Fill the stage with 120 energetic singers, a live band and a Musical Director with a passion for Musical Theatre, and what do you get? A “choir” show like no other! The North Shore’s own Burstin’ with Broadway’s lively concert will send you home with a beat in your feet and a song in your heart. A great collection of show tunes from all the decades of Musical Theatre, including songs from South Pacific, Bye Bye Birdie, The Music Man, HAIR, Chicago and Once on this Island.

Tickets on sale now:

https://tickets.kaymeekcentre.com/TheatreManager/1/online

Footage from concert 2012 – Piano: Caitlin Hayes, Drums Colin Parker, Guitar- Bill Weeds, Bass – Graham Clark
Burstin’ with Broadway is a 125 member non-auditioned choir in North Vancouver.

May Concert 2012 – From the musical Closer than Ever, Maltby and Shire.
Soloists: Cindy Nelms, Susan McKenzie, Steven Gillis-Moore, John McConnell, Jeffrey Montano.
Piano: Caitlin Hayes, Drums Colin Parker, Guitar- Bill Weeds, Bass – Graham Clark
Burstin’ with Broadway is a 125 member non-auditioned choir in North Vancouver.

Admittedly this is done less now in schools than when I grew up.  I still remember the music teacher in kindergarten coming into each classroom and asking the class to sing “O Canada” while he walked and around the room, listening with some device he had to each child and either tapping him/her on the shoulder as a sign that they had been “chosen” for the school choir or that they had not enough talent to be included.   You were either “in” or you were “out”, and this was decided FOR you by someone (qualified or not) when you were 5 or 6 years old, and likely affected your decisions for the rest of your life as it pertains to your musical “talent”.

In other cultures, that we so quickly and authoritatively label “less developed cultures” or “third world”, music is part of life, you sing what you can, you sing when you feel like it and you participate because it is part of culture, and of life.  Apart from the African American Gospel music, where people “get in where they fit in”…. in the caucasian western world, we have become such artistic snobs that we participate as passive listeners only, and only for those we deem “talented and brilliant” enough to perform for us.  As a result, we create a huge barrier between the performer and the audience.  Such a vast gap of “talent”, skill and technique between the audience member and the performer that as an audience member we would never even begin to conceptualize how it would feel to participate in the making of music.

I sometimes wonder how it would feel as a child or as an adult to have no labels, that music is simply part of life and that one must learn it regardless of one’s natural “talent”.  Why? Because it is fun, because it is life giving, because it is creative, and because we have vocal cords which are designed to hit all these notes, why?  because we can use them to express ourselves, if we only needed 3 notes to express ourselves adequately our vocal cords would not have the ability to span 5 octaves.

But if we taught music the way we teach other life skills, reading,writing, arithmetic,  then we’d also have to make sure that we teach music in such a way, in a non-judgemental way… a place where we would no longer hear parents saying “oh musical talent is not her forte”, we teach math regardless of whether our children become math geniuses, we teach reading regardless of whether our children want to become authors, or literary critics.

But then again, as a culture we are obsessed with this concept of ridicule and publicly embarrassing people with no talent, we set our PVRs to watch such sensationalist shows like “America’s Got Talent” or “Britain’s Got Talent” or “American Idol”, the latest rage being shows where a bunch of aspiring triple threats audition for the next hot broadway show.

Counterbalance to that, in our schools children receive a ribbon or a trophy for just attending or being part of a team because we don’t want children to feel “judged”.  So we sit at home with our children watching tv shows in which only the “creme de la creme” achieve success, but in our education system we teach that just “being there” is enough.  Talk about a mixed message.

By nurturing this idea of “worthiness” in the arts, we truly shoot ourselves in the foot.  We strangle people into losing their voices, literally.  By telling a child that he is not talented and should stick to sports, or by telling our spouses, friends etc that they are tone deaf, or laughing at them when they sing.  It is not a matter of disillusioning people into thinking they are the next Yehudi Menuhin or Yo Yo Ma, by nurturing their musical education and not judging them regardless of age, ability, musical abilities, it is a matter of accepting and celebrating that music should be a part of everyone’s life.  We listen to music, we download music, we attend rock concerts, we listen to music in church and sing hymns we as a culture spend much of our day listening to music, in the elevator, in the car, on the radio, on our iphones, how sad that we don’t feel worthy enough to participate in it.  Because someone at some point in our lives told us that we are not worthy of being a participant in the making of music.  Of course it can be thrilling and beautiful to listen to a very talented singer, or musician playing music.  That is without question, and I am not suggesting that we all should be singing with the New York Philharmonic.  There is nothing better in any field of the arts, or science than to listen to experts, but that does not mean that we cannot participate.

We all resonate with music in some way, I have seen how it has transformed lives and people, especially those who have had the guts to “find their voice” in a sea of naysayers.  I am talking about people who did not think they had a voice because they were told at some point in their lives that they should keep their mouths shut, that they were not worthy of being listened to.  I would venture to say that every person has a secret desire to “have a voice”, and to enjoy the act of singing, I say this because I have yet to meet someone who can look me in the eye and say “I HATE singing”.  Who are “we” to tell them they are not good enough to try? Everyone is creative in some way, if we can let go of the fear of being “bad” and listen, truly listen, we all have a desire to find harmony, the only thing that keeps us from it, is our fear of being “wrong”.

Join Burstin’ With Broadway, North Vancouver’s own Broadway Choir of 120 for a fun evening of show tunes including music from Music Man, Spamalot, Grease, MEMPHIS, The Wiz, Wicked, Kiss Me Kate, Anything Goes, Babes in Arms, Gypsy and many more. Burstin’ with Broadway aims to make its concerts fun and leave you wanting more! Come check us out!

“I can’t make it to rehearsal tonight, but it’s ok, I know all the notes, it won’t make a difference if I’m not there”

Over the years I cannot tell you how many times I have heard this comment from choir members in various choirs, mine and others.

Sometimes choir members forget that a choir is an ensemble.

Ensemble: (ŏn-sŏm’bəl)

n. A unit or group of complementary parts that contribute to a single effect

Ensemble is a French word which means “together”.

Now, if ensemble means “together”, then how do we create one if we are not there?

If creating a great musical group, an ensemble could be done simply by collecting a number of people who knew the notes, and putting them together for a performance,  things would be very easy for a musical director!  Or perhaps, we could completely get rid of people altogether and simply leave music making to computers to create virtual ensembles of perfect mathematical harmonies, would they not sound just as good? ….No…? Why is that?

Remember at the advent of computers over 30 years ago? Society became paranoid that computers would take over the world, replace humans in their jobs?  Musicians were scared that MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) sequencers and synths would replace them completely.  Yet it hasn’t happened. Why?  Because computers can only emulate creativity, musicality, they cannot create, and they are only as good as the person inputting the information.

There is something unique, something magic, something creative which occurs when all the parts of an ensemble come together to rehearse.  The act of making music occurs.  This cannot occur in isolation.  Try though we might to create “virtual choirs”, like Erik Whitacre, the result is the same, and it is not musical.  Don’t get me wrong, the “virtual choir” is very cool, I love it, I love technology and all that it brings.   It is a technological marvel, but not a musical one.

The mathematical, the technical side of music, is but one facet of music.  The beauty of music is that it is a linear art form, and it occurs over time. You will never hear the same piece of music twice in your lifetime.  You will never sing the same piece of music twice in your lifetime the same way. For music to happen, the sum of the parts must all be in the same space at the same time.  It is the energy, frequency, experiences, issues, emotions, musicality and beauty that each individual brings to the group which creates perfect harmony, and beautiful music.  Indeed, this is what speaks to us, as singers, as musicians, and as audience members.  This is what makes us want to rehearse, it is the interaction of the creative process, we take from, and we give to others a part of ourselves in the creative process.

Unfortunately, too often we get bogged down in the technical, and mathematical side of music, the learning of the notes, the plunking… oh the plunking…  We read the notes, instead of creating the music.  We cannot disconnect from our brains, the cerebral, mathematical, harmonic side of music.  Yet ironically it is only when we can get past this, when we can know the music so well, that we don’t need to read, to think, to analyze, that we begin to communicate, and what is music but communication?  Many groups, and indeed many “musicians” actually never get past the technical, and though they can be very proficient, perfectly blended, perfectly harmonized, they nevertheless miss the mark when it comes to creating music at all.

As a musician, I am never satisfied when it remains cerebral, beautiful harmonies if that is all they are, are indeed math over time, and though beautiful to the ear, do not translate into music at all. There HAS to be more, there HAS to be an emotional connection, I have to feel something as a musician and my listener too has to feel something.

I love to watch Benjamin Zander when he talks about music, to paraphrase, he said something to the effect that, when you are bored in a classical concert has it ever occurred to you that it’s the musician’s fault?

As a choir director I expect each person to excel to his or her personal best, to come prepared to rehearsal, so that we, as an ensemble can make music when we get together.  The math homework can be done at home, and when it is rehearsals become fun, uplifting, and energizing, and everyone can go home feeling great, and happy they came out.

Do you bring your personal best to your choir every week?  Imagine what would happen if every single person in a choir did this every week?  Just imagine…..