Photographs Courtesy of Interkultur
Two years ago, the phrase “choral music” would’ve evoked the image of people in blue polyester robes, swaying and fanning their hands and singing Oh Shenandoah. Now, thanks to Glee, it’s cool to be a choir nerd. And that’s a really good thing for St. Louis.
That’s because this month, we’re hosting The American International Choral Festival, the first U.S. event for Interkultur, the European foundation that produces the World Choir Games (which is basically the Olympics of choral singing). Founded in 1990 to unite “people of
all nations, cultures and worldviews together in peaceful competition and song,” Interkultur now represents 120,000 choirs with 4.8 million singers (and has even branched out to orchestral music and folk dancing). Produced locally by the St. Louis Regional Arts Commission and Convention & Visitors Commission and nationally by the American Choral Directors Association, the festival’s not going to be quite as Hollywood as Glee. But it definitely won’t be a snoozy vision in polyester, either.
“We’re told sometimes they break into spontaneous singing,” says Jill McGuire, executive director of the Regional Arts Commission.
“And a lot of these choirs, about 70 percent of the members are under 21.”
They’re also from all from all over the place: Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Croatia, China, Ukraine, South Dakota, Tennessee, Illinois, and Missouri (including St. Louis’ Narda Shirley and the Nation). The process of landing the festival took about 17 months, McGuire says; St. Louis began as one of 50 competing cities. Eventually, along with Reno, Nev., and Cincinnati, Ohio, it became one of three finalists, and Interkultur made visits in person, trying to figure out how to break the tie.
“What was serendipity,” says McGuire, “is that during the time they were here, there was an amazing concert at the Cathedral [Basilica]. We invited them, and they fell in love with St. Louis. They saw the New Cathedral, and they also saw Christ Church [Cathedral], which has a long tradition of choral festivals. They [also] realized that we had an amazing symphony, and an opera, and that we really are an arts town…so it was not just the Cathedral Concerts, but the Bach Society, and this really rich tradition of gospel music.”
“The timing just worked,” agrees Convention & Visitors Commission president Kitty Ratcliffe. “Of course, [the Cathedral Basilica] was just like being in Europe… I think they felt like they were at home,” she says. “They were really mesmerized by it. It was pretty clear to us that we suddenly had the edge.” (Though St. Louis won the bid to host the first Interkultur event in the U.S., the organization decided to host three festivals, hopping over to Reno in 2011, followed by Cincinnati in 2012.
Holding the first American festival for a 20-year-old European foundation sounds impressive, but the appeal may be lost on people who weren’t in the choir (or who don’t watch Glee). McGuire says that it’s not anything like what people are imagining: “Opening night is a big festival and parade, with everyone in their [national] costumes,” she says. “People have an idea that choral singing is very sedate. We hope that this festival will help to dispel that myth. It’s fun, it’s choreographed, and it’s really a lively affair.”
Isabela Sekeff, founder and principal conductor of Brazil’s Coral Cantus Firmus, went to graduate school at the University of Missouri–Columbia, and is excited to return.
“I just try to let the people know we are really excited to sing Brazilian music,” she says. “When I started in Columbia, I made a recital of South American music there, and I realized that people don’t know it very well. They may know something from Argentina, but Brazil, no.”
Jeffrey Carter, chair of the Department of Music at Webster University, is the festival’s artistic director, and is coordinating all of the public events, including that opening ceremony. “This will probably be the only time that you’ll have a chance to see a church choir, a college choir, The Ambassadors of Harmony, and the St. Louis Children’s Choir onstage at the same concert,” he says. If you can only make one concert, Carter recommends “The World Sings in St. Louis” at the 560 Music Center on November 18, with performances by Croatia’s Klapa Kastav, China’s Shenzhen Musicians Association, and Coral Cantus Firmus.
“It will be unlike any other concert that you’ll hear in St. Louis for a long time,” he says, “because you’ll have people from four different countries, singing songs in their own language, English, probably Latin, and who knows what else.
“These international choirs are going to be coming in and singing because they want to sing together,” he continues. “And there is a different spirit about their singing, because it’s not something they’re required to do, or something that is part of an educational activity. It’s their social activity. And you’re going to find that convivial music-making has a whole different feeling than educational music-making.”
The American International Choral Festival runs November 17 through 21 at America’s Center, 701 Convention Plaza, stlchoralfest.com. $20 all-festival pass; $25 and $50 for single tickets to “The World Sings in St. Louis.”
