Voices West:
Six top Western choirs joining forces to create the most memorable performance in music history...
Alright, I must admit that was a little dramatic, but to my choir and I, that was a milestone for us and for us to top what this weekend was, is going to be difficult. But we're Kokopelli, we can do anything.
Coming home from our insane tour in Lethbridge, us Koko's had a lot of work cut out for us in preparation for the Voices West Festival starting on Thursday, November 10th. We had invited five other Western Choirs: EYC (Edmonton Youth Choir), Coastal Sound (Coquitlam, BC), Corazon (Nelson, BC), Ihana (Red Deer, AB), and Kamala (Battleford, SK) to team up with us for a performance changing our lives forever.
Thursday November 10th 2011: Thursday night was the official start of our festival as all choirs filed into McDougal United Church, eager to meet one another and of course, sing. Kokopelli opened the festival with our welcome speech and welcome song, "Mulumele Shangwe" then had other choirs come up to share their own pieces. Corazon...okay they're amazing. I bawled my eyes out. However, one of the most memorable moments for me that night was Coastal Sound's performance of "With or Without You" by U2 (which featured Kokopelli at the concert on Saturday night.) The way they had staged it and sang it absolutely touched my heart, brought tears to my eyes, literally blew my brains right out of my noggin and made me super excited to get together to work with them on this piece. Even though some of us had disagreements as to what the lyrics were, it just comes to show that no matter how you interpret the piece of music, it will always touch your heart in so many ways. Kokopelli then took the stage with, "I See You" by Mika, arr. by former Kokopelli/Oran member, Jennifer McMillan. Having former members arrange pieces for us like that just makes it that much easier to perform, knowing the kind of connection you have to that song. It just means a hell of alot more to you when it's practically given to you by family.
After our little show and tell session, we got straight to work with mass choir pieces: Eternity by Lisa Freeman (music by Michael Bojesen) and After The War arr. by again, a former Kokopelli/Oran member, Joel Forth...who also happened to be my highschool student teacher. It's a small world I tell you. A good two and a half hours of rehearsing later and it's bonding time with two hundred and fifty people downstairs with juice and cookies for the rest of the night.
Friday November 11th 2011: Day two of Voices West. Also Remembrance Day. Put the two together and you've got a heck of a busy day. Though the day was filled to the brim with preparing for all of the performances, we all found it to be enjoyable and we did find a little bit of spare time to just relax and enjoy one another's company.
The Remembrance Day performance called all six choirs to be at McDougall United Church at 8:30 AM for warm ups and a quick rehearsal where we then made our way over to City Hall for the ceremony at 10AM. "After The War" was dedicated to the many men and women who had laid down their lives for us and who are still living to fight for us. Because the front row was reserved for those in the Forces, I saw so many who shed their tears to that piece and in return, I too, drowned in my own tears. Seeing the reaction of the audience truly touched my heart and I'm so blessed to have been a part of this. However, I could not cry for long. We quickly wiped our eyes in order to sing a lighter song to lift the hearts of our audience. "Eternity" produced waves of magic throughout City Hall that day, leaving each and every person in awe.
Mass Choir at City Hall: Kokopelli, EYC, Coastal Sound, Corazon, Ihana and Kamala
That was once again, ONLY the beginning of our eventful day. Good thing our morning gig was done and we had a small amount of time to prepare ourselves for our dress rehearsals and final concert (the "Sneak Peek" concert) of the evening. Kokopelli had from 10:30 until 12:15 to do whatever we had to before our dress rehearsal. My fellow chorister and I decided it would be a superb idea (since we were downtown) to go on a little shopping expedition at Holt Renfrew and grab lunch up at the Holt's Café. From City Hall to Holt Renfrew...is really not that far of a walk but when we got there, we discovered that Holt's was closed until 12.That definitely didn't work into our schedule too well. So we shrugged and made our way over to City Centre Mall where we planned to get a nice hot plate of rice at Edo Japan. BOOM, once again, our plan failed as Edo Japan had also failed to open that morning. New York Fries, perhaps? BOOM, plan failed a third time. Subway...? Fourth time failing. Funny thing is we vowed to avoid McDonald's. Guess what was the only thing opened?! MCDONALD'S. A warm cup of Starbucks, fries and a small portion of nuggets it was for Kayleigh and I. By small portion I mean like one nugget each from a box of 10 and I gave the rest to our boys sitting next to us. Seriously, never eat shit like that before a performance. Remember that, singers. Because for the twenty minutes of dress rehearsal time Kokopelli had at City Hall, our stomachs were literally going to explode from our excessive singing and disgusting food we had put in there in the first place. I swear to God, I felt as if I was going to die. Besides feeling sick, we had another break at 12:30PM to do what we will as long as we came back fully dressed in uniforms for 2:30PM. I found a little "kitchen" space inside the holding room and that my friends, became my personal dressing room for the day. Of course I shared...but we felt like stars. Loved it.
3PM came around and our, "Sneak Peek" concert began with Coastal Sound to open, Corazon, EYC, Ihana, Kamala, Kokopelli and Mass Choir to close. I must say, all the performances were quite splendid. It's still somewhat a small shock to me, being with such a talented group of people because when I was in highschool...well, you sort of get it. Corazon made so many of us cry. Their pieces were followed by a letter in regards to war situations, fitting the event like a glove. Ihana and Kamala were the newer associations but they also did quite well. I was only slightly disappointed with Ihana's performace of, "Tshotsoloza." Having Kokopelli do that exact piece three years ago, I'm really sad to say Ihana sang it no where near as powerful as we did, and no body's voice could ever replace Jen McMillan's.
Kokopelli wrapped up the individual performaces charging in with, "Sipiri" then a heartfelt, "Stay" for our beautiful Nunu Uaaka from Africa, "The Ground" then dancing it out with "Amarula Sponono." Then, all choirs joined us to close the event at City Hall with, "After The War" and, "Eternity" once again.
Kokopelli, EYC, Coastal Sound, Corazon, Ihana and Kamala in our own uniforms, closing the event with
"After The War" and "Eternity"
After closing the event at City Hall, our director, Scott, treated the singers of all choirs to Galaxyland for the rest of the night. Though advised not to go on certain rides in order to save our voices...many of us went anyways. It's also probably a good thing that Galaxyland closes at a certain hour, or else we never would have made it to our final day of Voices West the very next morning...
Saturday November 12th 2011: The Final Day of Voices West began at 9AM at McDougall United Church once more. Mass rehearsals and workshops took place that morning where Kokopelli joined Coastal Sound to rehearse and choreograph, "With or Without You" then connected with Kamala and invited them to join us in singing and choreographing, "Les Voyageurs de la Gatineau" as they've sung it once already in Ottawa. Can't get anymore Canadian than that.
Who's hungry after all that rehearsing?! We ALL were! Therefore, we invaded the Old Spaghetti Factory downtown for a small lunch before heading out to rehearse and prepare once more. We serenaded the Old Spaghetti staff with, "Amarula Sponono" which we also taught everyone else in rehearsal that morning. A potluck was planned for 6pm that day and the spring rolls I had planned to bring...oh what the hell, my plans always fail. So I resorted to plan B and called up my aunt at 10 AM asking her to make me 200 spring rolls. She's great. I'm super thankful to have an aunt who owns her own shop. One of the singers, Thomas however didn't get the notification on this potluck. Of course he starts having a freak out at the restaurant and that's when I check my e-mail (I love my Blackberry) Thomas...was on bun duty. No worries, Thomas, you are still my favourite...kind of.
Voices West Luncheon at the Old Spaghetti Factory
So there we were, Thomas and I driving around the city to buy some buns which ended up costing him a good fifty bucks. Twenty dollars were spent on buns...the next thirty dollars were spent on the wicker baskets and cloths to put the buns in. Ridiculous? That's what you get when shopping with a woman. We really care how things look. Anyways, after blowing Thomas's money on buns and baskets, we came back to the church where I went into the kitchen to help Lisa (and Michelle L.) set up for potluck. It's like...innate for me to help in the kitchen. It was fun though and it was like a little bonding time between the three of us. Michelle and I got into a scrap with one of the Coastal girls, but it doesn't matter now. We don't have to see their faces for a very long time and even when we do see their faces, we can choose to not talk to them at all. After all, we are only, "kitchen people." Scoff.
Good thing we all got over it before our dress rehearsal. Why? Because it was with Coastal Sound. Another reason is because we were supposed to be putting on a show without looking pissed off. (Musicians are great actors I tell you!)
Kokopelli opened the concert and our season right at 7:30PM filing in with a bone-chilling, "Nunc Dimittis" by Pawel Lukaszewski; touching hearts with Don MacDonald's, "Tabula Rasa" feat. Javier reciting the poem and Malaika's dedication speech to Corazon; had a little Canadian expedition with Kamala singing, "Les Voyageurs de la Gatineau" arr. by Jen McMillan ft. Bryan on piano and Tova on spoons; finding love with, "I See You" by Mika, arr. by Jen McMillan ft. Bryan on piano, Tova on drums, Cory on keyboard, Erik on bass and Brooke as the soloist and finally dancing it out with our signature piece, "Twatha Kokure" feat. Bryan as soloist.
Kokopelli opening up with, "Nunc Dimittis";
Kokopelli singing, "Twatha Kokure"
That's all us. Opened the season, opened the show. We're a pretty talented bunch I'd say. Up next was Kamala Youth Choir ("Lux Aeterna" from Missa, "The Call," "My Soul's Been Anchored in the Lord," "Psalmo 150" and "Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream"); Corazon broke hearts with, "We Walk in a Fog" "Ave Maria" by Franz Biebl, and "Awake"; EYC brought, "O Magnum Mysterium", "Salmo 150", "There is No Rose," "A Boy and a Girl" and "Ajde Jano" to the table, Ihana's repetoire was composed of, "All Too Soon," "Eatnemen Vuelie," "Kyrie," Kokopelli's own, "Tshotsoloza" and, "The Voice" and finally Coastal Sound closed individual performaces with a beautiful Felix Mendelssohn piece, "Richte mich, Gott" then preceeded to "AveMaris Stella," "I am the Great Sun," "Eatnemen Vuelie," a fun and exciting, "The Song of the Count" from Seseme Street and, "With or Without You" feat. Kokopelli. And to finish off the festival, we once again called upon all choirs to join us in singing, "After The War" and "Eternity" ...with a little "Amarula Sponono" for some fun at the end!
Kokopelli, Kamala, Ihana, EYC, Corazon, and Coastal for one last performance with eachother
This entire festival right here sums up my entire life. This is what I get to do and I get to do what I love and I'm sure damn blessed to be able to do it. Why did this change my life? Because I got to meet so many new people. I got to share my love and passion for music with the people that I already know and the people who I've just met. Most importantly, I've never in my life seen so much LOVE for one another in such a refined space. We all love eachother so much in the end. I'm blessed. I'm blessed to be able to be a part of something as beautiful as this. I'm blessed be living in Canada, where we GET to do things we want. We all are.
-chantalnguyen
