This year Chicago Chorale celebrates its 20th Anniversary. In honor of this momentous occasion, some of our singers have agreed to share their experience of singing with Chorale. The final piece in this series is a reflection by member Kirsten Mallik who has been with the group since 2004:
It’s not hard to understand why people sing. Singing is fundamentally human, joyous, and fun. No one asks why we sing at birthdays, do karaoke, or go Christmas caroling. A much more interesting question is, “why do you sing with a choir?” Because then you are also asking, “why do you devote so many unpaid hours each week to singing? Why do you leave your family behind, turn down invitations or leave work early - all to travel to a rehearsal, mark up sheet music and practice saying your consonants and vowels together?”
This is a more powerful question, because it gets to one many of us have been freshly pondering these past pandemic years: how should we spend the very precious time we are given on earth? Especially given that tomorrow is not promised to any of us?
I come from a singing family, I was always singing somewhere. But it was in my high school choir where I first experienced that feeling of forming an artistic unit with others, creating something extraordinary together that none of us could ever have done on our own. I vividly felt we had unlocked something, opened a valve, completed a circuit; I could feel a current of inexpressible things running through my limbs. It’s a feeling all choral singers know. I was hooked, and I dove deeper, singing in choirs all through college.
How could you not want that feeling? How could you not need it?
After graduation, it was hard to imagine the rhythms of adulthood. I had a good job and an apartment, but what about everything else I had always done? Does everything need to be a job, now? I was no professional musician - did I have to give up my connection to cosmic things? That I could no longer be part of putting beauty into the world?
Luck (and some well-placed posters) led me to Chicago Chorale - a unicorn of a group of skilled musicians who were not professionals, but still devoted artists. They were funny, extraordinary humans - and 18 years later still are, no matter how the roster has shifted. Choral music brings in and binds singers together. We keep each other connected to the unknowable things.
Over the last 18 years, life has filled steadily with other obligations and relationships, but I make the choice every week to leave them behind and head to rehearsal. And that’s because choir is not just an extracurricular, a holdover from school - it’s a good and valuable way to spend time on this earth. It is a group of unique individuals all working together, creating something of great and inspiring beauty to share with others. What finer pursuit is there? What better way to spend any time granted us?
Happy 20th Anniversary, Chicago Chorale - may we all work together to keep your beauty in the world, for all of our sakes. The life AND the world I want, is one with you in it.
Chicago Chorale Reflects on 20 Years: Kirsten Mallik