Many are still commenting on how powerful and moving the Circle of Song Women’s Choir festival was for them, especially the choir members. The audience was lifted by the sound of the 100-voice Mass Choir that graced the stage at Calvary Baptist on Sunday afternoon, April 14.
Sarona Mynhardt, director of the local Inspirito Vocal Ensemble, first experienced the power of a choir festival and the incredible joy when you take hands in a Mass Choir when she participated as a young singer in the International Zymriah Choir Festival in Israel in 1980. Almost 40 years later she has travelled the world with her White Rock Children’s Choir to festivals from Tuscany and Canterbury to Hawaii and Carnegie Hall.
Mynhardt and her family arrived on the Coast two years ago, and on Jan. 22, 2018, Inspirito was born. “When friend Dawn Pemberton, acclaimed Canadian soul singer and director of Roots ‘n’ Wings Women’s Choir in Vancouver, messaged me to ask if our choirs could do something together, I thought it is time for a new festival,” Mynhardt said. She also contacted Samara Ripley (Crescent Women’s Choir), a former student who took over Mynhart’s Women’s Choir in White Rock. The first Circle of Song Women’s Choir festival brought 100 voices together in Gibsons and was a major success.
This year, after making new friends, rehearsing together, and working through the logistics of fitting 100 singers on a stage, the weekend culminated in a fabulous concert. Each choir sang a few pieces on their own and then they joined for the heartfelt performance of the mass numbers.
“All the Way Home,” conducted by Ripley, is a gentle melody by Canadian composer Sara Quartel that guides you all the way home with a song in your heart. Pemberton conducted “Warrior” by Kim Baryluk, a moving anthem for women. The music is stunning with its simple, powerful message. Mynhardt chose Indodana, a Xhosa prayer from her homeland South Africa. The finale, “Will the Circle be Unbroken,” moved everyone to tears of joy, love, passion and compassion, of an overwhelming sense of camaraderie and the power of choral music.
If you missed this concert, Inspirito will perform these pieces as part of their Spring Concerts, La Bilingual Butterfly, on Saturday, May 4 at 2:30 p.m. and Sunday, May 5 at 6 p.m. at Calvary Baptist in Gibsons. For more information about Inspirito, see www.inspiritovocalensemble.ca and to buy tickets for the upcoming concert, contact Roberta at [email protected].
– Submitted
