Friday, March 4, 2005

Combined choruses make for heavenly sounds

By Rosemary Ford
Staff Writer

Closing my eyes to listen to the New England Classical Singers and the local high school students joining them, I can't tell the voices apart.

From my solitary perch dead center in the theater at the Rogers Center for the Arts, I can't pick out the young from the old; the North Andover and Andover High kids from the Lawrence High kids; the Treble Chorus of New England singers from the New England Classical Singers; the guy with the cornrows from the guy with a buzz cut.

It's when I open my eyes that I can see the vast differences among the kids in the jeans, the men in three-piece suits and the women swathed in shawls and holding song books.

But while my eyes are closed, I only hear the heavenly voices of the group as it practices Franz Josef Haydn's "Lord Nelson Mass," named for the famed English war hero.

At this recent rehearsal, conductor David Hodgkins leads the group through its paces, while four professional singers/soloists and a small orchestra integrate themselves into the Latin piece. "Lord Nelson's Mass" evokes a bygone era, when music surely close to the angels' hearts could be heard in churches and grand theaters.

The young and old all become students under Hodgkins' tutelage. With a firm but kind hand, he guides their voices through the work, teaching lessons about music and life.

His first: Go by what you see, not hear. It's probably a tough lesson for a singer used to relying on sound. But Hodgkins wants everyone on the same page and the same note.

As practice begins, he leads the singers in a series of warm-ups that would make "The Sound of Music's" Frauline Maria proud: lots of "me-ma-la-las" and "me-may-mahs" -- a language the singers understand.

There is no chit-chat here during momentary pauses. The singers are intent, focusing on music and little else with great discipline.

After everyone warms up, Hodgkins starts his second lesson of the evening: Don't look down. Again, he wants the singers to focus on him and to project their voices with pride.

If any group deserves to have pride, it's this one. Though they come from different choral groups, their sound is wonderfully unified.

Their concert should be a heavenly experience, too, tomorrow at Merrimack College's Rogers Center for the Arts. They will appear with Andover flutist Julia Scholnik, who will perform Mozart's Flute Concerto No. 2 in D with the group in the show's first half. Show time is 8 p.m. Tickets range from $20 for adults, to $15 for seniors and $5 for students. Call (978) 837-5355 to charge tickets.

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Rosemary Ford's "A Rosey View" is an arts and leisure column that runs Fridays in The Eagle-Tribune ArtsNorth section. To reach her, call (978) 946-2188 or e-mail rford@eagletribune.com.