Music Under the Big Sky

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.

Chinese singers listening to Lithuanians

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.

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!”

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.