Randolph Singers Celebrate

Thr Randolph Singers spent plenty of time in this bus during last week's trip to the 400th birthday celebration of the Jamestown Colony, as a representative of Vermont-and it looks like it was fun. (Photo provided by the conductor, Piero Bonamico)

Nation’s 400th at Jamestown

By Felicity Swayze

"My reason for being is music…" Thus wrote Gwyneth Walker in her musical tribute to Vermont, "Long Ago Lady."

And this was among the many songs that members of the Randolph Singers and their director, Piero Bonamico, took to Jamestown, Va., May 10-14 as participants in America’s 400^th Anniversary Weekend celebrating the founding of Jamestown Colony in 1607.

Music was, indeed, our reason for being over the next four days as we joined a chorus of 1607 singers and an orchestra of 400 in preparation for the two concerts to be performed on Sunday, May 13 for an anticipated crowd of more than 30,000, including President George W. Bush.

Late Night Start

Our journey begins at 11 p.m. on Wednesday, May 9, at Vermont Technical College where we board a Bristol Tours luxury coach, our wheels throughout the trip. We head off into the night, trying to sleep. Midday Thursday we arrive in Williamsburg where we pick up our tour manager, Carlo La Fiandra.

He christens us "My Group" and for four days gets us everywhere on time, with no lost sheep, even in the most challenging crowds. He and Piero keep us together, fed, and cared for. Today he takes us to Pierce’s barbecue for lunch. We know we are in the South, as we eat pulled pork, hush puppies, sweet potato fries, green beans long cooked in bacon fat, deep fried catfish.

Friday evening is our first mass rehearsal. The parking lot at the College of William and Mary is filled with buses, and the buses are filled, it seems, mostly with teenagers. They spill onto the lawns in a great, youthful human tide. On our way into the building, we pick up hamburgers, hot dogs, salads, which we eat on our laps in an enormous indoor sports arena. Piero points out a group across the way, "mature" like us, and we are relieved. We are not alone.

There are choral groups from all over the country, children’s choruses, high school choruses, community choruses, choruses from professional symphony orchestras. Half the singers sit on one side of the arena, and the other half opposite, about 800 on each side, henceforth known as Stage Right and Stage Left.

We are assigned a block of seats on Stage Right which are our seats from now on, for three rehearsals at William and Mary, and for two Sunday performances at the Festival site. To the right of us is a community chorus from Elgin, Ill., mature like us. To the left, a talented and energetic high school chorus from Massachusetts. In front of us, the Virginia Symphony Orchestra chorus. We make new friends.

During supper, the din continues, great surges of sound, from rousing cheers to informal choral renditions. Can this beast be tamed, I wonder.

On the floor are a piano, mikes, sound systems and the two brave men who are going to conduct us all. Robert Shoup, director of the Virginia Symphony Orchestra chorus is the lead director and directs those of us on Stage Right. Stage Left goes to his partner.

Transformation

The transformation begins. Shoup addresses us and there is immediate silence. Yes, I think, these people are here to sing. He talks to us of musical values, of his desire to make it like a giant chamber ensemble.

Diction matters. We are singing music of our country known by our citizens, America the Beautiful, Shenandoah, At the River, The Battle Hymn of the Republic. They want to hear the words. He tells us that we must change the way we sing. He says, "Sing with your eyes, not your ears, and your eyes must be here on my baton. This is the only way we will keep the whole thing from falling apart."

We start with "God Bless America" and it is glorious. Shoup works with us.

He asks the back half to stand and sing forte staccato. He builds us up, part by part. The teen boys to our left, some hardly shaving yet, pour forth beautiful, engaged bass voices. To the altos, he says imagine going into the shower and singing for the Met opera, the horns and the helmet. Have a life changing experience!

"Soon we’ll reach the shining river…" And the altos produce the sound he seeks. Over the next two days, this gifted man turns us into one 1607-voice ensemble that took his direction in ways he said he never imagined possible. We did not become, as feared, the ultimate "y’all come choir." He praised our directors for their work.

The Day Arrives

Sunday dawns. Breakfast at 5.30, in the bus by 6 and off to Jamestown Anniversary Park at last. It is drizzly, cold, and windy. We have donned our required long sleeved dark blue shirts.

Piero has warned us that the key to today is survival. Security at the Park is very tight and it takes a couple of hours to get through. We have all been given plastic see-through ponchos the weight of Saran wrap. We wear them gladly.

The venue is huge. We get ready for our noon concert. Stage Right and Stage Left choral groups are seated in bleachers on either side of the main Festival Stage, which is enclosed on three sides and covered to house the 400-piece orchestra, also filled with young people. Robert Shoup is below us, on a podium, with a television monitor where he can see the orchestra conductor, JoAnn Falletta, face on. In this way, they coordinate orchestra and chorus.

The performance time is advanced, as the President is expected ahead of schedule. There are speeches about Jamestown, the event, and the planning, punctuated by our music, though we do not do our whole program. We hear the orchestra, though we can’t see it.

We sound good. Shoup smiles and gives us the thumbs up. The large audience is seated in an enclosed area and spread out on the massive field beyond.

Finally, the President and Mrs. Bush arrive. Much excitement, especially when he takes the baton from JoAnn Falletta’s hand and conducts the orchestra for a few bars of "Stars and Stripes Forever." Of course, it brings down the house. We twist in our seats and watch the enormous television screen behind us and catch the action.

The sun comes out and we are happy. The program ends around 12:30, and we are free until 4 p.m., when we must gather to prepare for our stand-alone concert at 4:35 on the Democracy satellite stage.

A Solo Concert

Here we do our own thing, led by Piero and joined by our accompanist, Tim Guiles. We sing Gwyneth Walker and arrangements of "Good Night Irene," "If I Had a Hammer," and "So Long, It’s Been Good to Know Ya," arranged by Vermonter Robert De Cormier. There is a good audience of about 50, some Vermonters present, and two from Bennington who joined us to sing John Rutter’s "Heavenly Aeroplane." This was fun.

Then, a fast trip back to the bleachers, waiting for our group to be called out of the line to enter. We are seated again and ready for the 6:30 evening program. The crowd is really enormous, much bigger than midday, estimated at 30,000. The orchestra plays. We, the 1607 Chorus, sing our songs and get a standing ovation for the Battle Hymn of the Republic. They love it. We love it. It is incredibly exciting.

The evening ends around 9:30 with the huge sounds of Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture and fabulous fireworks, better than any I ever saw at the Washington Monument. We are cold again and exhausted and exhilarated. We finish off the day at Applebees, which stayed open long enough to give us food and drink at 10:00. We leave Williamsburg at 9 the next morning and arrive back at VTC around 11 p.m. We say goodbye to each other and to Piero Bonamico, whose energy, leadership and faith in us made this all possible.