Choirs in Merida

At the main nucleo in Merida, I joined a few rehearsals of the Youth Choir (Coro Sinfonico Juvenil) comprised of students in their late teens and early twenties. The standard was that of a high quality university chamber choir rather than your average youth choir, and I recognised many members who are involved in teaching children’s choirs at the smaller nucleos. Indeed, there is a strong connection with the Universidad de Los Andes Music Department as the director teaches choral conducting there and many of the members of the Youth Choir study there. Members receive a stipend for their commitment, and as with the choirs in Barquisimeto, two students led warm-ups in their roles as vocal coaches.

I enjoyed the challenge of sight-reading traditional Venezuelan carols, and already some seemed more than familiar having heard them being sung in other nucleos or in shops, etc. There were so many strong singers around me that I quickly picked up the songs, and the accompanying swaying movements usually started by the tenors! It was an absolute delight being conducted by someone as passionate and inspiring as Argenis, and soon other Fellows came to watch the rehearsals. They especially came to see how he mentored members of the choir as conductors; in one rehearsal he was providing feedback to two girls and two guys as they conducted familiar repertoire. He later commented to us on the importance of training conductors within the ensemble. For example, he said directors must conduct at the eye sight of younger children so they are not only directed but can also be learning how to be conductors.

I was also lucky enough to sing with the choir around the town. This experience showed their ease with performing in different spaces, and interacting with their audience. It seems that Argenis is very much involved in the community, and had arranged concerts in the park and at the shopping centre, and the choir has been to many other settings. The students who are training to be conductors performed their pieces, and the audience and passers-by were encouraged to join in with the well-known Christmas carols.

Although Argenis is teaching at the nucleo, he is not a member of staff there and is affiliated instead with the local university. Clara and I were keen to talk with him about conducting, having been so inspired by watching him work in rehearsals. He made some interesting comments on his experiences working with musicians in El Sistema. He especially mentioned that he has not heard teachers talk about the meaning of the music much; "just play, play, play and an insistence on technique". He is not so keen to sing in Caracas with the other choirs as they do not provide singers with the space to reflect on the meanings of the piece, with vocal technique and sound being more important. "We should look at the fundamental thing being communicated", he explained, "the choir conductor should be a good musician but also a mentor or a priest". We didn’t have the time to really connect with choirs in the Caracas nucleos (they were more anxious to show off the orchestras), and it seems like students interested in focusing on singing in Caracas become a part of one of the Schola Cantorum choirs, compared to the choir cultures we saw in Barquisimeto and Merida.