Rock Voices taps into all of us
Two years ago — you remember, back when live music was something we all took for granted — a new community choir was launched into our already well-populated choral scene. Rock Voices Albany brought together adults (no audition required) to learn a body of rock songs, both hits and deep cuts, and perform them in concert with a live band.
It didn’t take long for Rock Voices Albany to attract a faithful following. The group’s last concert before the coronavirus shutdown was in January at Colonie Central High School and featured 100 performers and 800 audience members. Rock Voices Saratoga began in 2019 and has a membership of 85 members.
The music-making continues in the online era with Nate Altimari, director of the two groups, leading weekly rehearsals on Facebook of one song per month. The June selection is James Taylor’s “Shed a Little Light.” At the end of each month, choristers are invited to submit a video of themselves singing. Audio tracks from singers at all of the
Rock Voices locations will be mixed together into a “virtual choir” and posted online with accompanying video.
Rock Voices is a kind of musical franchise that was conceived and established in 2009 by Tony Lechner, a composer, arranger and producer based in Northampton, Mass. Before the COVID-19 pandemic threw every performing arts endeavor in doubt, Rock Voices became established in 15 cities in the Northeast and in Portland, Ore. The national membership numbers around 1,200 singers who pay tuition of $260 for each of three concert seasons or terms per year.
Every Rock Voices outpost performs the same songs each season. Sometimes there’s a theme to the selections, such as 80’s rock, Motown hits, or the British invasion. All of the arrangements are by Lechner with accompaniment usually from keyboards, drums and two electric guitars. The band is assembled from professional players at each location.
This adherence to a common repertoire allows members to easily join in performances in other locales and they’re encouraged to do so. Visiting singers can also give a welcome boost to newly established choirs, as happened when the Albany group was getting started.
After 25 people appeared at the first rehearsal, the group settled into a steady membership of 17. “Some of them weren’t really sure this was going to plant itself,” Altimari said.
Spirits were lifted when a trove of members from the Northampton and West Hartford choirs showed up to join in the performance, making for a healthy sized company of 55 singers onstage. “They knew the music and plugged themselves in,” Altimari said. “It’s a symbiotic thing with all the groups.”
If a chorus isn’t strictly focused on classical, then pop songs or rock ballads might often be included on concert programs. But those are usually arrangements and reinterpretations. With Rock Voices, four-part harmony is common but not the rule. Voicing, tempos and other idiosyncrasies all flow out of the original recordings.
“Tony and I went to college together and he has the ability to hear and write music out in real time. His transcriptions are as faithful to the original as possible. These are not new and unique interpretations. If it was sung one way by the artist, that’s how we do it,” Altimari said.
Though sheet music is provided to all participants, Altimari estimates the members read music and others just follow along. He also provides CDS or downloads of each vocal line to facilitate at-home practice.
“Sometimes the music is really hard or quite complicated. Sometimes it’s just a song that’s fun to sing,” Amy Birchler said. “Probably the most challenging part is that the music must be memorized for the concert. That’s 15 songs committed to memory. I do lots of practicing in the car and sometimes I’ll just take a drive to work on my songs.”
Birchler finds the repertoire to always be a surprising mix that might include stuff as diverse Led Zeppelin, Stevie Wonder and Adele. She fell hard for the 2007 hit “Put Your Records On” from Corrine Bailey Rae. “Never heard it before and it’s now one of my favorites ever,” Birchler said. For familiar rock standards, she’s grateful to finally learn all the right words.
Seeing an ad for the first concert of Rock Voices Albany, Bob and Kathleen Nelson were intrigued. Before the concert was over, they wanted to sign up. “We laughed, we sang, and were encouraged by the director to dance in the aisles,” Kathleen Nelson said. Though her husband had never sung in a choir he got just the encouragement he needed from Altimari, who told the crowd, “If you sing in the shower, then you can sing with us.”
The Nelsons find their lives are richer because of their involvement. Kathleen Nelson takes pride in the volunteer work that brings together some members outside of rehearsals and the raffle for charity that takes place at every concert. She calls Rock Voices “an island of peace and love and healing for us. We are a family, a team like no other and having been on teams in high school and college, this team won’t end after four years.”
For now, the rehearsals are online, and concerts are off on some socially distant horizon. But with some good songs and a community spirit still intact, Rock Voices is making good on its motto: “Healing ourselves and others through song.”
“Probably the most challenging part is that the music must be memorized for the concert. That’s 15 songs committed to memory. I do lots of practicing in the car and sometimes I’ll just take a drive to work on my songs.”
— Amy Birchler