a happy day

Five (wait, or six?) years ago now I experienced one of those waves of feeling very desperate and thinking: something has to change here. I'd seen posters for the gospel choir in Albisrieden[1] and fully intended to go to one of their concerts, but between one thing and another, I hadn't ever made it. Then I was downtown one day and a "gospel choir" was singing in front of the Grossmunster. I am using quotation marks here because this group was by any measure very bad. Enthusiastic, maybe, but off key, no rhythm, dreadful pronunciation...there are good gospel choirs and bad gospel choirs and there are American gospel choirs and European gospel choirs aaaand...then there was this group. This actually gave me some confidence: I have no talent but if this is the standard we're aiming for, I thought, maybe I too could sing in one of these "gospel" choirs, and not make things any worse? The next time there was an open rehearsal in Albisrieden, I was there.

My point is, I started singing with my choir a bit sight-unseen. And standing in the choir looking out at the audience at our various concerts, I always wondered: how does this really sound? I mean, I don't think we're as bad as that group I saw downtown, but...??

Which is all to say that today, for the first time ever, because I'm taking a year off choir this year so I can take my classes on Thursday nights, I got to see Gospelchor Albisrieden in concert. And guess what? It was great! Maybe not professional-great, but that hardly matters: it was easy on the ears and fun to listen to. The love and enthusiasm of the director, the comfortable group dynamic, the fact that everyone is there because they love to sing - all completely visible to the audience. So cool. I felt proud to be a once-and-future choir member. And very lucky, because if I'd seen them in concert before I joined I'm not sure I ever would have been brave enough to try it. I guess I'll just go ahead and add that terrible choir in front of Grossmunster to the list of things I'm thankful for.


[1] Albisrieden is the Zurich neighborhood right next to Altstetten, where we live; in fact officially we live within spitting distance of the Altstetten-Albisrieden border and oh yes, this does matter.