Concert Choir is not only a singing class, it is a class about harmony, sympathy, cooperation, and giving healing energy.
We studied vocal skills, breathing techniques, onstage performance, and many professional concert choir skills in this class. But there were a lot of unexpected things I gained from this class.
First of all, Choir is not about simple singing, it is about group work and understanding. People in the choir have different levels of understanding of music, and Choir is about bringing everyone together on the same stage. Choir doesn’t need an extraordinary singer who has a wonderful unique voice we really need everyone to sound similar and sing as a group to create a sense of gatherness or epic sound. Choir really makes it clear the power of the group is much bigger than a single person, and in order to create a harmonious sound, everyone must sacrifice their uniqueness to embrace the commonality.
Moreover, Choir is always performing for school or important events, which brings plenty of opportunities for us to touch some charity programs. For example, Mrs. MacCormick, the Choir teacher, has been raising money for poor children in Africa who struggle to live and learn. We therefore sang a local African song to raise money for the Charity school there. This is not a rare example, but something that happened frequently in this class.
At Christmas, we sing “Silent Night;” in school ceremonies we sing “you will be found”, and at Thanksgiving we pick up easy songs to sing with faculty and faculty children, and in the graduation ceremony we sing “farewell” in both Chinese and English. Choir is a magic group which praises the world with singing, and always calls for a warm gatherness to the community, just like itself——a group of people singing together with limited self identity but a group conformity.