THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, April 1, 1995 TAG: 9503310085
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARK MOBLEY, MUSIC CRITIC
LENGTH: Long : 116 lines
THEY ARE children who should be seen and heard.
Thirty pairs of eyes smiling, thirty open mouths, thirty pairs of hands clapping when the music stops.
Since 1992, the Virginia Children's Chorus has shown Hampton Roads youngsters the joys of singing. The group has appeared with the Virginia Symphony at Hampton Coliseum. Its members have served as voices of winter for Old Dominion University Ballet's ``Nutcracker.''
Now the chorus has embarked on its largest project to date: singing ``Hymnody of Earth,'' an extensive work for children's chorus, hammer dulcimer and percussion by Windham Hill recording artist Malcolm Dalglish.
It has brought director Carol Downing and her choir together with young singers from her native Baltimore. The chorus traveled to the Baltimore suburbs for a concert Friday with Dalglish, Paul Winter Consort percussionist Glen Velez and singers from the Saint Paul's Schools. On Sunday, the entire cast reunites at Christ & St. Luke's Church in Norfolk's Ghent neighborhood.
``It's fun,'' said 9-year-old Jill Siviter of Virginia Beach after rehearsal a week ago. ``I like to sing.'' She found the ``Hymnody'' a little difficult. ``It's, like, long and every word, there's a different note for it.''
Justin Deriggs, 12, of Virginia Beach, is a former member of Tucson, Arizona, Boys Chorus. He said the music in Virginia Children's Chorus is a little harder, though it's still fun ``because it challenges you very much.''
``When you finally get to go and do the concerts, you have fun and you like the applause,'' said Laura Pisoni, 11, of Norfolk. ``Then Mrs.
Downing likes you. Mrs. Downing is very different and she definitely gets into her music. Sometimes we wonder. She uses hand signals.''
Alex Urrutia, 9, fleshed out the description of Downing: ``Weird. Hyper. Dances a lot.''
Hyper? Maybe. Energetic, certainly. Downing, 43, moved to Hampton Roads in 1991 with her husband, a chiropractor and fellow musician. For the first year she commuted to Baltimore to conduct the Peabody Children's Chorus, which she began in 1989 at the Preparatory department of the Peabody Conservatory.
In 1992 she founded the Virginia Children's Chorus, which now has 52 members in two groups, the choristers and a training chorus for children ages 6 to 10. The younger ensemble will be heard in two lullabyes on Sunday's program. The chorus' annual budget is up to $20,000, and it just hired a development director to help it grow more.
While ``Hymnody'' is sung by children, there is nothing juvenile about it. It is a robust and haunting set of songs on poems by Kentucky writer and farmer Wendell Berry, with vibrant, folk-based music.
``I heard this piece in Baltimore, performed by the American Boychoir,'' Downing said. ``There was hardly anyone in the audience and I was completely knocked out by this piece. It brought together several loves of mine - traditional American hymns, childrens' voices, hammer dulcimer.''
Dalglish has drawn on his years as dulcimer player in the folk trio Metamora, and on his years as a member of the American Boychoir. The result is an American counterpart to Benjamin Britten's beloved ``A Ceremony of Carols.''
``There's no way we would have worked as hard if we were not so committed to this music,'' Downing said. ``It's like giving birth. Musically, these kids have had to work extremely hard to understand what this music is about. Some of it's wild - a very extended harmonic vocabulary, very jazzy kinds of chords, vocal inflections, slides.
``We're working from some interesting scores. There have been lots of late-night phone calls - `Is that a G-sharp or a G-natural?' `Is that a white-out or a rest?' ''
In rehearsal at Christ & St. Luke's last week, Downing started the group by clapping and chanting, ``COUNT your PLAces WHEN you GET there GOOD luck SEEyouatthe END!'' The sound was breathy, transparent. The children kept time in the difficult rhythms by tapping hands on their thighs.
They sang: Planting trees early in spring, we make a place for birds to sing in time to come. How do we know? They are singing here now. There is no other guarantee that singing will ever be.
Downing said, ``My scariest place, my scariest place, my scariest scariest scariest place is, `How do I know?' '' She stood on a chair to conduct. She joined in. The choir - mostly girls - swayed a little to the music. Parents sat around the sanctuary, waiting for rehearsal to end. One mother sang along softly to a boy she was holding.
Joann Grindstaff of Chesapeake has a daughter, Mimi, 12, in the group. ``She's been able to do solos in school. She just excels in her class,'' Grindstaff said while the group rehearsed. ``I think they could perform anywhere now, as far as feeling confident enough to do it. (Downing) has them so well trained.''
``She just knows how to put it across to them in such a way that it brings out the best in them,'' said Mary Erickson, mother of 13-year-old chorister Fraser Erickson.
``She's very exacting and has very high expectations,'' Grindstaff said.
``They really work hard to get what she wants,'' Erickson said.
``I feel it's worth it,'' Grindstaff added, smiling. ``It's the only reason I do it. I hate to drive.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]
TAMARA VONINSKI/Staff
Carol Downing directs the Virginia Children's Chorus. "I was
completely knocked out by this piece," she says.
Rachel Veto, 9, sings with the Virginia Children's Chorus during
rehearsal at Christ and St. Luke's Church.
[For a copy of the INFOLINE box, see microfilm.]
CONCERT FACTS
What: The Old Dominion University Children's Chorus will perform
a short program before a modern dance concert. The concert by Old
Dominion University Dance Theatre and the Governor's Magnet School
for the Arts Dance Program will benefit the Hampton Roads Committee
for the Prevention of Child Abuse.
When: 8 tonight
Where: ODU's Chandler Recital Hall
Tickets: $8, $5 for students
Information: call 683-4354 or 441-2956.
by CNB