Sustenance for the soul
by Lisa Kurz
I’ve been a singing member of the BCS and a member of the Board of Directors for nearly 30 years. A longtime friend once asked me why I’ve continued to sing with the group for all these years. “I’m tired at the end of the day,” he said, “and when I get home from work, all I want to do is to sit in my comfy chair, with a glass of beer at my elbow, and watch TV. How can you get up and leave all that to go to a rehearsal?” I understand the feeling: I’m tired too at the end of a long workday. But, as I explained to my friend, singing sustains me. It’s like eating my favorite food. If I’m hungry and someone offers me something delicious to eat, I’m not going to grumble about it or ponder whether I should eat it. I’m just going to dive in. Singing is like that for me—it delights and nourishes me.
I’ve had the chance to enjoy a wide variety of musical “meals” over the years, including some I first tasted at a BCS rehearsal. I’ve experienced these feasts with my fellow choristers, both veterans and newbies, who join together week after week in rehearsal. This nourishment, shared with my BCS family, has meant more to me than words can convey.
So, when I received a small financial windfall last year, I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it. I would set much of it aside for family, but I would use the rest to give back to the group that has nourished me for so long. Last fall, at the Chamber Singers’ 50th Anniversary gala celebration, I announced my gift to the BCS and said I hoped it could be used to eventually enable the group to hire a professional Development Director, someone who could spearhead our fundraising efforts and help ensure the group’s financial future.
Until that moment, the donations I’d made to the group were always anonymous. But this time, I really wanted to express my gratitude publicly, to honor this group that has nourished me for so long. I also hoped that this gift might inspire others to do the same. And it did! Other donors joined my efforts and we were able to move ahead with plans to hire a part-time Development Director. Over the last months, we brainstormed responsibilities for the position, researched comparable jobs in arts organizations, networked with local musical groups, and consulted our national organization, Chorus America. In late February, we posted a job opening and applications started coming in!
And then COVID-19 came to Bloomington. We reluctantly stopped rehearsing. We postponed our spring concert. As the economic outlook worsened, we decided to pause this search for the time being. It just didn’t seem a wise or appropriate time to begin major fundraising.
We’ll return to the search as soon as we can, and I’m sure we’ll hire a highly qualified person to help us.
In the meantime, the music we love, the music we’ve sung, continues to sustain us. We’re still enjoying our musical feasts individually; and we’re looking for new ways to share those delicacies with our audiences and our community.
When we do, I hope you’ll join us and treat yourself to some beautiful music—it’s sustenance for the soul.
Lisa Kurz
Musical Selection
About this selection, BCS Alto and board member Lisa Kurz writes:
“I’ve chosen to share with you the final movement of Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem, ‘Selig sind die Toten.’ I’ve performed this magnificent piece many times with the BCS and have come to love it. The text of the last movement evokes the death of a loved one: ‘Blessed are the dead, who die in the Lord from henceforth. Yea, says the Spirit, that they rest from their labors, and their works follow after them.’ But the music is beautifully tranquil, and it’s clear that those left behind (who are referred to in the first movement of the Requiem: ‘Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted’) are at peace.
“I love this movement. It comes at the end of a work that is challenging, even exhausting, for a chorus, so it’s difficult to sing. But its beauty sustains and even energizes me. No matter how tired I am by the time the choir reaches this moment, I am always inspired to sing it as beautifully as I can.”
