Songs of love and a spontaneous creation
Grand River Voices opens season with a romantic program and a composition created on the spot
KITCHENER — Grand River Voices opens its new season May 3 with a big sound, lots of romance plus 10 minutes of something entirely different.
The choral group, now 75-voices strong, performs a romantic program “Serenade to Music” May 3 in New Hamburg and May 5 in Kitchener with 15 members of the Guelph Symphony Orchestra, a five-piece band and three soloists in a program of Vaughan Williams and George and Ira Gershwin.
Amy Di Nino, the choir’s artistic director wanted to welcome spring with a stage filled with music and she has succeeded.
The choral conductor chose the soloists because their voices are particularly suited to Williams and Gershwin songs.
Sopranos Elise Brisson and Lesley Andrew as well as tenor Blair Spry are all highly experienced soloists who easily slip between opera, classical and musical theatre. It’s these sort of vocal gymnastics Di Nino was looking for to do Williams and Gershwin tunes justice.
“The music is beautiful,” she said, adding that for her choir, singing with the Guelph Symphony is a relatively new experience.
“Singing with a live orchestra is really special, having all these different sounds,” she said. “They’re really excited.”
The choir will get even more excited in the second half of the concert when Di Nino switches things to the unexpected.
Composer Colin Labadie will write a piece of music live on the spot, then give direction to the symphony, the band, the soloists and the choir who will in turn perform this original piece of musical spontaneity.
“The second half, with Colin, this is really unique,” said Di Nino “Ben Folds did this live in New York.”
The American singer/songwriter performed the musical stunt at the Kennedy Center in 2017 with the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony’s former music director, Edwin Outwater, conducting the National Symphony Orchestra.
Folds asked the audience to choose a tempo for the song he was about to compose; ballad or more upbeat. The audience chose upbeat. Then the audience was asked for an interesting line from their program, something that could be the foundation for the song’s lyrics. They were also asked to choose the key.
Armed with that information, Folds sat at the piano and began composing, giving the orchestra direction as he created each new stanza: the cellos, the clarinets, then first and second violins plus double basses and percussion, going through the orchestra section by section.
In a little more than 10 minutes, the orchestra with Folds on piano was performing the song.
Labadie will follow a similar formula only he has the additional challenge of having to direct the choir and band as well as the orchestra.
“Colin will involve everyone on stage, all the musicians and the audience,” she said. “The audience will see in-depth, how composers compose music and bring instruments together.”
It’s also a great way for musicians to show off their talent and ability to pick up directions on the fly and, hopefully, perform the piece flawlessly.
It’s not something most people ever get to experience or musicians get to perform, said Di Nino. For audiences, it will be a “sneak peak into the musicians’ world.”
“It’s like a choose your own adventure (kids) book,” she said. “You’re getting yourself out there, being a little vulnerable.”
A composer and instructor in composition at Wilfrid Laurier University, Labadie was approached by Di Nino and asked if he would consider performing this feat of quick thinking and lightening fast creativity.
“He hadn’t seen it performed by Ben Folds but he thought it was something he wanted to do in his career,” she said, noting Labadie was a good choice because he uses a lot of improvisation in his music. The only difference this time is that he’ll have 30 minutes to compose the piece while a few hundred people stare at him, including a waiting choral group and a couple dozen eager musicians.
“We’re really excited to be doing something different,” she said.