale becoming national news in March 2020 [2] and controversy lingering within the public health community on the transmission of COVID-19 by aerosols versus respiratory droplets and the appropriate corresponding safety measures [3], safe, in-person choir practice became basically impossible.
“Last season, we did everything online: Zoom rehearsals, virtual concerts, virtual recitals. They were hugely successful,” says Lee, with a laugh, “but no one wanted to do them again. We’re actually at our lowest ever enrollment numbers right now.”
Nevertheless, Lee emphasizes that staff members found ways to turn the pandemic into an educational experience for the children, especially Andrew Skinner, who started work with Chorus Angelicus just before the beginning of the pandemic. His work as Director of Technology was essential to operations during lockdown. “My daughter learned computer skills that she otherwise wouldn’t have been exposed to,” Lee says, explaining that Skinner helped to teach the children to make virtual choir videos by recording themselves individually and then editing them together. “It’s a big deal to learn these things.”
Now more than ever, as pandemic lockdown restrictions lift, staff at Joyful Noise are working hard to make it possible for students to sing together again as they resume in-person rehearsals and shows.
The staff is also working to try and make the choir more accessible to residents of the Litchfield Hills. “The head of our board and I have been working together to make Chorus Angelicus more of a presence in Torrington,” says Lee, “and we’d like more Torrington kids to be joining the choir.” Although confusion over social distancing requirements has made outreach to area schools somewhat difficult, Lee is hopeful that they will start to see enrollment numbers start to rise again in the future.
Lee is also proud to have recently overseen the restructuring of the choir’s financial aid program in order to make it more accessible and easier to navigate. “The process of applying for financial aid was so painful and awful,” she says, “so I revamped it. Now it’s a sliding-scale based process, and it’s super easy to apply.
“I don’t want anyone to ever feel uncomfortable asking for help. I know it’s hard because I’ve been there myself,” she continued, “but we don’t turn anyone away.”
In the past, Chorus Angelicus has been able to perform at venues around the world and to premiere a variety of choral pieces for live audiences. During the pandemic, these parts of their operations have become largely impossible, and they have also had to cut back on their upcoming season, cancelling a Thanksgiving show. Nevertheless, Lee and other staff members are still committed to the mission of Chorus Angelicus. “The goal is for these kids to be passionate about music,” Lee says. “Music is something that brings everyone together. It heals people, and it can be very powerful. We really strive to produce a high-caliber experience for the kids.”
In-person practices resumed in mid-September, and the choir is looking forward to kicking off its 2021 season with a performance of Gabriel Fauré's Requiem at 4:00 PM on Saturday, October 30 at Trinity Episcopal Church in Torrington.
-
To learn more about upcoming Chorus Angelicus events, view their calendar at
https://www.chorusangelicus.com/calendar-of-events.
-
Sources
[1] “Creativity and Artistry in the Children’s Choir Rehearsal” by Karen L. Bruno.
The Choral Journal,
March 2016, pp. 34-42.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/24643170
[2] “A choir decided to go ahead with rehearsal. Now dozens of members have COVID and two are dead” by Richard Reed. Los Angeles Times, March 29, 2020. https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-03-29/coronavirus-choir-outbreak
[3] “Droplets vs. Aerosols: What’s more important in COVID-19 spread?” by Amanda D’Ambrosio.
Medpage Today, May 13, 2021.
https://www.medpagetoday.com/special-reports/exclusives/92564
