This weekend, Harvard’s Pro Musica singers will join with two youth choirs to perform a diverse range of spiritual music from North America, South America, and Asia as their spring concert program. The concerts look to satisfy two of the organization’s deeply held values: singing with young people and performing in local historical venues.
Bulfinch Church, Lancaster. (Courtesy photos)
Interior of St. John the Evangelist Church, Clinton.
Scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Saturday, May 16, at the First Church of Christ in Lancaster, also known as the Bulfinch Church, and 3 p.m. Sunday, May 17, at the St. John the Evangelist Church in Clinton, the concerts take advantage of two unique performance spaces. Both churches have undergone renovations to preserve their architectural grandeur and acoustic resonance. Concertgoers trying to decide which venue to choose might note the differences in each performance space. St. John’s was built in the style of a grand European cathedral, and the Bulfinch Church, a National Historic Landmark, is a federal-style church and is said to be acoustically perfect.
But the historic settings are only part of the concerts’ draw. Pro Musica will be joined this weekend by 10 students from the VOICES BOSTON high school ensemble, a Brookline-based youth choir that shares its artistic director with Pro Musica. In addition, nearly all the 81 enrolled students at the Trivium School in Lancaster will sing in various parts of the program, including a specially selected, 40-student chorale that will join with Pro Musica and VOICES in performing Schubert’s Mass in G.
A great combination
The opportunity to collaborate with Pro Musica is an exciting challenge for Trivium, an independent Catholic high school that prides itself on a rigorous academic program that strongly focuses on music and the arts to help students develop lifelong learning habits. “When you perform with people who sing really well and are enthusiastic about what they’re doing and patient with you to learn, it’s a great combination,” said Dr. William Schmitt, the headmaster of the Trivium school. “That’s what working with Pro Musica and [Artistic Director] Andy Icochea Icochea has been like for our students. Students are excited to go to practice, and they sing louder and with more heart and enthusiasm than I’ve ever seen.”
Pro Musica members are enjoying the experience as much as the students are. Kathy Hewett, the organization’s president, put it this way: “A lot of us started singing when we were kids. When you start singing when you’re young, you never lose the interest or the thrill of what it is like to work on something and perform it as a group. Singing with younger people who are developing a lifelong love of music is really meaningful to [our members]. It’s inspiring!”
Andy Icochea Icochea. (Courtesy photo)
Pro Musica’s collaboration with young singers in these locally exceptional venues is fruit from a seed planted more than a year ago, when the group was searching for a new artistic director. During that time of impending change, members took the opportunity to review their organizational identity, in order to ensure they selected the candidate most qualified to lead them forward. After a season of reflection, two salient values emerged. Members wanted a broader range of collaborations, especially with youth choirs, and they wanted to regularly reach audiences beyond Harvard by performing in neighboring communities. Their selected candidate, Andy Icochea Icochea, could help them do both.
A former director of the Vienna Boys Choir and an internationally renowned choral director, Icochea Icochea is passionate about reaching children and adults through music. His extensive experience directing children has brought a sense of playfulness to Pro Musica’s rehearsals. “He’s a strong believer that you sing with your whole body, that movement gives your voice a completely different quality. He has us doing things with our arms, doing vocal gymnastics. It doesn’t seem like teaching because he’s making it so goofy and so much fun,” said Hewett.
Both Hewett and Schmitt remarked that it is Icochea Icochea’s passionate belief in the power of music to create communities that gives such a unique feel to his style of directing. “He cares about the experience people have when they’re singing. And what happens between the audience and the singers when they’re singing,” said Hewett.
The magic that happens between the audience and the singers during a performance is shaped by the physical structures where the performance takes place. Both churches are desirable performance spaces because of their acoustic sophistication. “It’s a different experience to sing in a place that’s been built and designed for the human voice. Because of the reverberation [at St. John’s], it is like going to your own concert,” said Hewett in an interview last weekend. “Somehow the building makes the music a part of the space. The people in the room don’t just receive the sound in a place like that. They are part of it.”
Schmitt agrees that singing with Icochea Icochea and Pro Musica in these inspirational settings has been a “transcendent” experience for his students, one he believes they will communicate to audience members. “It’s an inspiration to see young people when they are excited about something. The music is why you go, but seeing their faces will help the audience to love Schubert all the more. The material draws them in. People who go to the concert will be able to see that in their faces, their enthusiasm.”
Tickets for this weekend’s performances are available at Pro Musica’s website, harvardpromusica.org, or at the door. Saturday evening’s ticket prices are fixed, while Sunday afternoon’s family-friendly performance admission is based on suggested donations.
