In her fabulous book 100 Essays I Don’t Have Time To Write, Sarah Ruhl titled essay #39 “The death of the ensemble.”
She writes of the theater community, “Why do we think it’s a good idea for everyone to meet each other on the first day of rehearsal and then learn lines for three weeks and do blocking and put up a show?” She goes on, “Shakespeare had the King’s Men, Chekhov had the Moscow Art Theatre, and we (ifs e are lucky) have three weeks of rehearsal with an Equity cast pulled from a large group of talented people who happen not to be in a pilot.”
This is precisely the challenge facing so many American professional choirs. We have seen a massive growth in pro choirs nationwide, but scratch the surface and you see the same faces as part of professional choirs from Minneapolis to Miami, New York to Arizona.
There is something to be said for hiring the very best singers you can – regardless of location. You can tackle the most challenging music with minimal rehearsal time, present polished concerts quickly, and create recordings that sound top-notch.
But there’s something to be said for hiring the best local singers you can, and working week after week to find an ensemble particular to that group. It’s harder, the payoff is farther out, the music is more elusive at first.
But I believe the payoff is out there – in remarkable, extraordinary, singular music that couldn’t be produced by a different choir in a different city. (Or by essentially the same choir and a different conductor!).
Isn’t that part of what we love about the Atlanta Symphony Chorus under Shaw? It wasn’t the best singers, it was the remarkable connection they forged over time. Same with the Eric Ericson Singers, Orphei Drängar, The Real Group, The Kansas City Chorale. It’s why so many great college choirs (Stellenbosch, anyone?) – and even high school choirs – can be more compelling than some pro choirs.
I don’t have an easy answer, but I challenge those in a position to hire singers to move to local, consistent singers rather than modern-day troubadours.