Choirs in Barquisimeto

The most fulfilling experience from our time at Barquisimeto for me, was the chance to get to know some choral singers and to participate with them in some workshops with Maria Guinand of the Schola Cantorum of Venezuela.

We met up with the teachers that we had observed in the nucleos at the conservatory during the mornings, where they were more than willing to chat about their experience in El Sistema and answer my long list of questions. Aubree and I caught up with Manual, Jorge, Gustavo and Crismar, who are members of the Camarata Larense, a professional choir based at the conservatory that rehearses every evening. Jorge and Crismar teach at the Santa Rosa nucleo, Gustavo at the Incret nucleo, and Manuel at the Maria Pereira de Daza nucleo that we didn't have a chance to visit.

They are obviously great friends and have spent a considerable amount of time rehearsing, performing, touring and teaching together. They talked about the curriculum they teach and how they have regular meetings so teaching is unified across the nucleos in the area. This allows them to also organise large collaborative performances - Manuel mentioned one concert that involved 1300 children. Some of the singers also participate in the famous Coro de Manos Blancas (White Hands Choir) based at the conservatory.

They were very eloquent when talking about the social agenda of El Sistema and also their gratitude for its founder: "It's all about building relationships" and "Maestro Abreu has worked all of his life for us". They expressed a deep belief in the approach of using music to help others.

Aubree and I went to the last rehearsal of the Camarata before their collaboration workshops with the Schola Cantorum. They were working on a variety of repertoire including Eli! Eli! by C. Bardos and the Crucifixus setting by Antonio Lotti. The choir was founded and is still directed by Livia Gomez, and recently won the Folkloric Music Section at the 2012 World Choir Games in Cincinnati. I was struck not only by the high quality and technique apparent, but also by the unified sound they were able to produce, which must be created by rehearsing together every day!

Maria Guinand & the Schola Cantorum

This was a case of being in the right place at the right time, as Maria Guinand had not taught at Barquisimeto before or collaborated with the choirs there. She led a three-day workshop for choir directors and singers in Barquisimeto nucleos, and joint rehearsals with the Camarata. We arrived a little late to the first session, but this was perhaps not a bad idea as every participant was standing up to introduce themselves. I managed to introduce the Fellows in Spanish!

The workshop started with a discussion of Alberto Grau’s book and his philosophy of choir direction. He was the founder of the Schola Cantorum, a prolific composer for children, and very influential choral conductor. There was then a presentation by vocal technique assistant Jessica, including a lot of eurythmics. Their method is to teach rhythms using the body first and allow children to experience them before conceptualising in theory work.

The Schola Cantorum has its own Foundation with youth and children's choirs, and all choirs have a director and a vocal coach. The vocal coach leads warm-ups, sometimes just the vocalises, sometimes physical exercises too. They act like a section leader in the orchestra and point out vocal techniques and rhythms for certain tricky passages, along with group breathing suggestions. It was interesting to see this unfamiliar role of the vocal coach present in the Venezuelan choirs. In group teaching with the children's and youth choirs, Gustavo simply said that "I am responsible for their sound".

On the second day of workshops, Maria dealt more with conducting itself and led us in several exercises to relax our arms and upper body. We followed her example in conducting in different time signatures and also communicating expression. We again finished by going through some fabulous works by Alberto Grau for children’s choir, including some very complex eurhythmics.

Maria’s time in Barquisimeto culminated in a joint concert of the Schola Cantorum with the Camarata Larense. It was very moving to hear such beautiful sacred music and I felt transported from the dingy auditorium back to a chapel in Cambridge. They performed some of the repertoire that I had heard the Camarata rehearse, and the force of the collaborative sound of both choirs was immensely impressive. The Camarata’s performance of some Venezuelan music with tongue-twister lyrics and hilarious choreography stole the show for me and thoroughly explained their success at the World Choir Games.