indeed….he can. Once he warmed up with the group of singers on Friday and we sang each song once, his voice was fine. And more remarkably, his voice was fine for the second song. Why is this remarkable? When you sit at a service of any kind but especially one that causes you some pretty heartfelt emotions in your throat, it can be very hard to get your voice to co-operate. But he did it. And he did it with only the one rehearsal just an hour prior to the service to boot. Not bad!
Actually, I was proud of the whole group. It struck me that my Dad and I have been bringing choral music into people’s lives for 35 years now and that ain’t nuthin’. We listened to an amazing recounting of a one hundred year life upon this planet on Friday and one of the repeated themes was how much this person had enjoyed music and singing. Singing didn’t just bring her joy but also friendships and community.
The 22 singers who came out to this celebration of life did not all know the person we were celebrating. They came because of a sense of community and solidarity in that choral act we do together. They honored her, her family and our shared bonds as singers.
And they sounded great. They did me proud and by extension they did my Dad proud and they did the woman whose life we were honouring, proud. She would have loved it.
