Another fine voyage aboard Flin Flon-NYC choral express

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This article was published 16/11/2023 (1060 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Flin Flon Community Choir is flying so high after performing at Carnegie Hall Monday night they hardly needed a plane to make their way home from New York City.

“It was something else,” says Crystal Kolt, one of 25 members of the Flin Flon choir who performed the world première of Twilight Mass by Norwegian composer Ola Gjello as part of a 230-member mass choir invited from around the world by Distinguished Concerts International New York.

It was the third time the Flin Flon choir has performed at Carnegie Hall, but taking its famous stage never gets old, says mezzo-soprano Rhonda Head.

“Performing in Carnegie Hall is probably one of the most amazing experiences a musician could have,” the member of Opaskwayak Cree Nation says. “Hearing all the different sections of the choir was totally incredible.

“We got a standing ovation, so that was really nice.”

Kolt’s husband, Mark Kolt, was one of the lucky choristers who sang in the front row, close to Carnegie Hall’s “sweet spot.”

The auditorium is famous for its acoustics but that space where soloists usually sit or stand is particularly rich.

It was part of the reason famed violinist Isaac Stern, who performed at Carnegie Hall 250 times in his illustrious career, led a campaign in the 1950s to preserve the auditorium, which was built in 1891.

“It was amazing,” he remembers. “The hall feeds back to you, just the right amount of reverb before it gets muddy and loses its clarity. The closer you get to the sweet spot the better it is.”

The opportunity to be so close to musical bliss gave him added encouragement to hit his marks, especially when singing the word “Gloria,” common in sacred choral music, be it Gjello’s Twilight Mass or Handel’s Messiah.

“It’s not ‘Gloria’ with a mushy G, but ‘Gloria!’” he sings with gusto.

The mass world chorus was supported by a string orchestra and Gjello himself on piano. Lengthy rehearsals were needed once all the singers from Poland, Germany, France, the United States and Canada arrived in New York, so there was little time to revel in the musical moment.

Some singers, including Bill Price, a former Flin Flonner who is a chorister in Toronto and tagged along with Manitobans, told Mark Kolt how they sounded when he took a break during the practising.

“The first rehearsal was four hours long and we had no break,” says Mark Kolt. “And if we have to go to the bathroom, ‘Go to the bathroom and come back. We’re going to keep plugging away (while you’re gone), a lot to go through and not a lot of time.’

“So (Price) described coming back from the bathroom, and heard the singing. ‘It was amazing. It was like I’d died and gone to heaven.’ It was the best bathroom run he could remember.”

The half-hour performance was over in a New York minute.

“You want to do the very best you can and enjoy every second,” Mark Kolt says. “And then in a finger-snap, it’s over.”

The Flin Flon choristers finally got a chance to catch their breath at an “after-after party,” where they welcomed Quinn Kelsey, an American tenor who performs at the Metropolitan Opera, who serenaded the Manitobans with showtunes, Crystal Kolt says.

Kolt is the choir’s director and the City of Flin Flon’s director of culture and community initiatives, and dreams one day of bringing Twilight Mass to Winnipeg, assembling Manitoba singers to re-create the New York experience.

“We’re very proud of what we’ve done and I’m really hoping I can somehow wangle a Canadian première in Winnipeg at one point,” she says. “We’ll see what we can do.”

Alan.Small@winnipegfreepress.com

X: @AlanDSmall