Montreal's 2004 GALA Festival was my first because my choral days, at least any after the high school level, began in the season which immediately followed the 2000 San Jose event. The way the California experience was described, I knew I wanted to be a part of the next one. And I was! I was a founding member of Voices Rising and on its leadership team. It was clearly a bonus that a young fledgling chorus was able to be a part of GALA. It was through the kindness of a sister chorus from Connecticut, Another Octave, that we could integrate with their attending members and take the stage:
We had performed joint concerts held in both Boston and Connecticut and in the process of rehearsals leading up to those showtimes, had come to know many of the women of Another Octave. The GALA venture was a natural next step with sister singers. The director of AO and her partner had just had a baby, and there were many of us overseeing a baby carriage transport or diaper change!
My particular function was Merchandise Coordinator as we were selling Voices Rising t-shirts, hats and pins. Because the festival was taking place on foreign soil, there were certain rules, shall I say rigid, about the manufacturing details as well as the arrangements to be made to have the goods brought into Canada for purchase. I never met my import contact but he was extremely helpful and we were later told our t-shirt design was one of the best selling items in the GALA "store".
It was a bonus for Voices Rising members that our Artistic Director, Leora called Montreal her hometown.
She was able to brief us on the lay of the land around the festival and traffic light differences for drivers in Montreal vs Boston. (Montreal stops on the yellow light rather than gunning it through a red........). We stayed collectively at a local hotel and had the fun of a group experience.
What I hadn't known was how much music I would be allowed to hear and absorb. Countless hours of performance time of choruses from around the world with the difficulty of having to choose one hall knowing that there were simultaneous time slots of other choruses that I was missing by sitting where I was! But I saw and heard a lot of memorable groups: huge male choruses, usually doing some choreography with flair to small ensembles, small and large women's choruses, costumes that were sparkly, flashy, and the Parisian group which was downright bizarre.....roosters, clowns, colorful and more on the idea of a Cirque de Soleil troupe.
Their director wore a strapless blue dress, was barefoot and at times, directing on her knees before them. Leora was challenged by several of us to do the same sometime!
The events included workshops, discussions, all chances to hear how groups were organized, took shape, and generally ran their choral lives. The hall holding all the merchandise was filled with banners from many choruses which made for a colorful display.
There were festival pins, shirts, CDs to be had. Everything MUSIC! Lily Tomlin was the mid-week show stopper. Each day, the multiple levels of the concert halls were filled to capacity with singers from around the world--all in Montreal for the chance to be seen and heard, to share repertoire, ideas, and look ahead to GALA 2008.
Miami's GALA 2008 looms ahead... close on our Voices Rising radar screen. We are a chorus with history now and seasonal generations of women who still sing with us, or did and have gone on to other pursuits in life. We look forward to being on stage again and in this round, will have a few members of Another Octave joining us in order to be a part of this festival. We will be inspired and hopefully inspire, too. We will again sell our t-shirts and baseball caps, but now have denim shirts, and even better, a first class CD of which we can proudly boast. Voices Rising has done a great deal in her relatively short life. I am happy many of us are able to head south and be in the huge new facilities of Miami's amazing concert hall. This blog will undoubtedly have entries to read after the closing ceremony is finished. Music will have brought us together again and we will go forward being women building community through song!
Chris R, Soprano 2
Chris is a second soprano and has been passionately involved with the goings on of Voices Rising since its inception. She enjoys the elements of both behind-the-scenes and performing. Her daughter, her cat and her watercolor pursuits vie for her time as well.
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