There was an interesting experiment at the Margo Fournier Arts Centre on Sunday.
The Prince Albert Arts Board’s Parts for the Arts: One Day Choir with Kayleigh Skomorowski and Brock Skomorowski attempted to create a choir for a day.
The event was in the Margo Fournier Arts Centre and also paid tribute to the building’s namesake and the founder of the Prince Albert Boys’ Choir.
Kayleigh Skomorowski, who is on the Arts Board said the idea came about after a discussion their next Parts for the Arts event.
“I’ve been following on Instagram and social media. There’s been there’s a big movement in like New York with the Gaia Music collective. They’re called, but they do these big one day choir events,” Skomorowski said.
Skomorowski said there are a lot of pub choirs in major cenrtres like Sydney, New York, and Toronto where people have a chance to sing with no commitment or prior knowledge. She wanted to try something similar in Prince Albert, but with the whole community.
She said the Arts Centre was a perfect location, so they decided to turn it into a tribute to Margo Fournier.
Skomorowski said many people were drawn to the event in a show of appreciation for Fournier. The event was completely booked in advance and the room was full of eager singers of all ages.
The idea was new to Skomorowski who has done plenty of performances, but nothing like a Choir in a Day.
“I have taught choir. I have rehearsed choirs. I have never taken a whole bunch of strangers in a room for three hours and then had something that was called a choir, and then, had to kind of never exist again, so it’s a new venture for me for sure,” she said.
Sunday’s event began with warmups to get everyone used to singing and some basic techniques before breaking into learning the two pieces of music.
The first piece was Ukuthula, a Zulu Peace Prayer. She noted that having a piece with repetition is a key for choirs which was part of the reason she chose it.
“It’s very much focused and it’s very repetitive, so it’s in Zulu not English but it is quite repetitive and there are some opportunities for some solos in there too as we work through it,” she said.
The second selection was a choir arrangement of the song “If You’re Out There” by John Legend.
“(It) is just very much about community building and calling people into our circle which is kind of the whole goal with the thing this afternoon,” she explained. “(It’s) just to bring people together and hopefully break down some otherness for a little bit to the afternoon just to have us all do something together.”
Her goal was to sing for an hour, take a break, sing for an hour, take another break and then have a run through.
“Then we’ll do our performance for nobody but a camera, probably, for the last like 15 minutes and then part ways,” she said.
The One Day Choir was open to everyone from all walks of life, which was somewhat different than most Parts for the Arts events hosted by the Arts Board, which target certain interests
“They’re a bit more targeted towards people in specific fields and this is kind of like anybody can come,” Skomorowski said.
Before the event began Skomorowski was hopeful it would bring people together.
“I hope it works out, I am really kind of flying by the seat of my pants. It’s kind of hard to plan for something like this,” she said.
When the day concluded Skomorowski said that she was satisfied with the work of the day.
The final performance was livestreamed on the Prince Albert Arts Board Facebook page.
michael.oleksyn@paherald.sk.ca
