As Nathan put on his tuxedo, he was confident. At dress rehearsal yesterday evening, the community choir exceeded his expectations. The community orchestra adapted to his direction of the entire ensemble. The soloists performed like the polished professionals they were. Ticket sales were more than he had hoped; the sanctuary at the church was standing room only. He knew that tonight’s concert would be a success. And yet, as he put on his bowtie as the finishing touch, he was concerned about one thing. What should he say at the end of the warm-ups?
Nathan was quite proud of his accomplishments as he prepared for his second concert as the new director of the Middleton Community Choir (MCC). Before he became director, the MCC consisted of about 20 singers who performed for audiences that consisted of family and close friends. Sometimes there were more singers than audience members. They were hardly a community choir. They were a homogenous group of educated community members; most of them belonged to the same congregation. They wanted to be more, but under the previous director, they performed a variety of classical, religious, and popular music that attracted very little attention from anyone in the community. They were lucky if the local newspaper listed their concerts in the weekend events section.
When the MCC board of directors interviewed Nathan for the leadership role, he first had to convince them to let go of the past and accept his new vision for the group. When he suggested that he wanted to do classical works such as Handel’s The Messiah, the responses were predictable.
“We’ve always done an array of music at our concerts from contemporary to classical. That allows us to attract a range of singers and audience,” replied Harold, a founding member of the choir.
“We’re good as a group. We can belt out a Broadway tune with the best of them,” commented Pat, another long-time member. “But a complete concert of classical music? I don’t think we have the talent to pull that off.”
Nathan responded gently, but with confidence. “If we announce that we are going to do The Messiah, dozens of new singers will join us. I predict we’ll have 60 to 80 singers in no time. More importantly, we’ll become a community choir that represents the diversity of this community, different races, different occupations, different ages, and different faiths. And once they join and feel the exhilaration of performing in a large group, they will stay.”
“But it takes soloists to do The Messiah. We don’t have that kind of soloists,” added Eric, the youngest board member at age 52.
“We’ll hire soloists from the university. Between the faculty and voice students, we can find four soloists, excellent soloists,” Nathan quickly responded.
“How can we afford that? Where will we get an orchestra?” questioned Terri, the group’s treasurer. “You can’t perform it with just a piano.”
“The community orchestra wants to perform with us. The singers will pay some of the costs for their music and we’ll also sell enough tickets to cover other costs. You are lucky if you get 50 people at a concert. If we perform The Messiah with 60 singers and a 30-piece orchestra, we’ll sell hundreds of tickets,” Nathan confidently asserted. That seemed to satisfy the board. Then he added, “And to give us an identity in the community, we’ll wear concert black from now on. That means tuxes for men and black dresses or pantsuits for women.”
“That’ll discourage people from joining. Not everyone owns a tux,” Harold commented.
“We’ll contact one of the local tuxedo rentals and work out an arrangement for inexpensive purchases or rentals for our singers and free advertising in our program for them,” responded Nathan.
And so the conversation went with Nathan responding to each of their objections. Eventually, Nathan won them over. They selected him as the volunteer director and he went about changing the choir’s culture. Things went as he predicted. They ran out of music at the first rehearsal because so many new people came.
At the end of the first rehearsal, Nathan arranged for Terri to announce some of the details of joining the MCC. He said, “We ask you to fill in the information sheet you received as you arrived tonight, including your email address, since that is how we usually keep in touch. In addition, singers are asked to donate $50 per year to help pay for the cost of the music, publicity, and other costs. We do this to keep the ticket costs down for our audience so that everyone in the community can afford to come.”
Nathan noticed that some of the newcomers looked surprised at the “donation” request and so he quickly added, “The donation is purely voluntary. Some people can give nothing and some can give $3000. The amount doesn’t matter. I want the donation to come from the heart.” Then he added, “Of course, no donation is too large.” He felt good about defusing the tension with humor like he often did. He asked if there were any questions. One newcomer asked, “What do we wear for concerts?”
Nathan responded, “We perform in concert black. That means tuxes for men and black dresses or pants suits for the women. And gentleman, Ted’s Tuxedo has a special for purchases or rentals for MCC members. We can give that information to you after the rehearsal.”
Nathan was disappointed at the second rehearsal that some of people did not return. He didn’t know if it was because of the voluntary donation or the cost of tuxes. He hoped not, and since there were still plenty of singers, he didn’t worry about it too much. He was disappointed that singers were not as diverse as he hoped. There still were far more grey hairs than young people, but at least there was a mixture. There were only two African Americans, but there was a small group who eventually let him know that they were Jewish. He remembered a brief encounter during a rehearsal break when David, a new member jokingly asked, “When are we going to sing some Jewish music?”
Nathan had quickly retorted, “We’re going to sing Haydn’s The Creation in the spring. That’s from the Torah.” David’s skeptical look made it clear that Haydn’s work was not considered Jewish music even if it was the creation story. But David was mostly having fun.
Over time a pleasant banter about ethnicity and religion developed. Nathan took advantage of his own international roots to poke fun at himself and others. At one rehearsal, after everyone had done well except the sopranos, he turned to them and asked, “What is wrong with the sopranos?” When no one replied, he asked, “Were any of you brought up by Catholic nuns like I was?” Only a few hands went up. He said in his best nun voice, “If you do not do it correctly the next time, I will make you kneel on the corn cobs. After you have experienced enough pain, I will ask you, have you learned from this?” Then in his best little boy voice he continued, “Yes, I understand now.” Nathan liked that everyone laughed.
While he changed some aspects of the community choir, other things stayed the same. Due to financial constraints, they continued to rehearse in the big hall at the Methodist church where he was the choir director, despite his Catholic upbringing. They also performed in the sanctuary because it could seat about 400 people and it was free.
To maintain good standing with the church, he created a kick-off concert the month before The Messiah as a joint concert with the church choirs. Each choir sang a few pieces alone and together. Then the MCC previewed two choruses from The Messiah as publicity for the concert. That combined concert created an unexpected situation. The pastor requested that he lead the choirs in prayer before the concert, a common practice for church choirs, but not so common for community choirs. Nathan did not feel he could decline and so he agreed.
The evening of that kick-off concert, Nathan led the choir in the usual warm-ups and reminded them to help move chairs out of the sanctuary after the concert. Then he made the following introduction. “I know that many of you are not Methodists–I’m not, although I play one on Sundays (That got a few chuckles from the choirs). And some of you aren’t even religious. But we are fortunate to have the senior pastor singing with us this evening, Pastor Harker. Since this is his territory and the church does so much for us, I’m going to ask him to lead us in a prayer.”
The pastor moved to the podium and commented, “For those of you who are not religious, you can just think about something else. Would the rest of you join me?” Then he prayed, “Dear God in heaven, Creator of all things, we ask you to be with us this evening. If there is any way we can touch someone’s life, give them hope, bring them light in a dark place, through our music, we ask you to bless our efforts. Let our singing demonstrate the beauty of your creation and the many talents you bless us with as musicians. We pray in the name of everything that is good, hopeful, and loving. Amen.”
After the performance, Nathan received mixed responses from choir members. Several long-time MCC members and church members made comments like, “Thank you for letting Pastor pray before we started,” or “I hope you’ll continue the tradition of praying before concerts. We’ve always done that.” Nathan thanked them for their comments. He did not realize praying was a tradition.
One new member, however, commented,” A prayer like that has no place at our concert. The choir should represent the religious pluralism of our community.” Two others mentioned that they were mildly unhappy to have been “prayed over.” Monday after the concert, Pastor Harker thanked Nathan for allowing him to lead the prayer.
In the weeks after that first concert, Nathan tried to manage the diversity issue. For example, as people enter the rehearsal room, he always tried to greet singers by name. One particular evening, when Paul came into rehearsal Nathan quipped, “Oh good, Paul is here, another Jew.” He was pleased that his joke got a pretty good laugh from Paul and the people present despite its political incorrectness. Continuing, he added, “We also welcome agnostics. Are there any agnostics here?”
Alan volunteered quickly, “I’m a Jew and an agnostic. Does that mean I count in two categories?” That also received a laugh. While this was happening, a young man was sitting in the alto section talking to his friend before rehearsal started. The friend decided to follow up after the laughter and pointed to her friend and joked, “He should sit in the Jewish section, too.” That produced another laugh. Nathan was truly amazed at how all of this banter went on without any complaints amidst frequent laughter. It appeared that no one was offended.
But now it was time for the big concert. Everything was in place, but he would have to say something to the whole group that would respect and appreciate the diversity of the group and maintain the precedent set at the kick-off concert that pleased so many long-time members who liked the tradition of a prayer before a concert.
After the usual warm-ups, Nathan reminded them that they needed to help remove chairs from the sanctuary after the performance so that it would be ready for services the next morning. Then he told them about the audience. “I just peeked out in the sanctuary. There are a few seats left, but we are close to a sell-out.”
That announcement increased the singers’ excitement. This clearly was more than they expected. He continued. “I want you to really think about what you are doing tonight. You are making a difference in our community. I truly believe that music touches people in ways that make a difference. If everyone made music, there would be no wars and less violence. Now, before we begin, I want you to concentrate so that you perform well. So think for a moment about whomever it is you believe in.”
After a brief moment of silence, it was time for the moment of truth. Nathan looked up and began loudly, “Oh, Universe, look favorably on our efforts tonight. Help us to reach the audience through music. Go in peace.”
Discussion Questions
- In general, how concerned should the leadership of a community organization be about a lack of diversity in age, education level, economic status, or ethnic and racial heritage? Does the answer differ if the organization is involved in an activity that is likely to only appeal to a certain segment of the community rather than a general issue (e.g., classical music, preschool programs, crime prevention)?
- What are some of the important different ways to consider diversity in a community group?
- Humor that could be considered inappropriate in the workplace is common in some community groups. Should it be a concern of the leadership? To the members?
- What can a community group like MCC do to recruit and retain diverse volunteer members as part of the assimilation process?
Further Readings
- Ely, R. J., Meyerson, D., & Davidson, M. (2006). Rethinking political correctness. Harvard Business Review, 84, 79–87. Retrieved from http://reporting.talent20.co.za/Harvard/HMM10/diversity/resources/1068.pdf
- Gutierrez, L., Alvarez, A. R., Nemon, H., & Lewis, E. A. (1996). Multicultural community organizing: A strategy for change. Social Work, ...
