The talented Kimberly Waigwa, who took the reins as artistic director of One Voice Mixed Chorus in the fall of 2023, is proving to be a boon for the choir, evidenced by its soaring recent show at the Ordway Concert Hall, performed on June 22-23. The show culminated the choir’s 35th season. With a sprinkling of tremendous guest musicians and a wide mix of songs crossing genres and styles, the group sounded precise and full.
“The Art of Joy” ran the gamut from a vivid adaptation of William Butler Yeats’ “The Lake Isle,” composed by Ola Gjeilo, to arrangements of tunes by Dessa and U2, music celebrating Black musical traditions. The chorus performed the simple and lovely “Ambe,” based on a song by Native American songkeeper Cory Campbell, composed by Andrew Balfour, and creative explorations of familiar tunes. Throughout, the concert lived up to its “joyful” title with music that often reverberated with a warm embrace.
Social justice themes percolated the line-up of songs in different ways. There were songs celebrating pride for lesbian, gay, trans and queer communities like the raucous gay anthem “The Lavender Song,” written during a brief period of freedom for queer communities in the early days of the Weimar Republic. There were also works that addressed racism and white supremacy, like “All Good People,” a song by the folk rock group Delta Rae, written in response to the white supremacist attack on the Black church Mother Emanuel in Charleston, South Carolina in 2015. Soloist Claire Psarouthakis’s bluesy belt earned enthusiastic applause after that number.
Guest musician Roland Hawkins, meanwhile, brought the house down singing “This River,” written by Uzee Brown Jr. with a melody by Ja Jahannes, weaving together sounds of Gospel and African American spiritual music together in a powerhouse delivery.
Speaking to the audience, Waigwa, who uses they/them pronouns, said they approached the season by using the colors of the new Pride flag to initiate conversation. In recent years, black and brown colors have been added to represent BIPOC communities, and other colors have changed meaning or have been removed. Waigwa relayed how the flag itself became a starting point for discussion around diversity and shifting social perspectives. “This concert to me, and this concert cycle, has been the process of understanding what are we fighting for in terms of social justice, and how do we do that in community, and most importantly, how do we do that in joy,” Waigwa said.
“Joy,” with words by Sara Teasdale and music by Hans Bridger Heruth, enveloped the audience with its rich sound. Two piano players accompanied the song— choir accompanist Maureen Armstrong and guest musician Franco Holder— and vocal soloists Stefanie Foreman and Kat Schwartz’s high voices floated up to the rafters in the engrossing number.
Artistic Director Kimberly Waigwa and the One Voice Mixed Chorus singers perform in Jan., 2024 at the Cowles Center in Minneapolis. (Lou RR Zurn / One Voice Mixed Chorus)
After intermission, OVMC’s smaller ensemble of singers, OVation Ensemble, performed a number of songs a cappella, including the haunting version of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” It’s an arrangement by Andy Beck of Native Hawaiian singer Israel Kaʻanoʻi Kamakawiwoʻole’s version.
When the full choir regrouped, alumni members joined for Minnesota composer Stephen Paulus’ tender “The Road Home,” with lyrics by Michael Dennis Browne. The elder alumni members joining in helped give a sense of the legacy OVMC holds in its history as it looks toward the future.
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