Press Release Printed in the Janesville Gazette December 1st, 2011:
Joyful Noise – Choral Union celebrates 130 years of giving voices a chance to soar
By Ann Fiore
afiore@gazettextra.com

JANESVILLE—I’ve never sung in Latin before. OK, truth be told, I’ve never sung with a choir, either. I’m not tone deaf, but my voice is not an instrument that can perform Handel’s “Messiah” with beauty or precision. Yet here I am, singing Mozart’s “Requiem”—in Latin—with the Choral Union. Choral Union, which celebrates its 130th birthday this year, has never held auditions. Anyone who loves to sing is welcome, even if he can’t carry a tune or she can’t read a note.

Each year, the challenge is the same: Take a mix of experienced and novice singers, give them demanding pieces of choral music, and teach them how to sing them. Each year, the chorus produces a work of art, something greater than the sum of its parts.

“It’s kind of exciting, actually,” director Richard Severing said of Mozart’s “Requiem,” one of this year’s featured works. “Here’s a piece of music, one of the pinnacles of musical composition. We have 50 singers … who have never done it before. It’s a nice opportunity. “I have complete faith in the fact that it’s going to work.” He will find out Sunday, Dec. 11,  at the annual concert.

Far left: Director Richard Severing directs Choral Union, giving pointers where needed.
Left: Singers practice a Mozart piece during a recent rehearsal. Choral Union will perform three works by Mozart— the well-known ‘Requiem,’‘Ave Verum Corpus’ and ‘Regina Coeli’—at its Dec. 11 concert at Cargill United Methodist Church.

Who’s singing
At 101 members, Choral Union today is the largest it’s been since 1993, the year Severing took over for Thomas Sanborn, who died before the season started. Severing is just the sixth director in the chorus’ history, which dates back to 1881 at Milton College.

Severing believes strongly in the chorus and its role in the community.

“I believe in music as being a force that brings people together,” he said. “I also think it’s important that communities are brought together. I guess both things happen to be the same goal.”

Choral Union attracts all kinds of singers. Retired pastor Paul Green of Milton started as a high school student in the early 1950s. He and his wife, Denise, have been with the chorus continuously since 1982.

For him, the December concert is “the highlight of the year.” “Singing for us just adds a lot to life. It’s kind of hard to imagine life without it,” Green said. While the average member is older than 40, the chorus has a few younger singers, including Madelynn Schultz, a Craig High School sophomore, and Max Becker, a UW-Whitewater student.

The chorus draws families, too. Severing’s wife, Marie, is a soprano soloist this year, and his daughter, Kathryn, will perform a viola solo. Daughter Elizabeth has sung in the past. Not everyone has a musical background.

Rochell Cheplak, who works part time for the state Department of Corrections joined five years ago on a friend’s invitation.

“It’s not so much what I put into it. It’s what I get out of it that keeps me coming back,” said Cheplak, who’s now the group’s public relations cheerleader. “It’s almost the same feeling you get when you’re on the elliptical (at the gym) for 45 minutes. There’s something about the endorphins when you sing, really sing, and sing without fear.

“Choral Union gives a lot of us who are not trained a venue to just sing.” The bond among the singers is tight. This year’s concert is dedicated to Bob Johnson, a longtime tenor who died in October.

Practice makes perfect
The chorus begins weekly practices in September for its sole December concert. Severing likes to challenge his singers, and each year he brings different choral pieces to be mastered.

This year, Mozart is the headliner. Severing has chosen Mozart’s “Requiem,” which the chorus last performed in 1985, along with “Ave Verum Corpus” and “Regina Coeli.”

He called the pieces “difficult but accessible.” At a recent Monday night practice, I sit next to Cheplak, a soprano. We begin with voice warm-ups in the cushioned pews of Cargill United Methodist Church.

Severing, dressed in a navy mock turtleneck and dark pants, is relaxed but focused. He jokes gently with the chorus but, like a coach, always returns to the business at hand.

“Top of Page 20,” he calls. “I’m not real convinced we’re together on that.” The chorus begins with a phrase in “Requiem”: “Dies irae, dies illa solvet saeclum in favilla.” In English: Day of wrath, day of anger will dissolve the world in ashes.”

Cheplak sings in sweet soprano. My voice, on the other hand, strains to reach the higher notes. I know I’m out of practice. The chorus sounds so good that I reduce my volume a notch, letting their voices carry mine.

Cheplak later assures me she felt awkward when she first joined. That changed at
her first dress rehearsal with the orchestra.

“It was just powerful,” she said, “the whole coming together of voices and instruments. It was so moving for me personally. I could hardly believe, here I was, this person who knows so little about voice …” It made her want to do it again.

‘How wonderful this sounds’
I attended only one Choral Union rehearsal, and I thought the chorus sounded professional.

Severing has been there since September. He hears things with a trained ear, and he knows when to prompt and when to compliment.

“Keep in mind,” he tells the singers, “that rhythm is more important than singing the right note.”

At one point, he exults: “You don’t know how wonderful this sounds.”

I left rehearsal unsure of whether I am a soprano or an alto. I spent too much time just trying to figure out which page everyone was on.

I’m sorry that I won’t be singing at the Dec. 11 concert, but I’m a realist. I’m still not comfortable singing music that difficult. Still, I left that rehearsal feeling good, as if I
had been part of something much greater than myself.

Those who hear the concert can decide for themselves whether that’s true.