#14daysofkokokopelli
I am part of a choir family known, for at least a little bit longer, as the Kokopelli Choir Association. (The “a little bit longer” is another story, one that I will share more about soon!)
It’s been hard year, a hard season, for our choirs… for all choirs. No concerts in person. Our gatherings basically all online, on Zoom. But as vaccination rates rise and restrictions lift, we are optimistically looking towards a new season that will be in person again. Concert venues have been tentatively booked. I’m feeling some hope.
As part of our looking forward to the fall, wanting to get the word out, call back choristers who took time away during the pandemic, recruit new singers, build ourselves back up again, we started the #14daysofkokopelli campaign on social media… a different topic or theme every day for 14 days.
I thought I’d pull together my 14 days here…
#14DaysOfKokopelli #SingWithUs
Day 1 – Choir Uniforms
This kid is how I ended up in choir.
Many moons ago, he joined Kokopelli Choirs’ then-newest kids choir, Kikimasu, and it was amazing. I watched them for years, along with all the other choirs, until finally I had to get in on the fun and joined Òran, our “young adult” choir and now one of three adult choirs in our organization.
Last year, right before the pandemic shut everything down, I sang in my very first concert with the kid since he “graduated” to Òran — *our* choir now — and for the first, and so far only, time, we got to wear the same uniform as we shared the stage.
Day 2 – Tours
As a recovering band nerd – although seriously, who ever recovers from that? – I have so many fond memories of band tours from my youth. Imagine my delight to discover as an adult that choirs go on tours too? Who knew?
In my first year of Òran, I had the delight and privilege of performing in Halifax, Nova Scotia, at Podium 2014, Choral Canada - Canada Choral's biennial choir festival and conference, with this wonderful crew. We premiered "Don't Be Afraid" and sang a song with puppets. We choir-bombed a restaurant and a film festival. I ate a lot of lobster rolls.
I'm looking forward to, someday, doing our next choir tour. But in the meantime, I will be more than happy to just maybe have in-person choir next season!
#14daysofkokopelli #singwithus #kokopellichoirs
Day 3 – Our Values
I have this sticker of Kokopelli Choirs' values stuck on the inside of my choir folder. It reads:
we are a community
we are learners
we strive to be artists
we explore music's meaning
we cultivate gratitude
we practice optimism
we exercise self-discipline
we celebrate vulnerability
we seek diversity
we sing with open hearts
because our music is both important and beautiful
These days, especially with all the cutbacks to the arts and arts education we are seeing around us, it is that last statement that rings loudest with me: "because our music is both important and beautiful"
#14daysofkokopelli #singwithus #sing
Day 4 – Friendship
A little late for Day 4 of #14daysofkokopelli, on the theme of friendship, because I've honestly been at a loss for words...
So instead, if you're ever interested, ask me about these pictures some time, when we've got a few hours for me to find my words...
#comesingwithus
Day 5 – Musical Education
I have learned so much through my time with Kokopelli Choirs, some of it even related to music!
I remember in my first year in choir, a weekend workshop on music and movement from southern Africa, learning music shared with us from sibling choirs such as the University of Pretoria Youth Choir and the Mascato Youth Choir. Two or three hundred of us, of all ages, together learning something many of us had never experienced before.
Since then there have been workshops on the physiology of singing, the International Phonetic Alphabet, puppetry, improv, breathing, managing stage fright, sightsinging, vocal technique, and learning about music from so many different cultures and traditions from around the world... to list just some of the topics I can recall off the top of my head.
One of our value statements says "we are learners" and we definitely live that one.
#14daysofkokopelli #lifelonglearning #singwithus
Day 6 – Pins and Awards
When I started in Òran, basically new to choir, surrounded by all these amazing singers, many of whom had been in choirs for most of their lives, I felt pretty out of place, to be honest. I also happened to be at the start of a sort of five-year “plan” to navigate some other major changes in my life, so I was feeling kind of out of place everywhere actually.
That feeling did not last very long.
Fast forward those five years, and I remember hearing my name called to go up and get my five-year pin. Before our first concert every season, in the green room, we do a very informal pin “ceremony,” recognizing our new members with their Òran pin for their uniform and celebrating anniversaries for everyone else. Some people were getting their twenty-year pins that day. But getting my five-year pin was huge for me.
On the one hand it felt like an important marker of five particularly significant years in my life. On the other, it hadn’t felt like any time had passed at all. In fact I sometimes have trouble remembering I’d even had a life without choir in it.
I haven’t had a chance to wear my pins or my uniform since the Before Times, but we have high hopes for the 2021-2022 season!
#14daysofkokopelli #singwithus #getpinned
Day 7 – Volunteering
During my time with Kokopelli Choirs, I have, among other things, been a chaperone on choir tours and at camp, handed out programs, climbed into church rafters to set up and tear down lights at concerts, sorted and delivered chocolate, welcomed new and returning choristers at registration nights, and soooo much driving and carpooling.
For the last six years, I've also had the privilege of serving as the president of the Kokopelli Choir Association, which means I'm perhaps best known for announcing to all our concert goers where the bathrooms are at McDougall United Church.
But all joking aside, and in this last year in particular, it has been quite the thing to see up close the incredible work our artistic staff, volunteers, and my fellow board members have been doing to... not to put too fine a point on it... keep the music alive. In the twenty-five years since we began, we have grown, we have faced challenges, but we continue to thrive, thanks to so many who put so much into this organization.
For our choristers. For our choir family. For the music.
#14daysofkokopelli #singwithus #youcantstopthebeat
Day 8 – Retreats
Earlier in our #14daysofkokopelli I mentioned my delight at discovering choir went on tours. But did you know we have choir retreats too? I know, right!?
Since I joined Òran, a weekend in the woods with all my choir friends had become an annual escape and recharge, one that I sorely missed this past year.
At the last few retreats we started putting up a “message centre” in our rehearsal space, a wall of envelopes into which we could put notes to one another over the course of the weekend.
In honour of today’s #14daysofkokopelli theme, I pulled out my envelope from last year to re-read all the little bits of love and friendship… with a bit of help.
#friendship #fun #comesingwithus
Day 9 – Fun Events
I'm a bit behind on my #14daysofkokopelli so this one is for Day Nine – Fun Events. There are so many, but I'll narrow it down to two for now...
One: I can now say I've performed at the Edmonton Fringe Festival, thanks to Kokopelli Choirs. For many years our choirs would be part of the buskers on site, performing out on the street for Fringe goers. In fact, in keeping with a tradition of learning a new song while on stage in a concert, my first public performance with the organization was at the Fringe, before even my first official rehearsal.
Two: I love that I have had the chance to perform at several weddings for choir friends, to have brought some of the music and a whole lot of love to the celebration. For many of us, choir is more than just a weekly activity but becomes embedded in our lives. And to get to share in special moments because of it has been amazing.
Looking forward to more events and adventures as we plan for an in-person season for 2021-22! A link for audition information below!
#singwithus
Day 10 – Community Service
For Day Ten of #14daysofkokopelli, on the theme of community service, I am reminded of an invitation we received back in 2014 to sing at a conference at the University of Alberta Faculty of Education on GSAs... Gay-Straight Alliances. So a conference on helping kids feel safe and feel like they belong.
It goes without saying, but I'm saying it anyways, it was an honour and a privilege to perform for those kids and their teachers.
We don't have a video of that actual performance, but this is the piece we sang, spread out and standing with our audience in that lecture hall...
#dontbeafraid
Day 11 – Food
So finally catching up to today, Day 11 of #14DaysOfKokopelli, and the topic is FOOD!
The challenge is... what memory or activity of Òran doesn't involve food?
Back in the Before Times, a crew of us would meet most Thursdays before rehearsal for food and a drink at State & Main, just down the street from McDougall Church where we practice.
Then break time during every rehearsal meant snacks downstairs.
Rehearsals and concerts with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra meant a tour of downtown restaurants.
Two-concert days meant potlucks and meals between shows. Then after most every concert we would head out to celebrate a successful show, with yet more food.
Retreat meant actually eating three regular meals for three days in a row, and hot coffee available all day.
And speaking of coffee, a personal quest for coffee was how I ended up serving on the Board for Kokopelli Choirs, but that's a story for another day.
And of course there was the food on tours. Oh, the food on tours.
So as I look forward to an in-person season for 2021-2022, really I'm looking forward to two activities: singing and eating. I cannot wait to both share a table and share a stage with my choir family.
#ComeSingWithUs #ComeEatWithUs #Sing #KokopelliChoirs
Day 12 – Favourite Locations
For #14DaysOfKokopelli Day 12, we've been thinking back on favourite locations where we've performed. There are some obvious and beloved venues that come straight to mind, like McDougall United Church with it's gorgeous choral acoustics and singing in the incredible Winspear Centre with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, but one of my standout memories isn't so much of a venue but a whole street of venues.
Back in 2015 and then again in 2017, the final concert for the Kokopelli Choirs was a "choir crawl" along Edmonton's historic Church Street, just east of our downtown core. Seven choirs in six venues, plus food trucks and an outdoor group sing as a finale.
Audience members were given a schedule and got to spend the afternoon picking and choosing their own personal menu of music, with some extra hustle required of chorister parents and grandparents running to catch their kids and grandkids perform before running back to their own venues and concerts. Thank goodness for the great weather!
As we look to a return to an in-person season for 2021-22, I don't think a choir crawl will be in the plans, but maybe again someday! But in the meantime, I'll be delighted to have even one choir in one venue raising their voices in song.
If you think you might like to join us, audition information is in the comments!
#SingWithUs
[ Photos from the 2015 concert can be found on the Friends of Church Street Facebook page ]
Day 13 – Clinicians
Photo Credit: Govind Krishnan on Unsplash
Almost forgot to do my #14DaysOfKokopelli post for today, Day 13, on the theme of clinicians and workshops!
Now I should probably talk about the incredibly talented people we've had the chance to work with – and there are so many – and all the amazing things I've learned. The unforgettable opportunities. The amazing singers and conductors we've met.
But I'm going to leave that to others.
Instead, when I saw the theme of clinicians come up, my first thought was of the Rocky Mountain Music Festival in Banff, where we had the chance to work with Graeme Langager, certainly one of those incredibly talented people. But what I remember is that, as he was describing what I'm sure was an important piece of musical wisdom, he dropped an unintended double entendre, possibly in Latin, and Michael Lowings and I started giggling front and center in the choir.
"You're just a bunch of twelve year olds, aren't you?" he said, shaking his head. But fortunately he laughed with us, and even still agreed to come spend a weekend with us as our choir retreat clinician a few years later.
Which is all to say choir people are my people.
#SingWithUs #LaughWithUs
Day 14 – Favourite Piece or Concert
To wrap up #14DaysOfKokopelli, we are sharing our favourite piece or concert, and I have the same answer for both.
This piece is from my very first concert as a member of Òran, recorded at the "Long Road" concert held in McDougall United Church, November 16, 2013.
And as a bit of a poetic touch from the Universe, I will be getting to sing it again tonight.
This is Coldplay's "Fix You"
#Sing
