Over the course of an education, a choral singer could spend a decade singing daily in a school choir. Then, with the pomp-&-circumstance of a graduation ceremony, that same singer passes from the educational system into the demands of the workaday world. For the vast majority of those singers, that means leaving choral music behind.
There are precious few workplaces that would allow their employees to take off an hour a day for a choral rehearsal (though the world might be a better place if we had choirs at work). In England, there are several outfits offering workplace team-building workshops that use choral singing to enhance business productivity. The BBC has also produced a string of reality TV shows about choirs being started from scratch in unlikely places.
The singer eager to continue their choral life must look to church choirs and community choruses for their continued musical edification. The positive effect of singing on the life of an adult chorister cannot be overstated, and the ensembles themselves offer a valuable artistic component to the life of any community. Church and community choirs are a vital part of the choral landscape.
One has heard the concern that more church and community choirs are not heard performing during ACDA conferences. The reason of course is really quite simple: their singers all have day jobs. It would be tough to convince 50 people to burn three or four days of their precious vacation time and then pay for expensive travel to a conference city for a 25-minute performance.
That said, enjoy this example of a community choir from an ACDA divisional conference. Note the wide spread of adult ages and the artistic caliber of this performance.
Graduate. Keep singing!
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