Meet the Stanford Summer Chorus

Hanging from the high ceiling, the chandeliers cast a dim light onto the packed Memorial Church Friday evening. As I climbed to the upper levels of the church, white program in my hand, my attention was drawn to the illuminated stage, where the black-clad Stanford Summer Chorus and Junge Kammerphilharmonie Freiburg, a semi-professional orchestra from Freiburg, Germany, stood poised.

The air was expectant.

But then with a flick of conductor Andreas Winnen’s hand, a soft minor note rang through the church. Slowly it swelled and transitioned into an ethereal melody as the voices broke off from each other, creating a perfect harmony.

The Stanford Summer Chorus, directed by Amy Stuart Hunn B.A. ’95 M.A. ‘00, and the Junge Kammerphilharmonie Freiburg, collaborated this summer to produce two performances: Giuseppe Verdi’s “Messa da Requiem” on Friday, Aug. 6 and Beethoven’s masterpiece, “Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125, ‘Choral’” on Saturday, Aug. 7.

I attended the ensemble’s rendering of Verdi’s “Requiem,” which was dedicated to “loved ones lost in 2010,” according to the performance program. Although Latin and I met and parted in my sixth grade language class, I’ve always thought of the language as beautiful and noble. Hearing the words from the chorus was soothing, as they floated gently away from the singers’ vocal cords, each syllable carefully pronounced.

After the first song ended, I was scribbling on my notepad when the next song started with a “BANG!” – and I nearly jumped in my seat. Throughout the next movement I could feel the drum vibrations reach my bench, even on the church’s second level. The performance ebbed and flowed between loud, powerful and dynamic measures to gentle, fragile and graceful ones, for a delightful variety. The seventh and last movement, “Libera Me” closed the performance solemnly and gracefully.

I especially admired the quartet at the forefront: the sonorous bass Adam Lau, the dynamic tenor J. Raymond Meyers, the sweet vibrato of alto Lisa Van der Ploeg and the high-reaching yet graceful soprano Mary Linduska.

Their performance earned a deserved standing ovation, one that was nearly three minutes long.

First-time summer chorus member and high school student Andjelija Janicijevic was impressed with the performance as well.

“It exceeded anything that I expected; it was powerful and I didn’t expect [the church] to be so full,” she said. “It was incredible, I never experienced anything like it.”

“I take choir back home and I love choir and I sing,” said the high school junior from Belgrade, Serbia. But she saw the Summer Chorus as a refreshing change from what she was familiar with.

“Our school choir songs are not very advanced, but here we sing some of the most amazing, the most beautiful, pieces of all time,” she said. “The German orchestra was so amazing. Even outside rehearsals I saw them everywhere. They were such a positive influence on campus.”

Many of the singers, like scientific programmer at SLAC and alto Joanne Bogart, have been participating in the choir for years. Bogart’s first performance with the summer chorus was about a decade ago, and she has participated in it for the majority of the past decade, including this summer. She also has been a member of the year-round Stanford Symphonic Chorus for over 20 years.

“Singing choral music is quite a wonderful experience,” she said. “There’s the sense of community and building something beautiful together which you can’t possibly do independently. Everybody’s important.”

The participants in the chorus are Stanford faculty, staff and students, of varying ages and singing abilities. The chorus is non-auditioned and sponsored by Stanford’s music department.

This non-auditioned aspect of the chorus appealed to Carol Charlton, a Stanford Hospital Life Science research assistant.

“I had never even heard the Verdi before, although I’ve heard Beethoven,” she said. “It seems like a tremendous amount to learn in eight weeks. We’re a lot of people and 50 percent of the people knew about the pieces before. It was a lot of work, but at the end of the day, when I started to learn the songs, it became more fun.”

The members praised Hunn and Winnen, the two directors.

“Amy [Hunn] was sweet and amazing and she considered all age groups,” Janicijevic said. “There were people who were younger and people who were decades older, so she knew that some people are not as advanced as others.”

“[Winnen is] a very fine conductor and was a joy to follow,” Bogart added.

The chorus met weekly throughout the summer, with rehearsals two and a half hours long, turning to daily practices as the performance dates approached.

“When we first started rehearsing, it was a bit rocky. It was a lot of music to learn in a short time,” Bogart said. “By the time we got to the dress rehearsals I knew that these were going to be very fine performances.”

For Bogart, the rehearsals were a refreshing change from her day-to-day life.

“It’s the kind of experience different than what I do in my working life, so it creates a nice balance,” she said.

The choir became more than just a hobby for Charlton.

“I didn’t feel confident a week before the performance, then I sat down and practiced for half a day,” she recounted. “It really started coming – then by the time I did decide to perform it, it just became really part of me. I’m still singing those songs.”

And for the young Janicijevic, the Stanford Summer Chorus may be more of a draw than the University’s famed academics.

“I told [Hunn] that if I come back next summer, it’ll only be because of the choir,” Janicijevic said.