If you ask people why they sing in a choir, be prepared for some passionate responses.
“The voice expresses our soul, who we are. And when you sing with others – pulling the cart together, so to speak – it becomes a deeply emotional experience,” says one chorister.
Likewise, another tells me, “Singing has the supreme power to bring us together. There’s a real strong synergy when we breathe and vocalize together – we are all tuning ourselves into the same wavelength. I can’t think of another collective activity as rewarding as singing.”
Willi Zwozdesky, Executive Director of the BC Choral Federation, director of the Holy Trinity Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral Choir in Vancouver and entering his 41st year as director of the Vancouver Men’s Chorus, knows all about the transformative power of communal singing.
“Singing gives people immense pleasure,” he says, “I’m always a beat away from bursting into song myself! It’s particularly thrilling when the music you’ve been hatching with a group of dedicated people comes to life in concert. Everyone in the room feels it: the choir, you, and your audience.”
Like most people engaged in the soul-satisfying business of bringing people together in song, Willi’s immersion in music began early. Son of Ukrainian immigrants, the family house outside of Edmonton resounded with music from dawn to dusk.
“Everyone played an instrument in my family and, every Saturday, my parents would take us into Edmonton for piano, violin or accordion lessons. I also picked up the trombone and the French horn in school band class.”
Singing was also prized by his family and, as a teenager, Willi was singing with a church choir, and leading a Ukrainian show choir. A summer in Vienna, honing his skills as a singer, cemented a desire to pursue music professionally. But with two graduate degrees (one in choral conducting and the other in music theory), and on track to becoming a teacher, it was his gift for arranging that proved the catalyst to choral leadership.
“I was starting to write primarily for choirs and one choir – the Vancouver Men’s Chorus – felt that if I wrote it, I should conduct it! So gradually, as our relationship developed, I worked myself into a long-term conducting job!”
With his expertise as a writer, Willi expanded his involvement in the choral field to include the publishing and marketing of choral music. Founding his own publishing company, Rhythmic Trident Music Publishing, and taking on the position as a choral music consultant with a major Canadian music retail store – Long & McQuade – earned him a name as a vital resource to BC’s growing choral community.
If you were looking for a particular piece, arrangement, recommendation, or clinician, go see Willi! Of course, this made him the perfect candidate for the executive directorship of an organization committed to supporting the work and promoting the growth of choirs in the province of BC.
Now, after 16 years at the helm of the BC Choral Federation, with community, professional, and award-winning choirs flourishing as they have never before, Willi feels confident in saying:
“BC has a very strong choral culture, and a wealth of talented and knowledgeable and dedicated people working in the field, and all kinds of opportunities for people to sharpen their vocal and conducting skills. I think people are becoming more and more aware of singing’s power. And it’s accessible to everyone – from infants to nonagenarians!”
There has, indeed, been plenty of research to confirm the powerful way singing enhances overall health. For instance, long a champion of adult choral singing, Victoria Meredith (Professor Emeritus of Western University, Ontario) determined that the very act of singing boosts the immune system.
The concentration of immunoglobulin A – proteins in the immune system that function as antibodies – increases significantly during a rehearsal or performance. As well, the increased oxygen needed to sing stimulates and strengthens the respiratory system. And best of all, due to the chemical wizardry triggered by the act of breathing, vocalizing, and bathing in beautiful pools of sound created in harmony with others, cortisol (the stress hormone) is reduced, and endorphins and oxytocin (feel-good hormones) are increased. A runner’s high and a sense of social connectedness – all achieved with one dose of singing with others!
The unique ability of choirs to both vitalize people and foster community has been stifled by pandemic restrictions in recent years.
“Not being able to gather in person has been acutely felt by choirs across the world,” Willi confirms. “Even though some choirs have continued virtually, I think we all miss the physical presence of each other, and the magic that occurs when voices align.”
Choral singing having been identified as a potentially ‘super spreader’ event early in the pandemic, there has been no option for singers and choirs but to comply with strict medical directives.
“Because choirs are like families,” Willi shares, “I think our members’ first reaction was ‘we need to protect each other, like that 83-year-old in our bass section!’ You can’t do this work and not have a social conscience and charitable sense about our work together. And even though a lot of directors have been furloughed during this time, choirs have really rallied to try to keep their artistic staff. And keep singing – in safe ways.”
During the pandemic, choirs weathered the directive to socially distance by turning to technology, and a host of other creative means to keep their collective love of choral singing alive.
With increasing vaccination rates and decreasing rates of COVID-19 infection locally and globally, these hybrid ways of being together to sing are likely to slowly yield to ‘before-times’ modus operandi.
Given that it has been 18 months since choirs have met en-masse, you can expect some mighty happy singers returning to their folds this September (don’t be surprised if you hear the earth move…).
If you would like to join that migration back to a cherished activity this fall, check out the choirs on tap in your community. There are seldom any prerequisites other than a willingness to be hijacked by the joy of joining with others in song!
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