S1 E10: Looking forward with Robert Geary of Volti
Today, Robert Geary, founding Artistic Director of both Volti SF and the Piedmont East Bay Children’s Choir, as well as Artistic Director for the San Francisco Choral Society, stops by the show for a virtual chat about how the diverse membership of his organizations have responded to COVID with a particular focus on producing visual media that goes beyond the virtual choir. We also discuss the advent of the new music scene in the bay area in the 70’s, and talk shop about some new and exciting composers
Music Excerpts
Klavierstuck V, Work No. 4, by Karlheinz Stockhausen
Canticum Sacrum, by Igor Stravinsky, performed by the San Francisco Symphony
Ave Maria, Robert Parsons, arr. by Joel Chapman
Quatre Couches from Suite for Voice and Electronics, by Pamela Z
Theme Song: Mr. Puffy by Avi Bortnik, arr. by Paul Kim. Performed by Dynamic
Episode transcrip
Intro [00:00:07] Hello and welcome to In Unison, the podcast for choral conductors, composers and choristers, where we interview members of our choral community to talk about new music, new and upcoming performances, and discuss the interpersonal and social dynamics of choral organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond. We are your hosts. I am Zane Fiala, Artistic Director of the International Orange Chorale of San Francisco. And I'm Giacomo DiGrigoli, a tenor in IOCSF, the Golden Gate Men's Chorus and the San Francisco Symphony Chorus. And this is In Unison.
Zane [00:00:45] Today, Robert Geary, founding artistic director of both Volti and the Piedmont East Bay Children's Choir, as well as artistic director for the San Francisco Choral Society, stops by the show for a virtual chat about how the diverse membership of his organizations have responded to COVID with a particular focus on producing visual media that goes beyond the virtual choir. So joining us today, we have Maestro Robert Geary.
Zane [00:01:12] Bob is the founding artistic director of Volti, which under his direction for 35 seasons has become recognized as one of the most important and accomplished new music ensembles in the United States. Bob's also the founding artistic director of the Piedmont East Bay Children's Choir and the Golden Gate International Choral Festival. Bob also serves as artistic director of the San Francisco Choral Society, is a champion of contemporary music and has conducted first performances of nearly 200 works. He's received numerous awards and conducted choirs all over the world. Bob, thanks so much for joining us today. Did I miss anything in that rundown?
Bob [00:01:53] I've just been around for a long time, so you accumulate a lot of things over the years.
Zane [00:01:58] No, that's true.
Bob [00:01:58] That's fine. It's nice to be here.
Giacomo [00:02:02] Bob, we're going to jump right in. One of the things I've been kicking around and would love to ask you is you're the founder of several groups focused on the vanguard of new music that's been around for quite some time. First off, what was it that sparked the desire to pursue new music for you? Like what was it about new music and newness that really turned your crank?
Bob [00:02:23] Good question. I think it goes back to my student days and I was a theory and comp. undergrad and I was very interested in the contemporary composers of the day at that time and sort of the whole mid to late 20th century evolution of music.
Bob [00:02:47] So, you know, I had an idea or of course, you know, Stravinsky earlier in the century, but, you know, moving through Schoenberg and Berg and Stockhausen and Penderecki and those folks and and the school I went to was a state university, the University of New Hampshire, not known really for a choral program, although they had a choral program.
Bob [00:03:08] We weren't exploring any of that music in choir. I sang in the choir. My mother was a choir director. I grew up singing choirs. So there was a bit of a disconnect between what was interesting, my musical tastes and what we were singing, things like Randall Thompson's Frostiana and Samuel Barber's Reincarnations and, you know, and some Benjamin Britten and things like that. They were really solid literature, but they weren't at all exploring the tonal and rhythmic world of contemporary and instrumental music. So when we started the San Francisco Chamber Singers, which became Volti, there was a group; it was a group of very talented singers. We had all been singing together in the Byron MacGillivray Chorale, and we all had kind of decided that wasn't the right place for us simultaneously.
Bob [00:04:05] And just just we left and then one of the singers Anne Betts said, Bob, you should start a group, you know, because I had by then had a master's degree in choral directing and was, you know look, I was just working a church job at the time, and so that began the group. But It was a group of people, several of whom were a couple of whom were founders of Chanticleer. And Claire Giovanotti became a very well-known voice teacher. And it was quite a nice group of folk, talented folk. And we got Chamber Singers off the ground. And then we actually our very first concert was the first half of Bach's Christmas Oratorio. So we didn't start with new music. But, at the time, we felt like we were a little bit on the edge, just singing up to date Benjamin Britten. He had just died in '76. We started in '79 and a couple of our singers sang in his living room for him and Peter Pears and connections there. And and then from there, you know, when you got the horses, I mean, Zane, you know this as well, when you've got trained singers, you kind of want to help them. And it's all like, what is our potential, how do we reach our potential? Well, you can spend forever recreating historical music to a fare-thee-well and make it absolutely fabulous, but you've got the horses to do more than that, you can start to explore and create.
Bob [00:05:33] And then you kind of get into this whole idea of the creation of new music or, you know, there are different little buzzy words like making history or something like that.
Bob [00:05:44] But the actual place where the composer and the performers and the audience are all experiencing something that is a unique experience, you know, and that kind of became its kind of own mantra.
Bob [00:06:00] And then in Volti's case, we've got some recognition, you know, a bunch of ASCAP awards and some other just opportunities based on the reputation for new music. So then it's like, OK, well, this is working. Let's let's really, really, really focus on this. So in short order, it became very rare for Volti to do anything that was more than 20 years old. And now it's even less than that. Probably, you know, brand new and up to 10 years old probably accommodates most of what Volti does these days. I mean, unless they're gigging with somebody else...
Zane [00:06:35] Right, right.
Bob [00:06:35] ... or a new organization.
Zane [00:06:38] How do you think the landscape of new music has changed and evolved over time? You know, both abroad and also specifically in the Bay Area.
[00:06:47] Well, I think the landscape for choral music and sort of choral music. Choral music did a wonderful expansion from the... I view it kind of as a post World War Two phenomenon. I mean, I think up through World War two, most choral music was happening either in church type situations or in symphony chorus type situations, although you could argue against that. I mean, the right back to, you know, the orphanages in Italy that Vivaldi and others wrote for to all the Singvereins that Brahms was writing for.
Bob [00:07:31] But but I feel like after World War two, there was just a complete expansion in the number of people singing in the environments they were singing in that were outside of the churches. And so, you know, Zane, people like you and I figured out that there was a niche for this. And so we all have really, you know, whether we caused anything or we are just the symptoms of the flow through time we're part of this changed landscape.
Giacomo [00:08:04] Here's a bit of that transition from sacred to secular choral singing: Stravinsky's 1955 Canticum Sacrum, dubbed by reviewers at the time as the murder in the cathedral. [00:08:14] [Choral excerpt with interruptions of fast notes and flourishes from the brass section of the orchestra]
Bob [00:08:37] So there's a lot of choirs, as you know, in the Bay Area that, you know, do various levels of new music. I sort of, most of the time, my interests are not doing new music that sounds like old music. And, you know, when we commissioned composers, I pretty much always say, look, I'm not so interested in something that has classical poetry or traditional liturgical text or something like that. I'd rather do something with no text or made up text or found texts. You know, there's this whole genre of text now called found texts. So you've got people setting really interesting music out of medical journals...
Zane [00:09:20] Aahh...
Bob [00:09:20] ... or out of Supreme Court decisions or out of, you know, various concoctions of things. And so then it becomes a different question. You're not, you know, trying to express the various aspects of the deity through traditional liturgical prayers. But you are saying, can I create something that has musical interest and value, that has no precedent in or so, no expectation on the part of the listeners? I mean, if we're going to listen to a Magnificat, we have certain expectations of what that text means, how various composers might have set it and all of that we get into. You know, I'm remembering Ted Hearne's piece called Sound from the Bench, where he used a text from the Citizens United decision.
Zane [00:10:13] Oh, wow.
Bob [00:10:14] And interwove that and created a piece of music that is mind blowing. Volti premiered it. Donald Nalley and the Crossing recorded it. And I think they might have got a Grammy for that or a nomination anyway. Maybe a nomination... Donald's got several Grammys at this point, I believe. They're a house of fire back there in Philadelphia.
Zane [00:10:37] Let's hear a bit of Ted Hearne's 2017 composition Sound From the Bench (Ch)oral Argument, which was premiered by Volti. [00:10:45] [Music excerpt: A blaring alarm with percussion is interspersed with loud declamations from the chorus]
Zane [00:11:40] IOC, you know, our program for the spring that got interrupted was going to be an all new music program. And one of the singers in the group wrote a new piece for us, and it was based on quotes from politicians denying climate change. So it's very much that found text...
Giacomo [00:11:58] Oh, the Brian Lin piece.
Zane [00:11:58] ... Brian Lin had written a piece that was all little excerpts of speeches where politicians were essentially denying climate change. And it was very interesting to see the way he took that text and interpret it.
Giacomo [00:12:10] Bob, you also mentioned you talked a little bit about these historical flashpoints as being the kind of genesis or these moments like World War Two. Obviously, lots of compositions came out of that. Or I mean, here we are living through a year plus of, you know, this COVID pandemic. And everyone's kind of going into their own corners and kind of thinking about things and creating new things. Do you think we'll see maybe this sort of new, interesting new burst of creativity or ideas that'll come out of this period of time? And what are you seeing?
Bob [00:12:39] Yeah, that's such an interesting topic. I said when I try to describe so we're moving into the COVID times, and I would say I have this interesting window, as I've always had, because I've conducted on several different levels. You know, I still work with one group of high school treble singers who are part of the Piedmont East Bay Children's Choir. So I still got a little bit of a link in the children's choirs. And then I have the San Francisco Choral Society, which is a large amateur organization, and then Volti, which is a small professional organization. So how does each one of them cope?
Bob [00:13:11] And each one is different. In the children's choir, we're zooming rehearsals and making virtual recordings and that will hold us for a while yet. It's I mean, have you done much of that, Zane or Giacomo?
Zane [00:13:29] We've done a little bit of virtual choir stuff with IOC, just a couple of projects.
Bob [00:13:35] You realize when you're done with the rehearsal. First of all, it's more fatiguing than two hours of rehearsals, more fatiguing than a three hour in-person rehearsal.
Zane [00:13:43] Absolutely.
Bob [00:13:44] For me and sounds like for you too. And they're, you know, definitely it does satisfy certain things and it creates a visual intimacy that we don't have in our rehearsals because all of a sudden we are absolutely, as we are right now, face to face and looking into each other's eyes, even though it's a virtual platform and that changes it. And it also when you're making virtual recordings, all of a sudden the singers really do have to pay attention more to how they present for the camera. And that's a valuable skill, you know, being able to manage yourself in a visual way. So with the kids, there are some benefits. After each rehearsal, it's like, OK, that didn't go badly. That was. It was. And I always come away with feeling like, well, it's better than nothing, you know?
Bob [00:14:35] And I do feel especially for the young people for whom, their peer group is so important. I feel for them that they're reduced to: Yeah. Why don't you guys go in a chat room while I do a sectional with the Alto's, you know, and they get to gab a little bit and hang out, but, you know, they don't get to breathe the same air. Probably better at this point [laughter from Zane], but you know what I mean, metaphorically speaking. So that's the children's choir.
Bob [00:15:07] Then, the Choral Society. It's interesting. It has basically sustained the same model of operation. We're doing four programs over the course of the year. Each one has a, you know, they're usually like eight to ten rehearsals to prepare a program that we sing and we're singing along to recordings. We've done it to recordings that the Choral Society has made from their past literature. This is a group that does mostly larger works and often mostly orchestrated larger works. So we sing along to recordings. Now we're this next year, so we just finish the format of it.
Bob [00:15:53] It's so we meet by Zoom and my associate conductor and accompanist, Brian Baker, and I sort of often will split the choir in half and do sectionals. And, you know, we'll coordinate all this and go through eight or nine weeks and then have our performance. And we actually ask people to dress up, you know, and I will conduct to the recording from home and try to do my... And that's another thing just to be looking at the camera of myself conducting and trying to make sure my hands aren't doing this, all distorted, keeping back. I'm not I don't have my camera set up right now, but again, the visual presentation and actually it's a good clean up for technique to stay in the box and try to be concise and efficient and all of that.
Zane [00:16:44] Yeah.
Bob [00:16:44] But that's their thing. And we've actually augmented the number of classes that we offer. The Choral Society always offers ancillary classes between sets of vocal technique and musicianship, various teachers drawn from the Bay Area. And it's interesting, our enrollment has been higher than our normal enrollment for a lot of these projects.
[00:17:15] And... yesterday, we had a person who is part of the classes from Australia. We've had them several from Hawaii, from the East Coast. So all of a sudden geography means much less.
Zane [00:17:31] Yeah.
[00:17:31] What that means when we're able to regather is interesting. And society and probably lots of other groups are now recognizing, hey, this is one way. This is a big amateur choir. It's an auditioned group, but it's an older group of people. And people do reach a point where a combination of their own vocal abilities and or transportation issues make it harder for them to get to rehearsals. Well, guess what? They can sing. We'll probably move into a live streaming of rehearsals so that those folks can continue their association and participation without having to be in the, you know, the environment in terms of the health dangers of the environment. But also, you know, nowadays to get, as you know, before COVID to get to a rehearsal in San Francisco, you had you know, I had people driving for two hours to get to a rehearsal. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Two hours there and 40 minutes home, you know.
Zane [00:18:30] Yeah.
Bob [00:18:32] So it's just absurd. So I think that coming out of that, there will be some in some ways good things of expanded opportunities for ways to participate that may actually include more people. Because, you know, there's been a whole trend of what we do with the aging singer anyway, because so many people of my generation, baby boomers, are getting to the end of their abilities to be rapidly mobile and to have good vocal technique.
Zane [00:19:01] Sure.
Bob [00:19:01] And they're working on it. So that's the piece for the Choral Society. We also, both Choral Society and Volti have taken on sort of a BLM thing as well.
Zane [00:19:15] Hmm.
Bob [00:19:15] And in the case of the Choral Society, about 12, maybe 14 combination singers and board members divided up a list of several hundred compositions by black composers and sort of vetted them to see what might be appropriate. And I was looking specifically for repertoire that was not gospel or spiritual based, but maybe by black composers. And so this next program they're doing will be a seven or eight pieces by several black women composers and several black male composers, as far as I know these days. So that's an interesting project of smaller pieces that will also have a virtual performance. Although once we're back in action, we will probably bring a lot of the stuff we worked on for virtual into our performances.
Bob [00:20:12] So there's that piece. And then Volti actually has taken a different tack. And once this thing hit, I was like, OK, well, Volti is, you know, kind of prides itself and I pride it on it, on its trying to be innovative, you know, just always, always looking for what is interesting and creative and works. How do we take advantage of this online situation in a creative way?
Zane [00:20:43] Yeah.
Bob [00:20:44] And so I asked four composers if they would each write something specifically for online presentation and in some cases online actual live performance. So we've had two and we just call it mini concerts. We've had two of them so far. One one was a piece like All My Dreams by Anne Hege, who's a Bay Area composer and fine, fine musician and singer and increasingly interesting, I think, as a composer and has been involved in technology since she was in her undergrad days. So she's written for the Laptop Orchestra at Stanford and she once wrote a piece for my high school treble group where she wrote a program for their iPhones...
Zane [00:21:36] Wow!
Bob [00:21:36] They became instruments. They created pitches, they would do looping. They would do a number of effects by manipulating them in performance.
Zane [00:21:48] Amazing! Wow.
Bob [00:21:49] Yeah. So... So Anne did a piece where she had six solo singers who actually sang live during the performance and then prerecorded other sections of the piece with those with the tutti of 16 singers. And then she created some interludes with electronic music and some visuals. And so that became very interesting. And we had a nice online audience for that. And it was, I thought, very successful.
Giacomo [00:22:18] Here's a snippet of Anne Hege's piece: It sounds like all my dreams. [00:22:20] [Music excerpt: a fragmented melody is started by lower male voices and is gradually supplanted by treble voices]
Bob [00:22:54] And then Danny Clay took a different tack, and Danny worked mostly with the full, we're calling the full group 16 these days, it's you know, it's actually gotten smaller over the years. But Danny prerecorded all kinds of things. And I went to all his rehearsals. And I'm also not very important now because the composers are able to manage what they need musically without anybody conducting or with very little conducting.
Zane [00:23:30] Right.
Bob [00:23:31] Danny [laughter]... Danny, he said, OK, Bob, now conduct as if you're angry. And so I do these abstract, you know, facial expressions and hand gestures. And he took a whole panoply of different emotional, rhythmic, whatever, qualitative conducting gestures. And then he took... And then he had also separately worked with the singers and said, OK, do this, do that, do this, do that. And he put all that together and he created a piece called Singing Puzzles.
Zane [00:24:07] Here's a bit of Volti performing Danny Clay's Singing Puzzles, which was streamed live in December 2010. [00:24:12] [Music excerpt: A repeated rhythm consisting of consonants, over which other singers sing sustained chords, sounds of breathing, sighing, overtones]
Giacomo [00:25:02] How the heck do you put something like that together? I mean, it's... we were just talking with Tim Keeler and Chanticleer has been trying to do these things. I mean, it's sort of this trial by fire where, gosh, who knows what and what can we find out who's got skills to do different things? This is a whole new world for you. And you were sort of talking earlier about the visual interest. And you've got to kind of add that. How the heck do you put something like that highly polished and interesting together?
Bob [00:25:27] Yeah, you ask a great question and I will say that I don't. I will say that I have learned the rudiments of something called Soundtrap, which, if you need to do something, might work well for IOC for your group. Soundtrap is a good one. It's easy editing.
Zane [00:25:50] Ah, OK.
Bob [00:25:50] So if you get your recording from your individual singers, you can... it doesn't, it's not so hard to learn. I was starting to get my feet wet with GarageBand, but I'm no by no means proficient with that. And then Soundtrap came up and I just kind of switched over because I could handle it. And it functions a lot like GarageBand.
Zane [00:26:08] Right, right.
Bob [00:26:09] Um... So in the case of Anne's piece and the video... We had, we had a producer for performance night and we actually had a couple of dress rehearsals because there was the live element. The six singers were actually singing live on performance night. And so it was all sort of orchestrated and produced with a technician.
Zane [00:26:39] Wow. Were they singing live from separate locations?
Bob [00:26:42] Yes.
Zane [00:26:42] Amazing.
Bob [00:26:42] Six separate locations. And so the music was built so that the level of latency issue was not going to kill it.
Zane [00:26:50] Right.
Bob [00:26:52] But she designed it well. So that one went that way. Danny did everything. Danny did everything, including the graphics, you know, when he had all the little...
Giacomo [00:27:03] Jiggling scribbles...
Zane [00:27:04] IPA symbols.
Bob [00:27:05] And he's a force. He's amazing. Have you ever worked with him?
Zane [00:27:12] No, no. But we definitely plan to talk to him for this...
Bob [00:27:15] Yeah he's completely accessible and so creative and because he works with... his... He's just got such a muse. He works with elementary school kids. That's it. That's his main living, I think. I mean, he's also getting commissioned a lot now all over the country, I think. But he's just the easiest, most creative person. And none of that piece had any written out standard notation.
Zane [00:27:46] Right.
Bob [00:27:46] He worked with the key of E flat a lot and here's an E flat. Sing any note in the scale or sing a note in a triad. And then people would send back their samples and he just cobbled everything together himself. So he produced that whole thing. The next one, which I'm going to a rehearsal for tonight, I hope is Joel Chapman's piece. Joel sings with Choral Society, with Volti. Do you know him?
Zane [00:28:15] I don't think so.
Giacomo [00:28:16] Not yet. Here's Joel musing what it might sound like if robots sang Renaissance music. [00:28:21] [Music excerpt: A lone voice asks, "Alexa, do you like to sing?" A robotic choir then sings a few bars of a Renaissance motet "Ave Maria"]
Giacomo [00:28:25] Be sure to check out Joel's next premiere with Volti on February 13th at voltisf.org.
Bob [00:29:01] He is a remarkable musician. He's one of several that have come to Volti from Stanford and he actually has one of his degrees is in music technology. And so he's a composer, he's a basso profundo. He's got the lowest low notes.
Giacomo [00:29:22] Oh, did he sing with you on the Path of Miracles that Joby Talbot at...
Bob [00:29:28] Yeah.
Giacomo [00:29:28] I know. I know. Now I know exactly you're talking about. Yes. When you say basso profundo and Volti, I got it. [laughter]
Bob [00:29:35] He had had that one solo in the first movement. That was...
Zane [00:29:40] Ah, yes.
Bob [00:29:41] But anyway, so he's... It's the first time we've asked him to write something. But again, I was kind of trying to pick people who I knew were already working with technology and knowledgeable in that way. And then in February, we'll do something with Pamela Z. She's kind of legendary at this point. So you do want to check her out. She's local. Her Prix de Rome was interrupted by COVID. She had to come part way through it. But she's kind of garnering those kinds of accolades, you know? And I think we probably grabbed her while we could.
Zane [00:30:18] And as she also technically, you know, proficient with the technology and what not?
Bob [00:30:23] We will see in both Joel's and Pamela's cases what they need in terms of technical support. Well, we will see. I mean, because Anne and Danny were different...
Zane [00:30:36] Right.
Bob [00:30:36] ... Like that. So we're just trying to be from the point of view of our administrative and funding and all of that, we're trying to stay light on our feet.
Zane [00:30:47] Sure, of course.
Bob [00:30:48] Pamela Z, she does a lot with creating loops. She's a solo performer most of the time. But she also performs with other ensembles. But she has a whole bunch of solo performance stuff where she'll have all her technology laid out and show sing something and start looping it and then sing on top of that or create another layer and and that I would summarize her style a little bit that way. So it'll be fun to see what she's doing.
Zane [00:31:17] Here's a bit of Pamela Z performing Quatre Couches from her Suite for Solo Voice and Electronics. [00:31:22] [Music excerpt: a female voice sings and is layered over percussion]
Bob [00:32:04] So Volti said, OK, this is what we have, this is our environment, how do we... What can we create? So Volti is not really making a virtual choir, although you could look at Danny Clay's piece to some extent as virtual choir.
Zane [00:32:19] Yeah, I guess so. I don't know if I would categorize it that way, though, because virtual choir to me is like, you know, you record all the music ahead of time and then it's put together in a more traditional choral type, you know, sound. Whereas Volti, I feel like watching Danny Clay's piece, it was like, this is just this is just a Volti thing. Like, yes, it's exactly what Volti is known for...
Giacomo [00:32:39] Even just taking that Brady Bunch grid and doing really interesting things with it and the scribbles and taking it away and putting other visual interest. I mean, that's beautiful. It's really beautiful.
Zane [00:32:47] I really enjoyed it.
Bob [00:32:48] Yeah, that's him. I mean, so. Yeah, seriously go for him.
Zane [00:32:52] Yeah, we'll talk.
Bob [00:32:52] Because it takes singers out of their box too. If they're highly trained and have learned to sing with beautiful technique and the ability to analyze difficult intervals and difficult rhythms. And he suddenly says none of that really matters. Let's just be creative.
Zane [00:33:10] Mm hmm.
Bob [00:33:10] And then that's disorienting, you know. So then then everybody and happily most singers are happy to be disoriented, it seems, or, you know, you know, happy to get outside the box. And he reintroduces the idea of play and fun into the creative process and then creates things on that, which is a good lesson for all of us to make.
Giacomo [00:33:37] Magen... we chatted with Magen Solomon a few days ago and she said the same thing where it's you know, she said sometimes you don't have to write the, you know, multipart polyphony, crazy big thing. Sometimes if you can just write a piece that feels playful and it's two parts and it's suitable for children and, you know, it's all heart and you're still expressing something beautiful that's just as worthwhile, in fact, maybe more worthwhile to connect with people.
Bob [00:34:00] I think it's... I think for all of us, we want to have as broad a reach as we can. You know, it's good... it's good once in a while to do something that might be lighthearted or humorous or whatever. But, you know, and and I have to say, my most of my life, I've been drawn more to that, which is intense and challenging and, you know, all all of that side of things. But I think being the full spectrum is that's who we are as human beings. So that's who we should be as musicians, too, I think. Right?
Zane [00:34:30] Yeah, absolutely. I agree completely. Well, I know that our time is just a little bit limited. So we want to make sure to let you go in time to get to your next meeting. But, you know, as a kind of a wrap up, what are you most excited for post-pandemic? As we round the corner and we get back to what we say is normal...
Giacomo [00:34:50] When we get the Fauci all clear, what's the first thing you're doing?
Bob [00:34:53] Yeah. Yeah, I know. I'm. I'm actually a little afraid.
Giacomo [00:34:58] Yeah.
Bob [00:35:00] I think, you know, we've had all these organizations have been... The wheels, the gears have been turning, they were turning for years and years and years in a certain way, and then we just stopped them. And I'm I'm a little concerned about who's... in the case of the Choral Society, who's actually going to come back to the in situ rehearsals and...When, when will we have the confidence, in the case of that group, to think that we've got the funding capability in the audience, try to go back to Davies Hall, which is a big deal, it costs a lot, but also just a great performance experience.
Bob [00:35:44] In Volti's case. I would say I think that they will probably fairly easily move from one medium to the next. But I mean, I'm really looking forward to having groups of people who literally are breathing together in the same place. You know, I just do enough yoga and meditation where that awareness that I took for granted for 40, 50 years of the opportunity that we have when we do that together, which is where we kind of feel those deeper human connections. I'm looking forward to being able to be back in an environment where that happens like that. And I, as I said, took it so for granted. And I don't now. [laughter]
Giacomo [00:36:38] Amen.
Zane [00:36:38] I think I mean, yeah, I think that that's a universal feeling for a lot of the folks we've been talking to for this for both this podcast and just for me in general, a lot of people, it's like I didn't realize how much I took for granted before it was all taken away and everything changed. So I think that sentiment is universal for sure.
Bob [00:36:58] Joni Mitchell said it well when she said, "You don't know what you got till it's gone."
Giacomo [00:37:02] Joni Mitchell never lies!
Zane [00:37:06] [laughter] Well, Bob, we really appreciate you joining us today to give us a little update on what's going on with your ensembles and with you in general. And we really do hope that we can have you back on to talk about specific new music pieces and composers and performances and things that fit into the wheelhouse of this podcast as we cruise along into the future.
Bob [00:37:28] I'd be happy to do that.
Zane [00:37:29] All right, Bob. Well, take care and we'll talk to you again soon. Thank you, guys.
Giacomo [00:37:33] OK, bye bye.
Zane [00:37:34] Bye.
Outro [00:37:36] Hey, thanks for listening to this week's episode of the In Unison podcast. But before we go, do you sing in an awesome choir that people should know about, or maybe know a composer or conductor you'd love to hear on the show? How about any recent or upcoming performances that touched your heart, tickled your fancy or made you go “Hmm…”? Well, then we would love to hear from you. Please shoot us a note at ideas@inunisonpodcast.com with your thoughts. And who knows, maybe Chorus Dolores will ask us to talk about it during announcements... In Unison is sustained, nourished and fostered by you, our loyal, loving listeners. And don't forget to subscribe to In Unison on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen. You can find us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook @inunisonpod. And hey, if you like what you heard, tell a friend or a section mate. Thanks again for tuning in. See you soon.
Chorus Dolores [00:38:27] Vocal warm ups led this week by Chorus Dolores, "Is that low enough, basses?"
Credits [00:38:38] In Unison is produced and recorded by Mission: Orange Studios. Our theme music is Mr. Puffy, written by Avi Bortnick, arranged by Paul Kim, and performed by the Danish vocal jazz ensemble Dynamic on their debut album, This Is Dynamic. Special thanks to Paul Kim for permission. Be sure to check them out at dynamicjazz.dk.