Judy. A couple of days after we arrived in Missoula, we were walking
around the Clark Fork Farmers’ Market across the bridge from the apartment. In
the process of searching for fresh tomatoes (why eat any others?), we passed a
booth advertising the International Choral Festival. Buttons, or tickets, were
$20 each for admission to all events, or, even better, they were looking for
volunteers. Bingo! We were looking to volunteer somewhere, and this hit two hot
buttons: music and international.
Our calendars stay
pretty open, so we wound up being used every day of the Festival, for set-up
and take-down (Ted) selling buttons and t-shirts (me), setting up and serving a
continental breakfast to the choirs, and ushering. I won’t lie to you, at the
end of three days we were worn out, but thankfully had a full day of rest
before the final concert on Saturday.
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Chinese singers listening to Lithuanians |
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Crowd waiting to hear singers at the "Choir Crawl" |
Without question,
it was a great opportunity. Since daughter Leslie finished her music degree,
we’ve not heard much choral music, and were delighted at the variety of music
from Indonesia, Catalonia, Finland, Lithuania, Germany, Estonia, China,
Hungary, and the US. There were adult choirs, children’s choirs, women’s
choirs, men’s choirs, mixed choirs, each with a unique sound, and a signature
piece performed near the end that brought the audience to its feet. One of the
loveliest performances featured the Batavia Madrigal Singers of Indonesia and
University of Montana Chamber Choir singing together to solidify the friendship
they’d formed. One of the pieces was a Bollywood song they discovered they both
knew! That’s pretty international.
It was a tough
week, but we learned a great deal. This Festival has gone on every three years
since 1987. We were almost more
impressed with the audiences than we were with the performances. Not once did
we hear a cellphone ring. Not once. People brought their children and babies,
and we seldom heard a peep from the tiny ones. If they did begin to make noise,
parents took them right out. To our surprise, grizzled old cowboys as well as well-dressed matrons forked over
$20 for a button and sat, entranced, listening to the music. Grandparents
brought grandchildren, and folks came from all over to hear it.
This festival has
really ingrained itself in the hearts of Missoulians, and they take a great
deal of pride in it.
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The Batavia Madrigal Singers of Jakarta, Indonesia, perform a free concert in the park |
One evening a
rather scruffy older man fell in the balcony and broke his arm. We called the
paramedics, who wanted to take him to the hospital. He wanted to stay. “Sir,
your arm is broken. You need to go with us to the hospital to get it x-rayed”.
“Naw,” he replied. “Just put a splint on it. I’ll go tomorrow. I want to hear
the music.” They finally convinced him to go, but he refused to go down the
stairs on a gurney. Three paramedics surrounded him as he made his way down the
stairs to the ambulance. One of the volunteers told us, “That’s Montana tough.”
Often, works which
were introduced were by composers I’d never heard of. But the audiences had. A
singer from Estonia announced a composer and was surprised to hear the
audience’s murmur of approval. “You know him?” she asked in surprise. “He’s
Estonian, and we’re very proud of him!”
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Eller Girls' Choir from Estonia |
On the last night,
a huge concert was held in Adams, the U of Montana Fieldhouse. It began with a
“Parade of Nations” as each choir entered carrying their nation’s flag. I
always get choked up over stuff like that. Each group did one last song for the
gathering, then the combined choir sang four pieces together before closing.
Friendships had been made and Choir t-shirts swapped. Patrons left the building
asking for cd’s, shaking the hands of some of the singers, and thanking us for
volunteering so the Festival could happen. Host families beamed as they rounded
up their charges to go home. Two choirs made arrangements to sing at churches
on Sunday.
As it has so many
times, music brought the world together in peace. Even if only for four days.