Wow. We just sang with Sweet Honey in the Rock. To a sold-out Zellerbach Hall (~ 2,000 people).
Sweet Honey in the Rock is a women's group (now in their 34th season!) that I first heard in college and have loved ever since, "raising her voice in hope, love, justice, peace, and resistance." They have the most amazing rich and beautiful sound; as a low alto I was always particularly impressed by the richness and range of their low voices. (A great intro to Sweet Honey is their 25th anniversary album; their new children's album was nominated for a Grammy last year.) I have been in a couple of groups that have sung some of their arrangements; we felt a distant kinship through singing their music. Well, Saturday night (April 5, 2008) it became an upfront-and-personal kinship.
Our wonderful director, Dr. Lynne Morrow, and PME have enjoyed working with Cal Performances. They invited her to work with Sweet Honey in the Rock for the performance of the West Coast premier of a choral work written by Sweet Honey, each member writing a movement, called Indaba. Indaba is "a Zulu word from South Africa meaning to bring together the right people…at the right time…to ask the right questions…in order to arrive at the right answers. It is an invitation to gather for the telling of our stories." The piece is a musical dialogue between youth and their elders, working on getting along and sharing their visions, ending with an invitation to the entire community to come together in a celebratory "Joy in the Morning".
Fortunately for us, Lynne thought that the Pacific Mozart Ensemble was the right adult chorus for the job. The youth chorus was the Oakland School for the Arts (OSA) Youth Choir, composed of Vocal Emphasis high school students. What an amazing group of young women and men they are. In order to participate in the group, they have to maintain at least a 3.0 grade average. Check out their website and find out more about this amazing school (and check out their 'April Fool' newsletter link on their home page when you need a lift for the day!). They are total pros and were great fun to talk with; we are already planning to collaborate with them again.
We also had several wonderful instrumentalists and percussionists playing with us, one of whom is 14-year old Savannah Harris playing drums. All I can say is, remember her name. She's a star.
There were several solos for both the youth and the adults throughout the work. Valerie sang the part of the Mother in Get Along (wow). Angie, Cindy, Kim, Alexis and I sang step-outs in "Vision for Tomorrow" (with Greg and John doing some vocal percussion). I had a total of 16 lines, 8 in the beginning and 8 in the end. Shouldn't be hard to memorize, right? The first 8 lines were the most difficult lines I have ever had to memorize! 
And I've memorized a lot of music in my time, in many different genres and languages. I just couldn't get those 8 lines to stick in the right order-I swear I've sung them at least 250 times. They'd stick for 2 hours and then be gone again. I made mnemonics for them, I wrote them down many many times, tried every trick. Fortunately I got them right at the performance-and of course since then I can't get them out of my head.
Through a series of twists and turns, a week before the concert I found out that I would be privileged to sing a lead-in solo in the last song of the piece, Joy in the Morning, a rousing gospel song written by Sweet Honey member Carol Maillard. It starts with a spoken prayer by an OSA student rapper -what a great job he did-followed by me singing the first verse with both choirs and Sweet Honey. WAY past the 'dream come true' place. WAY.
During our first rehearsal, after the first run-through Carol whispered in my ear "sing it like this is the last time you'll ever get to sing it", and 'start it with complete intention'. What, she could hear the underlying sound of me quaking in my boots?? Sometimes as a performer it's really hard to shut down the 'little voices' inside your head- the ones that talk while you're singing, mind you-- 'sing this note higher, sing this one quieter, OMG, did I just make a mistake??" -- That keeps you from completely being present for the music. So I sang it again. I could tell she wasn't completely happy, so I went home and kept working on it.
Saturday night (April 5, 2008). Center stage with SWEET HONEY.
We sing through the first 6 movements, and from my perspective it's going well. We get to Joy in the Morning. And just as Lynne lifts her baton, the sound system goes crazy. Whirring and LOUD feedback and pops all over the place. We don't move a muscle. Then I move away from the rapper to see if that helps. We wait for it to stop. The rapper starts the prayer; when he starts his microphone isn't turned on. I didn't even think about whether mine was on; I was working on being as present as I could. I start with "I woke up this morning, to a new day shining bright' with as much joy as I could bring-and the microphone is off. At least the first few rows of Zellerbach heard it…nothing to do but keep going, and fortunately the mic came on at the end of the first line. I gave it all I had and then right next to me Carol starts the next verse and just takes it home. I float (it felt like it anyway) back to the chorus for the end of the song.
Dr. Ysaye Barnwell then taught all of us a chant that comes from a people living in the rain forest, where they believe that the rain forest is God; they live inside God.
When we were saying 'goodbye' and 'thank you' to Sweet Honey at the end of the show, I mentioned that next week we would be singing Beethoven's Ninth. Carol's response was 'well now you can go sing it with a little more soul'.
From "Joy in the Morning" to "Ode to Joy".
Indaba.
-- Lark Coryell