Robert Shaw's vision for the ASOC was that it always be an amateur chorus. That paradigm continues to this day. Every year, we chorus members go through an audition process in order to be considered eligible to return. The director wants to hear us as individuals, and it's meant to encourage us to keep up our singing chops. Every year, it is born in upon me that if I don't commit to return and turn in a solid audition, there are plenty of people out there eager to try for my spot.
I remember when the chorus filed onstage for our first rehearsal with the Berlin Philharmonic in 2003, I was very nervous, feeling a distinct vertical breeze. Sir Simon Rattle was a fan of Robert Shaw; Donald Runnicles an eminent conductor. What could go wrong? Well, we knew the orchestra was expecting an 'amateur chorus' ... and we tortured ourselves with the expectation of hearing the German equivalent of "Amateurs ... seriously?" spoken aloud. But when we began the first chorale of Britten's War Requiem, players literally turned around in their seats to listen. A thing, we were later told, they never do.
What we demonstrated -- what saved us -- was our collective ability to form a single choral entity and deliver a unified double-p like it had never before been heard in the Philharmonie. By our third engagement with the Berlin Philharmoniker in 2009, we were old friends. They got us, you see.
We have carried this ability to Berlin three times, and we carry it into all performances with our orchestra, the ASO. Our commitment to the ASO's high artistic standards ... and the individual and collective work it takes to maintain them ... begins the moment we pick up our music for the new season.
The vertical breeze I am now feeling is a storm warning. Rehearsal's cancelled ... my orchestra's locked out ... but I'm here listening to my recording of the Walton and the Bernstein (a two-fer Shaw recording, featuring one of our own, soprano Donna Carter) and marking my score.
Old habits and all ...
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