#choir

[transboysoprano]

Almost one month until I start testosterone!

It's also that time of year when directors start sending out their contracts and letters of availability to musicians like myself, and I've had to start coming out to all of them in response. So far, I've gotten nothing but support from everyone and it genuinely makes me so grateful.

The general message I've been sending to them has been as follows:

"As part of my transition, I have decided to undergo hormone replacement therapy, and will be taking testosterone starting May 28th of this year. One of the effects of testosterone (as I'm sure you are aware) is on the voice. Its effects are the same as young men undergoing puberty, so my voice will most likely deepen over time into that of a phenotypically "masculine" voice. This is a decision I do not make lightly, and have come to after many years of consideration. I will be taking regular lessons with Dr. (DM me if you're looking for resources) who specializes in transgender voices as I undergo these changes. My goal is to continue singing at the highest level regardless of how my voice changes, but where it will most comfortably settle and how long that will take is up to genetics and fate. By next year, I may be able to sing tenor or baritone, though I intend to train my upper register to sing countertenor if possible."

Then I thank them and let them know that I'd like to re-audition for their ensembles when my voice has settled more. They've all responded positively and with excitement for me, and the chorusmaster for my city's opera company even said there would be no need, as she knows the work of the professor I'm taking lessons with and thinks I would benefit from being on stage this season(!!!!)

In other news, the symphony I do admin for had their soprano soloist drop out of the Mozart Requiem so guess who's learning the part and performing it in two weeks? Your boy!! It feels a bit kismet. What better way to honor the end of my soprano career than with a requiem?

I'm still nervous to all hell but I'm just so tired of living like this. I just feel like this decision is going to change everything for the better for me.

[one-time-i-dreamt]

The world is oftentimes such an ugly place, but sometimes it can be so beautiful.

Like, when two choirs, one from Croatia and the other from Zimbabwe, met on the opposite sides of a Lisbon subway station and both sang to each other.

I unfortunately do not know what the Zimbabwe children choir sang to them (although it was so beautiful), but the Croatian klapa Kastav sang 'Kuća puna naroda' (a house full of people).

And let my reward be a house full of people, my life, give me a voice, so I can embrace you with songs.

Video source: Irena Grdinić

[microsff]

After the concert, the alien ambassador asked to meet the conductor.

"Such harmonies! This entity is aware of Humanity's warfilled history, but hearing a choir work together like this makes it hard to believe you can also hate."

"Had you been at rehearsals, you would believe."

[anonymousdandelion]

Note: Once a musician, always a musician. If you haven't touched your viola since seventh grade, I don't care, you're still an orchestra kid. And if you joined a choir for the first time after retirement? Guess what, you're a singer!

Audience members, we love you too. <3

[sushisusii]

Happy Howlidays! From the wuff pack to all. We wish a wonderfully fantastic Howliday season!

[oktaviaslabyrinth]

Colgera // The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (2023)

[gon-and-killuas-mother]

i watched a documentary about the Titanic (one of those "real time" animations on YouTube) and was once again struck by the musicians playing till almost the very end. except this time i learned that their final song was "Nearer My God To Thee", which actually made me start crying

i'd always considered it an act of kindness to the rest of the passengers, but now i'm certain it was at least partially for themselves. they were musicians dedicated to their instruments and knew the likelihood of survival was slim. so rather than fight the remaining 1500 people for the last 100 or so seats on the lifeboats, and leaving behind the instruments that were rarely far from their hands, they played.

i'm a choir kid, and my brother was an orchestra kid. music is how both of us cope with hard times. when i'm afraid or hurting or grieving, i sing. when the world feels like it's shattering around me, i sing, i sing, and i sing until my throat closes and my voice crumples.

(in more amusing light, just ask anyone i play online games with, anytime i get spooked or chased by a baddie, i do literally start singing like i was in the middle of an opera)

sure, maybe the musicians on the Titanic wanted to play a lullaby to the passengers in hopes of easing their last moments, but i'm now convinced they mostly did it for themselves. not selfishly, music is never selfish, it's always an act of sharing.

if i were a professional orchestral musician, my life would revolve around the instrument i play. i might know the instrument better than any human partner. and if i knew that this would be my last chance to play a beautiful song before being swallowed by the Atlantic, i'd play it over and over and over until gravity and ice cold water forces me to let go.

not to comfort the passengers anymore, they're beyond comfort now. i'd play simply so that the last thing i hear before the water takes me is the sound of my cello, or violin, or viola, or double bass softly crooning the saddest, gentlest hymn to the night. i'd want to feel the vibrations under my fingers no matter how frozen they are, because i won't be able to do it ever again.

what the fuck i'm crying again. i always had an appreciation for the musicians, but it didn't actually strike me so hard until i related to them on a personal level. i don't think they were trying to be heroes, they were just taking comfort in their own craft.

[onyxedskies]

this came to me in a fit of madness. tag yourself.

[reasonsforhope]

"On Monday this week [first week of December, 2023], workers in London’s financial centre were met with an unfamiliar sight – and sound. Around 100 chorists, some sporting bowler hats, had gathered at the headquarters of the City’s biggest fossil fuel-backing corporations to sing in protest.

The singers, encompassing a range of generations and vocal pitches, were part of the Climate Choir Movement, a network of choirs that officially launched in January 2023. While world leaders convened at the Cop28 climate summit in Dubai, they raised their voices in support of the Stop Ecocide campaign, which is working to criminalise the destruction of the environment.

The Climate Choir Movement’s co-founder Jo Flanagan first formed a choir in April 2022 with Extinction Rebellion to protest against HSBC’s fossil fuel investments at the bank’s AGM. Dressed smartly to blend in with shareholders, the singers rose up from their seats to disrupt the meeting with a rendition of the Abba classic "Money, Money, Money," the lyrics adapted to urge HSBC to finance renewable energy. [Note: A+ Song choice for this, tbh]

Flanagan had been inspired by a video of US activists singing as a flashmob in the middle of a conference speech to protest against greenwashing. “It made the hairs stand up on the back of my neck,” she recalls. “They walked out of the room in a very dignified way, still singing. I just thought, that’s the way I want to do it.”

Since then, the movement has grown from its first choir in Bristol to 10 choirs across the UK, with around 550 members at the time of writing. The local choirs organise their own rehearsals and protests, while all movement members can attend monthly sessions on Zoom where they learn new songs, to be performed at protests like the one in London.

For Ruth Routledge, who works as a singing for health practitioner and leads the Portsmouth choir in her spare time, taking part in this action was a “wonderful, uplifting” experience. “Singing and harmonising together is a very beautiful way to protest,” she says. “There’s something very gentle, very moving, and very powerful about it. It’s so vulnerable. There’s just a real naked, stripped back humanity that I think cuts through a lot of noise.”

The movement welcomes all new members, regardless of singing ability. Routledge was touched when some passersby – including “a couple of lads” – joined in with the songs. 

She is eager for others to experience the sense of hope that singing together brings. “I feel very passionately about the state of the environment. I’m very concerned about my children’s futures, and I’m concerned about the whole world. It keeps me awake at night.

“Joining together means we’re not isolated, worrying that the world is on fire and no one’s going to do anything.” 

For Flanagan, what sets the movement apart from other choirs that sing songs about nature is its targeted approach. “We organise very carefully choreographed, peaceful performance protests. We want to change hearts and minds.”

Seeing onlookers in tears illustrates to her what singing can achieve. “It reaches deep inside people in a way that other forms of protest can’t.”"

-via Positive.News, December 6, 2023

[klinefelterrible]

Amalgamation Choir | Live at the Library - Ksenitia tou Erota (Giorgos K...

Yeah you can cry too, @one-time-i-dreamt

[naomyart]

Un dibujo rapido de uno de los diseños que mas me gustan de Bloodborne, los miembros del coro tienen un aura mística interesante

[one-time-i-dreamt]

I was having a school lockdown in the teacher’s lounge and the choir teacher still made us warm up with Hallelujah chorus.

[maepop]

we both lost our gift to fly 🕊

[surulaulu]

communion 🩸 (bloodborne oc)

[yel-low-life]

“Makula Spotted.”

[vox-anglosphere]

A former monastery, Ripon Cathedral is going strong after 1350 years

Yorkshire's Gothic gem was founded by St Wilfrid in the 7th century