The summer is moving on, and soon it will be time for Animaterra to begin the new rehearsal season! New members and old friends are welcome to join us on Tuesday, August 31, 2010 at Langdon Place of Keene. For more information click the “Contact Animaterra” or “Sing With Us” links on the sidebar.

There’s yet more research on the benefits of singing- here’s an article from Chorus America about the benefits of singing in a community chorus!

Meanwhile, some of us will round out the summer on August 28 at 2:00 p.m. at  a wonderful event: the 65th anniversary celebration  Cathedral of the Pines in Rindge, NH. This will be an interfaith service led by many from the Monadnock region and beyond, to commemorate this lovely place as a center to “welcome people of every faith in a spirit of unity and mutual respect. It was their hope (the founders) that interfaith understanding would help bring world peace.” (source: http://www.cathedralofthepines.org/). Animaterra Women’s Chorus is honored to be taking part.

Photo by Tom James

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Animaterra proudly proclaims we sing “music of the world’s traditions”.  Lately we are feeling drawn more and more to seek out singers from other lands, and learn from them. We are very excited about our upcoming concert with the French chorus Cantoria and the Vermont chorus House Blend on Saturday, July 17, 2010. Come hear the music of three choruses individually and collectively!

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According to Wikipedia, momentum “is the product of the mass and velocity of an object”. Animaterra is pleased to welcome the Keene High School women’s a cappella ensemble “Momentum” to share their velocity of sound on June 5 at the Sumner Knight Memorial Chapel in the Woodlawn Cemetery in Keene, NH. This stunning group of young singers, headed by Sydney Skinner, will open the concert to benefit the restoration and maintenance of the chapel.

It’s so exciting to look forward to this opportunity to hear such young voices present their favorite songs, and to share what we know with them. We hope to close the concert with some rousing songs together.

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It’s risky business, preparing for a Spring concert in these northern climes. Trying to schedule regular rehearsals in February and March risks the chance of foul weather. Sure enough, this Spring rehearsal season we had to cancel two consecutive Tuesday rehearsals because of snow, ice and sleet! For many amateur groups, this would be deadly, but not for us!

Animaterrans rallied into action, with make-up rehearsals, extra sectionals, early meetings, small group get-togethers, and now we are ready to present one of our most challenging, beautiful and exciting concerts in years. Featuring local artist and musician Wendy Walsh Rezzonico, the Animaterra “percussionistas” and the radiant faces of the Animaterra Women’s Chorus, “Shine On” promises to bring joy and delight to the audience and performers alike.

Check our “Concerts” pages via the side bar for more information. We hope to see you there!

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Sometimes I am asked, as the director of an all-women’s chorus in a relatively remote, semi-rural section of New England, USA, what in the world we think we are doing to sing songs from Africa, Japan, Israel, Palestine, Cuba, etc. Our group consists of mostly Caucasian, mostly middle-class American women, who are relatively well-educated and perhaps politically left-leaning, but can we hope to honor such varied and vastly different cultures and give a remotely accurate representation of their music?

The answer, of course, is yes and no. We cannot  re-create the passion and fire of a Cuban band, or a West African wedding chorus, or even a Balkan women’s cooperative. We don’t have the internal knowledge and nature/nurture exposure to allow us to immerse ourselves in each and every song-culture we wish to explore. Furthermore, we are mostly New Englanders, for heavens’ sake, taught from utero to be polite, quiet, sedate, reserved, and even aloof! How do we dare?

Thank goodness for the universal language of music! Through such songs as the Cuban El Manisero, the Japanese Hotaru Koi, the West African Dimpho Tsarona, and others of their ilk, we can get inside the ears of the people who gave us their music. Thanks to the modern gifts of Youtube and legal mp3 sharing, we can discover several versions of a song and see and hear the rhythms and passions within the music. And then, yes, we can dare to sway our hips, wave our hands, and especially lift our voices to express our understanding of their world through their music. We don’t try to pretend to BE “them”- we are “us”- including us, them, you, me, all of us, sharing our music and perhaps finding common ground and unity and dare I say it? Peace on earth…

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What do you get when the 8 major choruses in a small city come together? Choralpalooza! This Sunday, March 7, all the major singing groups in Keene will join together to support the best little theatre around. The Colonial Theatre will host this extravaganza from 4:00 till 6:00 or so. Each group will have a featured spot to show the community their unique sound: the Keene High School a cappella choir, the Keene State College Chamber Singers, the Cheshiremen, Animaterra, Main Street quartet, Keene Chamber Singers, Keene Chorale and Keene Pops. Closing out the event will be an amazing moment of sound, when all the choruses join in song- close to 300 voices in all. This will be a rare and exciting event!

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It’s Winter. The holidays are over, and many of us retreat into hibernation. Some of us are very much affected by the cold and the dark. Seasonal Affective Disorder is a very real form of depression that can be helped with light therapy, exercise, and even drugs. But there’s another very helpful form of therapy, and that’s creativity. Finding a creative release, be it through painting, photography, dance, or music, can feed the inner part of us whose flame feels dim at this time of year.

Animaterra has become a beacon of light for many of us who look forward to our weekly rehearsals as healing, nurturing, invigorating therapy sessions. First come the smiles and greetings- clusters of women in the hallway, in the back room, or sitting (with or without knitting) in the chairs that have been thoughtfully arranged by early arrivals. Then comes one lone voice, joined by many others, first in unison and gradually growing into lovely harmonies- the call to stand and prepare for warmups: “Circle round for freedom, circle round for peace, for all of us imprisoned, circle for release. Circle for the planet, circle for each soul, for the children of our children, keep the circle whole.” (words and music c. Linda Hirschhorn).

Now we smile and greet each other, now we stretch and often step out of our physical comfort zone, learning moves and sounds that will enhance and improve our singing voices and our ability to listen and sing and blend as a group. Soon we are practicing the songs that will come together by some seeming magic, to make an amazing concert experience. The rehearsal lasts 2 hours but no matter how tired or worn out we felt at the beginning of the evening, we leave smiling, energized by singing together. It’s therapy!

Animaterra begins rehearsals for the new season on Feb. 2, 2010. More information can be found on the side bar, or by clicking “Contact the director”.

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From its beginnings in 1997, Animaterra has made a commitment to community: we nurture our connections as a group, and we reach out to the region, the country and the world in which we find ourselves. We sing for community events, such as the Keene Pumpkin Festival and Tree Lighting, and the Empty Bowls project of the Keene Community Kitchen (see Events sidebar). Our hospice group, Pathway singers, brings music to bedside and the homes of the ill and dying and those in transition. We believe that bringing the joy of our music into the greater community will foster the spirit of unity in ways that other forms of volunteerism (as vital as they are) can’t reach.

Robert Putnam of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government spoke in his book  “Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community” (Simon and Schuster, 2001) of “social capital”, the networks that connect us, the fabric of our connections with each other. He includes group song as one of the forms of civic engagement that can lead to other kinds of involvement, such as volunteer work or political activism.

We hope that as women, community members who love to sing, we are helping bind ourselves and those we encounter with a stronger sense of togetherness and connectedness that makes for true community!

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It’s true! It doesn’t need a doctor’s study to prove it. Here is one of the many articles you can find on line supporting the health benefits of singing. Members of Animaterra will tell how they often arrive at our Tuesday evening rehearsals exhausted and stressed, but leave energized and relaxed. The deep, diaphragmatic breathing is one benefit, but the beauty of our singing voices, the joy of our community, and the bond of our common cause adds to our mental as well as physical health.

Rehearsals begin Sept. 15 in Keene. All women are welcome to sing with us. We will have several opportunities to share our music during the season, culminating in our seasonal concerts on Dec. 11 in Peterborough, NH and Dec. 12 in Keene, NH. Watch this space for more detailed information on our fall schedule!

If you love to sing, miss singing, wish you could sing, you are welcome. Click the “Sing with us” link for contact information to get details about rehearsals, and any questions answered.

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Since Allison is busy building her new home this summer, I wanted to write more on what it means to be an Animaterran.  And, talk about opportunities in our Monadnock-area community: our summer sings and the Pathway Singers.

On the sidebar, you will notice that Animaterra is offering Summer Sings.  These sings are open to everyone: men, children, and women.  Led by Allison, for just $8.00, you will be able to go through warm-ups, get song sheets, and participate in a community sing 4 times this summer: twice in Keene at the Starving Artist, and twice in Peterborough at the Mariposa Museum.   I am looking forward to these sings.  And, I hope you will join us.

Pathway Singers is our hospice singing group.  Started by Allison in the fall of 2007, several of us met with members of the Hallowell Singers based in Vermont.  They introduced us to their songs, their philosophies, and how important it is to connect to those in the dying process, to help them through their transition.  While anyone can call on us, we are also connected with two hospice groups in the region: HCSS and Beacon Hospice.  We go into people’s homes, and we go into nursing homes, bring comfort to the dying, to their families and caretakers.   We get together a couple of times a month for rehearsal, learn new music and add to our repertoire, and check-in with each other, exchanging books and resources.   It is a wonderful and fulfilling calling.

Andi

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