A Resounding Yes to a Jewish Community Event in Calgary

Choirs of the World strikes a chord across Calgary

By Jana Zalmanowitz

(AJNews) – At a time when many Jewish communities are feeling isolated, Calgary’s recent Choirs of the World event offered a welcome reminder. There are still plenty of people eager to show up, participate, and connect at a Jewish event.

With the support of Paperny Family JCC, Jewish Family Services and powered by Calgary Jewish Federation, the Voices Adult Choir meets weekly to sing together and was the anchor for the event. Choir founder and director Karina Szulc has been bringing music to the JCC halls for almost 20 years and as a choir participant since the age of six, Szulc feels passionately about the impact of these groups. “It’s beyond the music,” she says. “Choirs are for people that want to connect with like-minded people.”

For the last three years, the free community concert has been held at the Paperny Family JCC. When planning the event, Szulc reached out to six choirs she thought would be a good fit. The only one who declined was a children’s choir that needed more time to prepare. The remaining choirs all enthusiastically accepted the invitation, prompting a last-minute venue change to Temple B’nai Tikvah to accommodate the roughly 300 performers and audience members.

The evening of June 1st was a collaborative effort. JCC Arts and Culture Manager, Yanina Rabinovitch, partnered with Szulc to organize the event. Community member Laurence Elman put his natural stage presence to use as the MC and accomplished pianist Rachel Kreyner accompanied performers. Each choir brought its own committed directors and conductors.

The lineup was diverse. Voices Adult Choir is composed mainly of seniors and sings a mix of Jewish and popular music. They delighted their audience with two Hebrew classics, Hava Nagila and Zum Gali Gali while listeners joined in with tambourines.

By contrast, Dr. E.P. Scarlett choir is a group of teenage high school students. They sang a mix of popular and choral music, impressing the crowd with their blue satin costumes and synchronized claps.

Celebrating 50 years in Calgary, the Swiss Yodel Club Heimattreu Choir showcased a traditional folk music style rarely heard outside Switzerland. Dressed in matching uniforms, members performed with their hands in their pockets, a traditional technique that helps maintain proper posture and keeps attention on the unique sound.

Cantares Latin Choir brought another global flavour with a selection of Spanish language hits accompanied by a four-string Cuatro. As their Artistic Director and Conductor, Juan Sosa, stated, “You don’t have to understand the words to appreciate the music.”

Big Rock Singers out of Okotoks, a well-established 36-year-old organization known for their vibrant seasonal performances, rounded out the performance. With their denim and band t-shirt motif, their impressive number stretched across the whole stage while they sang an array of popular hits by Canadian artists. In a social media post, long-time member Dena Stewart, summed up her experience saying, “The feedback from everyone was so positive, and the gratitude was palpable.”

As a final number, the Voices Adult Choir changed the lyrics to the old Russian song, “Those Were the Days” so it reflected a shared passion of the evening and took on the title “Those Choir Days.” Singers from all the choirs came together to sing this final number in an impressive chorus of voices and unity.

Deb Finkleman, a retired music teacher, played piano for this final number. She and her husband, Paul, have participated in past years and this year did not disappoint. “We loved to see and hear the wide variety; the styles of choral music, the languages sung, the pageantry of the costumes, and the ages that were involved,” Finkleman describes. “What a treat to share an evening of music with an audience from elementary school aged children to seniors well in their 80’s!”

It’s this variety that makes an event like Choirs of the World so inspiring. Szulc describes music’s unifying and immersive nature, using her signature lyrical style. “Music brings people together. It lets you travel to a different place without a passport. Music is the best time machine to travel back in your memories.”

Audiences enjoyed an evening free from life’s usual pressures. The event was such a success that many participants asked to return. Other choirs have been in touch wanting to join next year’s concert. Beyond the music, Choirs of the World offered a reassuring reminder: there are still plenty of people eager to walk through the doors of a Jewish institution, share in its programming and celebrate community together.

Jana Zalmanowitz is a Local Journalism Initiative Reporter