by Connie Tabbert
Editor
LA PASSE — A well-known La Passe woman recently sang in a 275-member choir at Carnegie Hall in New York city.
But, that opportunity to perform there almost didn’t happen.
When La Passe resident Marie Zettler received a phone call for an invitation to the Pembroke Community Choir (PCC) to perform in a Karl Jenkins concert at Carnegie Hall, she thought it was a scam.
“I thought at first it was a scam,” she said. “I was going to hang up, but I was speaking on behalf of the choir, so I had to hear him out.
“After I heard the spiel, I said put it in an email and send it to me so I can share it with the group.”
When it was discovered it was a legitimate request from DCINY (Distinguished Concerts International new York), the group looked into it and decided to participate.
DCINY solicits choirs from around the world to be part of a mass choir that performs special works, Ms. Zettler said. They have researchers who Google, in this instance, Karl Jenkins performances, and saw a Youtube video of a performance by the PCC. They liked what they saw and contacted Ms. Zettler, since she is the current president of the PCC.
The cost was $700 for each participant to perform, Ms. Zettler said. Then there was the cost to go, which included travel, hotel room and food.
“The experience was worth it,” she said. “It would be a holiday in New York.”
Ms. Zettler said while they realize the organization offering this opportunity was doing it for a profit, the venue was Carnegie Hall, a world-class venue that is an expensive facility to keep up.
“We did not begrudge the fee we paid,” she said. “It was an opportunity to sing in Carnegie Hall, a world class venue.
“Choral music is one of the big loves of my life.”
“We were going to sing in a choir as a group,” she said.
Ms. Zettler was one of the organizers for the group of 23 PCC members travelling to New York to sing in a mass choir.
“I was happy to facilitate this experience for the choir,” she said. “There was a committee working with me. My roll was to grease the wheels, but there was enough energy and enthusiasm there, it wasn’t hard to do.”
However, she noted, organizing 23 people is much easier than 300 people.
“They ran it like a well-oiled machine,” she said. “It’s a monumental task to get a group of 300 on and off a stage.”
For almost 18 months, the PCC group that was going to perform in a mass choir, made up of about 275 people from around the world, practised the piece they were going to perform — The Peacmakers by Karl Jenkins, which has 17 movements (sections).
Ms. Zettler said The Peacemakers “is not for the faint of heart.”
Realizing this, she purchased the CD to listen to the performance.
“I played it over and over in my car,” she said.
The group of 23 from the PCC also held a few practices, she said.
“We wanted to arrive there with some knowlege of it,” Ms. Zettler said.
It was very fortunate Gerald Laronde, who is the conductor of the PCC, was able to participate in the event as well. Mr. Laronde is also the music teacher at Fellowes High School in Pembroke.
The group left Thursday morning, Jan. 15 and arrived back home the evening of Tuesday, Jan. 20.
“We had a four hour practice on Saturday, a four hour practice on Sunday and a two-and-a-half hour dress rehearsal on Monday,” Ms. Zettler said.
The Saturday and Sunday rehearsals allowed the performers to stand or sit, she noted. However, since there was to be no sitting during the performance, which was to be about 70 minutes, they could not sit during the dress rehearsal.
Mr. Zettler said there was also a dress code for the performance. The women had to wear black, spaghetti straps had to be covered, a modest neckline and no real bling.
“I wore a necklace and earrings that was made by Jenny Vallance as a gift to me from my husband,” Ms. Zettler said. (Ms. Vallance used to live in Foresters Falls and created beautiful jewellry.)
The men had to wear white shirts and black suits — and for those who have tuxedoes, it was an opportunity to wear them, she added.
The event was directed by “world class conductor Jonathan Griffith,” Ms. Zettler said. “He gave us a lot of knowledge and skills.”
Ms. Zettler added, “It was an incredible experience to be part of a group of 300 people all working on the same thing.
“It was a real high.
“Each performance with the Pembroke choir is a high.
“This was taking it to a whole different level. There are 60 in the Pembroke choir and 300 in the New York City choir.
“Working with a conductor of this calibre was very educational.”
Ms. Zettler was in the front row of the choir.
“There are benefits to being short,” she said with a laugh.
Explaining, she noted where the singers were to be in the choir was determined long before they arrived. They had to submit various vitals and one of them was height, she said.
Ms. Zettler said travelling with a group of people touring around is great, but travelling with a group of people who have the same purpose beyond being a tourist is so much better.
Following the performance, the choir went to an after-dinner party, of which there were two. She said the Russian choir sang beautifully at the party she attended. She also heard there was a “sing-off” between the Swedish and French choirs at the party she didn’t attend.
The choirs performing in this mass event were from around the world. There were two choirs from Germany, the UK and Massachusetts, and one each from South Africa, Switzerland, Sweden, Canada, Russia, California, Ireland and Italy.
The theme for this concert was peace and in one of the movements they performed, the word peace was sang in several languages, including German, Russian, Latin, Finnish and Polish.
Ms. Zettler said while it would have been great to mingle with the other choir members, “It was so intense, there was not a lot of opportunity to interact.”
When the group wasn’t rehearsing, there was opportunity to tour around. However, she admitted, prior to departing she didn’t have much time to preview what was happening in the area.
“I didn’t go with any preconceived notions of what I wanted to do,” Ms. Zettler said. “I just figured I’d tag along with somebody who did some research.”
She ended up going to see the broadway show Kinky Boots. She also attended Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue.
“It is a traditional Anglican church,” she said. “It has a fabulous choir.
“The pomp and ceremony was of very high calibre,” she added.
Ms. Zettler said it may have been a working holiday, but it was one she wouldn’t have missed.
The Pembroke Community Choir is is 57 years old and is always looking for more members, she said.
There are currently 60 members and more male voices are required, she said. It is a non-audition choir.
Intake for members is the first three nights of each season — spring and winter. The next intake is September.
The fee is $75 a year. However, Ms. Zettler said there is a $20 tryout feet. If you find out after three rehearsals that this type of music isn’t for you, return the music and the $20 is returned.
The money is used for buying music, concert venues, library space for music, the director and accompanist and any other expenses that may be incurred, Ms. Zettler said.
Rehearsals are each Monday evening from 7 to 9 p.m. at Wesley Community Church on Renfrew Street in Pembroke.
For more information on the PCC the website is pembrokecommunitychoir.org
