The Vancouver Youth Choir (VYC) was founded by conductor Carrie Tennent in 2013, and has grown to include VYC Junior, VYC Kids, and a VYC Tiny. This concert featured the younger choirs in the first half, while the second half was devoted to the main chorus. Instead of a full intermission, Carrie Tennant led all choirs and the audience in a sing-a-long of \u201cSomewhere Over the Rainbow\u201d. The idea is slightly horrific for an audience member, especially if you are attending alone, but two lines in everyone was relaxed and enjoying themselves. It was an excellent way to revive the audience before the second half, and to encourage a community of self-expression.<\/p>\n
The second half of the concert featured the Vancouver Youth Choir, performing the same set that they brought to the American Choral Director\u2019s Association Conference in Kansas City. They began with \u201cIlus Ta Ei Ole\u201d, written by P\u00e4rt Uusberg and inspired by Estonia. The piece starts with the basses singing \u201cNo, it is not beautiful\u201d, describing the bare fields and empty houses of the Estonian countryside, as the tenors join in. Sopranos and altos provide a low accompanying humming, evoking the image of a bare, winter landscape. Soloists pick it up from the men, going on about the boring winter time, until there is a moment of clarity. The women take over now, singing \u201cBut it is all so beautiful\u201d. The rest of the choir joins, singing proudly about the beauty of Uusberg\u2019s homeland, as a soprano line soars above it all. This piece was a beautiful start to a very exciting set, and gave the audience a sense of pride in their own \u201chomeland\u201d, wherever \u2013 or whoever \u2013 that may be.<\/p>\n
The second piece was a stark contrast to the first. An initial, jarring STOMP brought the audience out our winter landscape trance. A piece of music without words, or even a distinct melody, \u201cFire\u201d by UBC graduate Katerina Gimon evokes the title element through body percussion and vocal effects. The set continued with a theme of contrasting emotion. A 19th<\/sup>century hymn by Otto Nicolai followed, using polyphony and homophony to enhance certain lines of the German text. \u201cWater Fountain\u201d, an arrangement of Tune-Yards\u2019 modern pop song, began with chorus members clapping a steady beat as the audience\u2019s applause for the previous piece faded out.<\/p>\n It is rare, as a member of a choir, to have a feeling of intense connection with those around you. It has happened to me a few times, in rehearsal or a performance, but it is a very special, life changing experience. It is even rarer, as an audience member, to feel that connection with a choir that is not your own. I felt VYC\u2019s energy and connection with each other radiate past the conductor towards me, enveloping me in a force field of high emotion which, honestly, made me tear up slightly. Their sense of unity and enthusiasm made songs like \u201cFire\u201d and \u201cNorth\u201d so much more special to watch and listen to.<\/p>\n For the finale, all three choirs once again came together to teach the audience a two-part, 3-note accompaniment, while the Sopranos and Altos sang the melody. It was an excellent way to bring an evening of inspiring music-making to a close.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Vancouver Youth Choir (VYC) was founded by conductor Carrie Tennent in 2013, and has grown to include VYC Junior, VYC Kids, and a VYC Tiny. This concert featured the younger choirs in the first half, while the second half was devoted to the main chorus. Instead of a full intermission, Carrie Tennant led all […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42028,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/musc326a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/musc326a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/musc326a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/musc326a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/42028"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/musc326a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=495"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/musc326a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":496,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/musc326a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495\/revisions\/496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/musc326a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/musc326a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/musc326a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}