Dec 01 2011
Why I Love My Job as Corazón’s Manager
At Corazón’s year-end concert last May, the grandfather of one of the singers remarked, “Those boys don’t look like choir boys. They look like basketball players!”
Some of the Corazon boys in the rehearsal room at the Rocky Mountain Festival in Banff, May 2011 (Photo by Bill Metcalfe)
Corazón’s director, Allison Girvan, has succeeded in overcoming the perception among many young people in Nelson that choral singing is uncool for boys. Five years ago there were no boys in Corazón and now there are 20—just under a third of the 67-member group.
Of course there are bigger stereotypes about teenagers than what kind of kid wants to sing in a choir, and Corazón is busy destroying some of those too.
...and some of the girls (Photo by Bill Metcalfe)
Audiences sense immediately that the teenagers in Corazón are not superficial, addicted to their phones or the net or junk food, lazy, uninformed about the world, slaves to peer pressure and fashion, or too young to take seriously as artists. Of course some of them may have bits of those characteristics, but that’s because they are human beings, not because they are teenagers.
Audiences can sense also that these singers are not just lone music geeks, but are travelling busily in the mainstream of teenage life, propelled by other artistic activities, sports, homework, parties, part-time jobs, social media, and networks of friends.
Photo courtesy of Rocky Mountain Festival, 2011
Photo courtesy of Rocky Mountain Festival 2011
But they are different, too, in their own way. For many of them, their Corazón life exists outside their usual social and family networks. From different towns, social groups, and ages (12 to 21), they are here together because they love to sing and because their beloved mentor, Allison, fosters their singing with style, patience, humour, rigour, and unwavering respect for them and the music within them.
Photo courtesy of Rocky Mountain Festival 2011
As a result of all that, audience members see, often with tears unexpectedly welling up, that Corazón embodies the things that youth at its best can offer us if given a chance: playfulness, humour, curiosity, openness to new experience, a fresh perception of the world, huge ability to learn, creativity, concern for the planet, potential for artistic excellence now, and the ability to form incredibly deep friendships. Most of them have more of those things going on than do most adults.
And the singers get a chance to explore and not supress those things, outside of school and conventional peer relationships and family, in a multi-age, safe, expertly mentored artistic community.
In my little part time job as their manager, I get to appreciate this, observe it, try to enhance it in some small ways, enjoy their company every week at rehearsal, and go on trips with them sometimes. I get to work with one of the greatest mentors of young artists anywhere, and to be at the service of one of our town’s most excellent performing groups.
Lovely!
a Nelson treasure
Oh Bill, what a nice article. Now YOU have made me cry. We sure appreciate the job you are doing as well. Thank you.
Thanks Claus and Mary. Yes Meg, treasure is right.