Central Ohio singer Kristen Pino Chapman has been performing with the Capriccio Columbus Choir for about 11 years.
Music is made and friendships are made with weekly rehearsals and regular performances.
“This group of people has worked and traveled together,” said Chapman, 42, a Dublin resident. “We were together when people got married; we supported friends with cancer; We supported friends when someone died. “
However, the past year has been a year in which this regular interaction was interrupted – as was the discipline of practicing as a group each week.
“My job as a mother and a child who stayed home for school and the other at preschool meant there wasn’t as much focused effort to get the voice going,” said Chapman. “Lots of ‘Daniel Tiger’ singing.”
This weekend, Chapman and her Capriccio Columbus colleagues will renew their musical and other ties.
After several virtual concerts, the choir will give its first personal concert since the beginning of the pandemic. “I Will Sing – Songs of Hope, Faith and Care” will be performed on Sunday at 6:00 pm in the outdoor pavilion of New Hope Church in Powell.
The singers will appear distant but unmasked, patrons are welcome with or without a mask. Several instrumentalists, including bassist Milton Ruffin, drummer Louis Tsamous, and a woodwind quintet are also featured.
For the artistic director Larry Griffin the title of the program – also the title of a song on the bill of the composer Michael Engelhardt – reflects his conviction that the time has come for the choir to sing again, a pandemic or not a pandemic.
“I thought, ‘This is what we want to say,'” Griffin said of “I Will Sing”. “We want everyone to know this is going to pass and we either live with it or just sit there and just say, ‘OK, let’s just wait.'”
But Griffin didn’t want to wait any longer.
“We have to learn to do what we love most, music that brings everyone together,” he said.
At the Sunday show, the 60 choir members will not come together as before: In the first half of the program, around 30 singers will appear, in the second half the rest of the choir will take to the stage.
A final piece, “Oh, Happy Day,” will bring both choirs together, but Griffin still plans to play it safe.
“Even if we do our combination (piece), I’m not going to put people on a riser,” he said. “It’s being spread out a bit – we’re just trying to be as safe as possible.”
The choir, which rehearsed for two hours every Tuesday prior to the pandemic, began rehearsing for the show in April; each choir rehearsed separately in alternating weeks.
“During the pandemic, we have 31 to 34 people in one room every other Tuesday,” said Griffin, who put in place a carefully controlled schedule during rehearsals: 30 minutes of singing were followed by 10 minutes of breaks and then they were repeated.
For Chapman, the trial was a reminder of the cost of being away from choral singing for a year.
“It was wonderful, but it was also very, very different,” she said. “You begin to see what that downtime has done with perseverance and breath control.”
But, Griffin said, the singers are ready to go to work.
“You have 30 minutes to do what you need and you aren’t kidding,” he said.
There is not much joking during the concert on Sunday, but there should be a lot of joy.
The show consists of gospel music, spirituals and art songs designed to lift the audience’s mood.
“I wanted fun, uplifting pieces,” said Griffin.
The program includes Harry Belafonte’s “Turn the World Around”, the spiritual “There Is a Balm in Gilead” and the hymn “Amazing Grace”.
Chapman will appear in the folk song “Poor Wayfaring Stranger” – a song with special meaning after the challenges of 2020 and beyond.
“It’s about going home,” Chapman said. “We’ve all had so much about ourselves this year, and I love this song of, ‘I’m just kind of out here. I’m on my way. I just find my way, but I know no matter what I go through, I’ll go to something better. ‘”
At a glance
Capriccio Columbus will perform “I Will Sing – Songs of Hope, Faith and Care” on Sunday at 6:00 pm at New Hope Church, 4739 W. Powell Road, Powell. Tickets are $ 20 for seating under the pavilion or $ 10 on the lawn. For more information, visit capricciocolumbus.org.
