On Baha'i Choirs: No Frontin'

"Moscow Baha'is fun music," by wchupin

"Karaoke singing. Yayyy!" by ryran

"Team 'Melissa Dumped You' sing 'Its Not Unusual'," by Ronnie19

The synchronicity of the posting of Ned's observations re-posted here yesterday and the posting by Andropolis below, both on the subject of Baha'i choirs, is intriguing. -gw

Sunday was the commemoration of the Birth of Baha'u'llah, one of the most important Holy Days for Baha'is. After a short program at 10:00 that morning, my mother and I, along with a couple other members of the local Baha'i community, headed out to the annual Harmony Concert, in Kansas City. Every year, the concert has two components: 1) there is a mass choir, made up of members of a dozen or so religious communities from around the area, singing several pieces of sacred music from different World Relgions and 2) three or four "demonstration choirs", which are simply regular choirs invited from different religious congregations throughout the Kansas City metro community. This year, the Baha'is were invited to be one of three demonstration choirs.

This was great because 1) we Baha'is are always eager to be able to share our songs and sacred music at events like this and 2) the event fell on the Birth of Baha'u'llah, which seemed a particularly apt day to share our sacred music at an event like this. On the other hand, this wasn't so great because, 1) we had no choir, whatsoever. What's more, we only had a couple weeks to pull something together in time for the performance.

So. After a couple days of attempting to assemble a "real choir", complete with "good singers" and "professional arrangements" and whatnot, all pretension and convention was thrown out the window, and the Baha'is decided, this year, to get real. If the organizers of this concert wanted a "demonstration" of Baha'i sacred music, they were gonna get it. It just so happens that there is a weekly devotional gathering that's been taking place in Overland Park for the past couple years. Attendance has grown to an average of 30+ people per week, and every devotional invariably includes a good thirty minutes or so of songs and sacred music, usually accompanied by an acoustic guitar, and maybe some hand drums. So, it was decided to invite all of the participants in the weekly devotional gathering to sing as a demonstration choir, with other members of the metro community joining in.

Three songs were chosen, a couple practices were held, and on Sunday, nearly forty Baha'is and their friends got up on stage and sang. Now, let me say, with all due respect, that we were a motley group. We didn't have the matching outfits that the other demo choirs had. We didn't stand rigidly and professionally like the others. We didn't all sing very well. Heck, we didn't even completely nail the songs we sang. But, we sang with an incredible amount of passion, joy, and love. And it was contagious. Incredibly contagious. By the third song, the audience began standing up, clapping in unison, and singing the chorus, "Oh, Baha'u'llah!". It. Was. In. Cred. Ible.

At the reception, a bunch of folks asked about upcoming worship services, about our religion, and about the songs we sang. Many people told us that we were the highlight of the show, and one woman, in tears, told us that our performance had shaken her to the core. She had been waiting to hear this, she said. Amazing. About half a dozen people have been invited to our devotional gathering in Overland Park.

Moral of the story: Don't front! If you do things different than everyone else, and you seem to enjoy it that way, chances are somebody else will respond to it too! I can't help but wonder what the reaction to the songs would've been had we actually had a professional-ish choir. Would we have seemed so unique? So filled with spirit? With joy? I wonder...

Anyway! Yes. Awesome weekend.

+ Andrew, "The Weekend: Hugs, Catching Shrimp in Mouth, Blowing Smoke Rings, and Singing Praise," Andropolis

+{Re-posted with permission}