Resound Choir: “That Lonesome Road”
© Reviewed by John Arkelian
article from artsforum.ca
It opened with the choir scattered across the front of the chancel section of the historic St. George’s Anglican Church in downtown Oshawa, Ontario. Arranged in seemingly random casual fashion, every chorister faced a different direction. It was a striking and intriguing way to begin Resound Choir’s concert on March 23, 2024. “That Lonesome Road” sought unity out of the separate individual performers and their separate life stories. Songs segued into spoken first-person readings that gave voice to the program’s theme of mental health and wellness. One of the very best of the former was “Ayúdame!” (Spanish for ‘Help me!’). Opening with a dramatic burst of vocal sound, it later turned to chaotic dissonance that very effectively modeled a disordered mind. Another standout, “Fix You,” with its very familiar refrain, had the choir spread across the entire width (the transepts and crossing sections) of the church. The distaff members of the choir all converged, each with a hand on the shoulder of the next, as they sang “And I will try to fix you.” “My Spirit Sang All Day” was filled to the brim with feeling and conviction. “Still I Rise” brought the fun, with influences ranging from swing to jazz to Negro spirituals, complete with rhythmic clapping. The poignant “Weep, O Mine Eyes” sounded like a sacred hymn and matched “Measure Me Sky” in its power to move its listeners. In the latter case, the separate sections of the choir united in a rousing crescendo. “Agnes Dei” had very nice interplay between the different sections of the choir, while “Please Stay” made creative use of brief spoken interjections by various choir members while the others sang softly in the background. The effect elicited considerable emotion and provided a useful teaching moment: “Don’t let your worst day be your last.”
With the entire program in one act and applause deferred to the end, Resound Choir presented an organic whole. At once highly original and deeply personal (in the stories its mermbers told), it had the force of a morality pageant. There was first-rate singing here, an eclectic musical repertoire, and choreographed stage movement that made the program a memorable experience. The spoken word sections were instructive road maps for the program’s “journey of struggle to joy through music.” Some of the readers were better suited to the task than others, involving, as it does, a different skill set than singing, though none were a detriment to the program. In one or more cases, the soft piano accompaniment competed a bit with the solo voice doing the reading. Engaging a professional actor or two (as PBS did in their May 2024 outdoor Memorial Day Concert from the Mall in Washington, D.C.) might be worth considering, and it need not mean sacrificing the personal aspect of the stories. But, cavils aside, Resound Choir’s delightful latest program, under its Artistic Director Thomas Burton (and Assistant Director Emily Parker), was something to be proud of — a thoughtful and musically rewarding treat for its audience and a highlight of the Eastern GTA’s performing arts scene in recent months.
Copyright © 2024 by John Arkelian
