choral documentary

I'm a little behind on this entry but better late than never, I suppose. There's a new documentary coming out next week from the Twin Cities' local PBS station called Never Stop Singing and, last Thursday, they held a special screening for a lot of the musicians involved in the project. It was a who's who of choral singing in Minnesota and the United States as a whole (Dominick Argento was totally there but I wussed out on going up to talk to him and drank another glass of complimentary sauvignon blanc instead) and somehow I got myself invited.

It helps that the film uses a small sample of my piece, Blue! 'Tis the Life of Heaven from my color madrigals cycle so it wasn't like I crashed or anything. The Singers performed it beautifully way back in January 2008 (appropriately for a concert honoring Minnesota's 150th anniversary) with Peter Myers and his film crew present.

Watching this documentary leaves an indelible impression about how important choral singing is to the people in this area of the country. To underscore this they included the results of a Chorus America study from a few years back that--among other things--showed that around 28.5 million people nationwide sing in some type of choir (youth, school, college, community, professional, etc.) and, out of that total, 450,000 of them are Minnesotans. How cool is that?

It was a moving experience to sit and watch this with the people that were essentially the subjects of the documentary and, frankly, I don't think there will ever be a screening quite like this again. The audience whooped and hollered and clapped for what seemed like an entire hour (admittedly, there were some pretty funny pictures of the "old guard" from the 1970s and 80s). We laughed and cried together and had a generally great time before, after and during the time the film was on. The "Land of 10,000 Choirs" is a pretty cool thing to be a part of and I'm eternally grateful to Peter Myers, Matt Culloton and The Singers for giving me the chance to play a small role in this incredible film.

There is a very comprehensive site set up for anyone to take a look at and it will be expanding more as the film begins to air. Check out the preview if you're game. My piece is the last thing you'll hear before the title banner comes up.

Check your local listings if you're from MN and, hopefully, it will be out to a broader market very soon. That's the plan!

I didn't take any pictures because I didn't want to scare anybody off but, on the way out, Abbie and I found this giant Big Bird plastering one of the walls. Who can resist? Not Betinis.