by Lisa Chamberlain

It changes you, a tour like this one.  Coming back after almost a month away, it felt like Johannesburg and life in it should be different because we had been through so much intensity of experience while we were away.  ‘Intense’ is the best way to describe our tour.  The Wits Choir toured the east coast of the United States (visiting Washington DC, Penn State University in Pennsylvania, Wingate University in North Carolina and Berklee College of Music, Boston) as well as Canada where we participated in Festival 500 in St John’s, Newfoundland.  The tour began with the Serenade Festival in Washington DC and ended with Festival 500.  In-between we toured on our own.  We left on 20 June and were away for roughly 3.5 weeks.

For starters, a tour like this one changes you because of the sheer glut of performance opportunities.  It’s rare that you get the chance to perform so much and so often.  Touring really stimulates musical development and allows you to easily track your progress as a performer. There is a momentum and energy about growing together as performers on tour that sweeps you along in its current.  Wits Choir has a system of reflecting on each performance as a group and everyone also rates their own individual performance according to a set list of criteria.   This is really helpful as it enables you to track your own progress but also gives you a way to assess how you’re fitting in to the group in performances.

The tour also really gave us a chance to interrogate what it means to perform the music that we do.  In the Wits Choir, singing is about story-telling. Much of the success that we achieved on tour can be attributed to the unrelenting focus that we have on connecting with the music.  If you don’t feel it, you can’t communicate it.  Often as the only African choir, we brought a colour and vibrancy at the festivals we sang at.  We sing in so many languages and are a visual treat for an international audience with our brightly-coloured outfits and dance moves.  But really what sets Wits Choir apart is about more than that, it’s that connection to the music that matters. And we must thank Dalene for some inspired repertoire choices in that regard.  It was really interesting to watch how the slower, more sombre songs in our repertoire were received.  Typically people associate African music with joyousness and dancing and excitement.  So for many audience members, it was the first time they had heard African music about themes like death, the affirmation of faith and regret.

And then there is the experience of actually being on tour with each other – eating, sleeping, travelling, rehearsing and performing together means that personal space is practically non-existent.  This can be tough and we all drove each other mad at some point but honestly the level of cohesiveness in the group was one of the most astonishing things about this tour, particularly when you consider the vast differences amongst us.  For starters there was a 15 year age gap between the youngest and oldest choristers on tour.  Added to this mix is the usual diversity of race, language and culture.  Then add other differences like for some members this was their first time outside of SA whereas others had travelled quite a bit.  And yet it all just really worked.  A couple of the more experienced choir members who have been on other tours before commented along the lines that from this point of view, this tour was their best yet.

Tour also wasn’t only about the music.  It would have been such a waste to be in these incredible places and not spend at least a little time soaking up the sights and sounds around us.  So we managed to race around and squeeze in as much of that as our already demanding schedule would allow.  Logistically, we divided the tour up into segments of a couple of days each and a different group of choir members was responsible for the logistics of each segment.  This meant that Dalene (Conductor/Leader/Master of the Pep talk/Musical Compass), Liesje (Manager/Star Chef/Tireless Driver/Constructive Critic) and Anya (Organiser Deluxe and deviser of le Grand Schedule – also rock-solid member of a team of kickass sopranos) didn’t have to spend the entire tour running around after us.

We are grateful to all those who made this remarkable experience possible:

1. To all our hosts in the US and Canada who made us feel so welcome.  You are a credit to your countries.
2. To all those within Wits management who assisted us so generously financially.
3. To our supporters from within the Wits community and beyond for your support of all kinds – for coming to our concerts, buying our merchandise and for your kind words of encouragement.
4. To the Wits choir members who weren’t able to come on tour with us – we so appreciate your tireless efforts to raise money for the tour and help us improve our repertoire.  Tsebo, your email came with us on tour and we read it often to remind us why we were there.
5. To the Hoogenhout Triumvirate for a superbly organised tour in what were often challenging conditions.
6. To Dalene for so much, but particularly for your endless capacity to energise and motivate us when we were on the brink of defeat.
7. To each other.  Enough said.

Some things we learnt en route…

• We learnt that if you feel what you’re singing, so will your audience even if they don’t understand the language you’re singing in.
• We learnt that 20 people can touch the hearts of a hall of hundreds if the 20 are united.
• We learnt that TJ sweats a lot when performing. Always.
• We learnt that you have to have each other’s backs.
• We learnt that McDonalds tastes just the same in America.
• We learnt that if you forget your passport in the hotel, you can’t drink when you go out.
• We learnt that music can be simultaneously exhausting and invigorating.
• We learnt never to allow Matumelo ice-cream, under any circumstances.
• We learnt that talking into a 2-way radio in a poncy accent is one of life’s timeless pleasures.
• We learnt that those small moments with an individual audience member after a performance often mean more than a standing ovation.
• We learnt that patience and humility will get you through irritation (sometimes it took us a long time to learn this!).
• We learnt that if you don’t recover quickly from a mistake, it will affect the rest of your performance.
• We learnt not to have reflection sessions on lawns with stealth sprinklers.
• We learnt that music is powerful and must be treated with respect.
• We learnt that students who go to Berklee College of Music are very, very lucky.
• We learnt that South Africa needs to start making sweet potato fries and watermelon-flavoured milkshakes.
• We learnt that times of intensity are a great time to forge and solidify friendships.
• We learnt to live with gratitude.