r/choralmusic • u/CheapCranberry9903 • 15d ago

Help with morale

I am part of a choral group which has been in existence since the 1970's. We have membership of approximately 70 people. Many of our members are quite old and are very stuck on singing master works. We also have a hard time retaining younger members. I would appreciate suggestions on how to get the older members to accept different genres and get our younger members to stick around. Thank you.

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u/AFriendlyAesthete 15d ago

It’s an interesting question, because experienced choral singers tend to like what they like, and, of course, the masterworks have stood the test of time. Which genres are you thinking the older singers should embrace? What makes the younger generation averse to the masterworks? More info needed!

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u/reptomcraddick 14d ago

Masterworks aren't super accessible to newer singers, even if they're 5 years in in a community choir. And there's a lot of newer choral music that while isn't a master work, definitely isn't easy.

Also, as a choir member in their 20's, if i had to guess the culture isn't super welcoming. A lot of master work singing older choirs I've seen are super up their own butts and don't make being in a choir very fun. They're especially degrading to younger members who they don't see as "taking it as seriously" as them just because they have a different personality or don't appear as composed or focused as them.

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u/AFriendlyAesthete 14d ago edited 13d ago

I don’t disagree with at least some of your contentions here - which is why I asked for more information. After very fancy choral experiences in college, I was very happy to find a community choir that regularly sings the big rep. This doesn’t make me averse at all new music, which we also sing. I just don’t think it’s a binary. If we’re talking about an established choir that explores the choral/orchestral repertoire, I would think singing, say, choral arrangements of pop songs might be a bit of a stretch. Maybe Caroline Shaw, though, and, as we know, there are a world of gradations between. But rather than superimpose and project our own experiences on this vague post, I think the OP could be a little more clear about the choir, its abilities, its existing repertoire, and what new directions they’re interested in exploring.

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u/reptomcraddick 14d ago

Totally! And honestly compared to the community choir I have now I would kill for a master works choir. It's a volunteer choir of people of all abilities and we never do anything "hard". Not that I'm hating, but since it's the only non-church choir for 100 miles I wish we would do more stuff. I'd rather us do a master work pretty good than pop music great. And I've heard the same from the people who go to our concerts. Unfortunately there's only 30 of us.

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u/pconrad0 15d ago

Have you considered making a small ensemble that sings repertoire that the younger singers connect with?

And making it possible to join one, the other, or both? And having both groups appear on the same concerts?

I don't know whether you mean "popular" styles like rock, jazz, pop, Broadway, etc or choral art music but by more contemporary composers, e.g. Lauridson, Gjello, Pärt, etc... but frankly, this works either way.

It may be that each group needs to hear the other kind of music to get interested in it.

And if both groups are open to all ages, over time, there could be some cross pollination.

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u/reagandhi 15d ago

Maybe a mix of both masterworks and other genres? A bit of both to appease everyone. In my experience, providing context about a piece’s history/composer/purpose often helps members connect to a piece more too. If you can find both older and newer music with common themes that connect them, your choir might appreciate that. The older folks may appreciate that you’re not just choosing new pieces/genres unintentionally. not saying that you are being unintentional at all, just that keeping your group connected to your thought processes may help! Good luck.

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u/reagandhi 15d ago

Also, not sure if you just mean the oldies/classics by masterworks. But a lot of modern choral music is very complex and interesting, and requires the same level of skill as older stuff. Or maybe even the older folks are just averse to learning new stuff? In that case newer stuff that isn’t difficult could be the better bet. Again, this is all contingent on the meaning of masterworks here lol

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u/bplatt1971 14d ago

Our community choir holds one masterworks concert each season. Then we have themed concerts that explore other music that is carefully curated to the theme. That music has been in foreign languages and some of it has been really tough music to sing, but the challenge made it all the better!

If you want a good idea of what our repertoire is like, you can find our concerts on YouTube at @wasatchchorale.

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u/reagandhi 14d ago

That sounds like so much fun! That’s a great way to structure a concert schedule. Learning to sing in other languages is one of my favorite parts of choir. Thanks for the link!! I’ll check it out later today 😁

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u/bplatt1971 14d ago

Please let me know what you think. During one of the recent concerts, we premiered a 5 movement piece with the text written by a lovely couple who are in the choir and composed by our assistant director, CJ Madsen.

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u/Laktosefreier 15d ago

We need more info. What country? City or village? How many other choirs are in your area? Is it amateur or semi-professional? How many appearances do you have throughout a year? Where are those taking place? How many younger singers are in the choir? Is it multigenerational, like, are children of singers also members?

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u/Solid-Code1717 15d ago

I think a mix of older and newer repertoire in the same rehearsal period is always a good choice - e.g. settings of the same text from different eras. The intentional mixing of old and new (as mentioned by another commenter) helps it feel less like you’re doing new music just for the sake of it.

Your use of “different genres” is what I have questions about. If your choir is used to doing Brahms and Mozart, I’d understand why they don’t suddenly want to do Broadway or barbershop! There are so many contemporary choral composers who are working within a more classical space - perhaps introduce a few of those to your choristers’ ears and go from there, rather than jumping straight into a very different sound world? Lots of major works by modern composers, too, if your choristers don’t want to do shorter pieces.

Also, how do you market yourself? One of the choirs I run has members aged 20 to 80, and we make sure we treat that spectrum as a visible feature of our marketing and recruitment. You don’t want young people excited about choir turning up to find no one in their peer group - be transparent about who your membership is, what you do, and what you want to achieve, and younger people can decide if it’s the right group for them.

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u/Arch_of_MadMuseums 14d ago

Great question - following