B-ringing hope during the Covid-19 pandemic
Trinity Western University music student strikes the right chord
between four jobs, side projects and finishing a double major in piano and vocal performance at Trinity Western University (TWU) in British Columbia, 23-year-old Chloé Thiessen exudes joy when talking about her favourite subject.
“I love music,” she says. “I love writing music, arranging things and doing fun projects so to me, this isn’t really work.”
One of her projects was composing music and playing chimes for a global music marathon in June celebrating the 200th anniversary of the Ellacombe Chimes – a unique technology that allows one person to ring all the bells in a tower. Involving more than 50 churches and towers worldwide, the event began in New Zealand and over 17 hours worked its way across the world, finishing in Vancouver.
“When I heard it was happening internationally, I thought how it was such a beautiful example that we are all together in something,” says Thiessen. “I don’t know if people felt a certain emotion just from hearing my little piece in the marathon, but I do hope they were able to contemplate what it means for Christians to be part of a global community and take the peace, comfort and grieving they feel, and apply it to our friends and neighbours.”
Growing up with a Mennonite background, Thiessen remembers singing and making music as a collective. She learned to play the piano from an early age and her entire family played instruments. She appreciated being exposed to hymns and world religious music.
“As a fairly socially awkward person who doesn’t know all the correct words to speak to someone on an emotional level, I always felt God gave me the ability to use music as a secondary language,” she says. “Some people can’t find solace and comfort in the words of others, but music is a powerful way God speaks.”
Thiessen used her gifting at the start of the pandemic last year to organize a virtual choir. Like many students living on campus at the time, Thiessen moved back home after in-person performances were cancelled and classes moved online. From her hometown of Calgary, she composed a piece called “Passion Prayer.” She played the roles of conductor and accompanist, and had singers record and submit their audio files to her, which she layered, edited and mixed. For Thiessen, it was inspiring to know and share that creating music could still happen in troubling times.
In the fall, Thiessen plans to attend graduate school at the University of Manitoba for vocal performance and continue doing “great projects.”