I wish that every hard-working teacher could experience what Tony Pavao has experienced this weekend. He was the choral director at Racine’s Horlick High School (my wife’s alma mater) for about a quarter century and built an impressive legacy there- and although he continues to teach privately and also did some work at Carroll College after his retirement, you can tell that his musical heart is still with Horlick.
It wasn’t long ago that a couple of interesting ideas were simultaneously hatched. One was that it would be neat to organize some kind of reunion of past members of the Horlick choral program who had sung under Mr. Pavao- and the other idea was that it would be neat if the Horlick Madrigal Dinner could somehow return to the Great Room at the Dekoven Center- a space that is visually ideal but which unfortunately does not have the kind of modern, efficient kitchen required for such an event. Could a fundraising campaign be mounted to renovate the kitchen? And how would it work for the aforementioned choir reunion to serve as a kickoff for such a fundraising project? And in the fusion of those two ideas emerged the exciting events of this weekend- which climaxed in a concert last night which was quite moving and impressive.
A word about choir reunions. . . They are a scary leap of faith. You issue the invitation with the fervent hope that you’ll end up with a decently balanced, decently skilled group- but there is no way to be certain of that you won’t end up with 9 sopranos, 27 altos, 2 tenors, and 5 basses. (By the way, I’ve got nothing against altos. I married one, and where would we be without them.) And you hope but by no means can you be certain of having enough strong musical leaders among your ranks. (It means trouble when a reunion choir consists entirely of “leaners” who tended to be uncertain of the music and leaned on the greater assurance of those around them.) And yet, one way or another, these reunions have a way of working out beautifully… maybe because a reunion like this tends to draw people for whom choir was a powerful and important experience rather than those who were passing love notes to each other or staring vacantly out the window with drool dripping out of their mouth. Twenty years after the fact, I would wager that most of those people would have not the slightest recollection that they had ever been in choir, let alone feel the slightest interest in coming back for a reunion. This kind of event is pretty much designed for the Choir Nerds among us.
This particular reunion choir indeed boasted a fine turnout of about seventy singers- nicely balanced between S,A,T and B and also representative of Tony’s entire tenure at Horlick. And they could sing! The sound which rolled out of them was rich and warm and downright thrilling at times. And there were certain pieces on the program, like that famous and beloved arrangement of “Battle Hymn of the Republic” (the one with the “truth is marching…truth is marching” part) which really require full, mature voices and it was so fun to hear this piece sung so beautifully and persuasively. And by the way, Mr. Pavao drew not only alums from the area- but from as far away as New York and California. And this nice sized group was assembled almost entirely through Facebook and word of mouth; no mass mailing went out. (If they had really been aggressive about inviting alums, they probably would have had more singers than could have been fit into the Great Hall.) And all went well, with Faure’s ‘Cantique de Jean Racine’ receiving an especially lovely and expressive performance.
It was only after the concert was over and I was congratulating Tony that he told me how incredibly unhappy and difficult his first year at Horlick was- and how close he came to resigning. (Needless to say, I won’t be sharing any specifics about what made that first year at Horlick so hard, except to say that there were both students and teachers who were part of the problem.) My wife and her classmates were sophomores at Horlick during his first year (they started their high school careers as he was starting at Horlick) but they had very little knowledge of how rough things had been for their director in the beginning. It was astonishing to hear about this because it made me realize that the impressive legacy represented in this reunion choir might very easily have not come to pass at all had things played out just a bit differently and if he had acted on that impulse to quit.
But of course he didn’t quit- and his achievements speak for themselves. Which is not to say that Quitting is always the wrong choice. Some situations are not the right situation for you – and they never will be – and one needs to step away. Or maybe another opportunity presents itself which is exactly the opportunity you need in order to grow and flourish, but which means letting go of the present task and grasping a new one. But sometimes a situation is temporarily tough and you know that beneath the surface is all kinds of potential and promise- and it’s worth waiting for, even if it means weathering some initial trouble. Then there are those other situations in which we don’t quit- but rather are rudely torn from a situation in which we had envisioned a long and fruitful future. I guess all of this is my long-winded way of saying that the old adage Bloom Where You’re Planted is not quite as simple a matter as we might wish it to be. Sometimes we’re planted in the wrong plot of soil- and other times we are planted in the right soil but something comes along that uproots us very much against our will. (My word, that’s true again and again in these tough times.) But thankfully there are also those instances where one is planted in a wonderful plot of soil which perfectly matches who you are, what you need, and what you have to give. And that is about as precious a gift as one can receive in this life. . . and I think this weekend probably helped Tony Pavao see that more clearly and appreciate that more deeply – even as it also helped him realize what kind of impact he had on so many students over the years.
pictured above: the reunion choir sings its final selection- which has been its traditional finale for many years now- and choir alumni who were not able to rehearse and perform with the choir were nevertheless invited to come up and join them for this particular piece. You might recognize my wife Kathy at the far left (in blue) and in the third row of singers, to the right of the guy in yellow, are three of Kathy’s dearest high school friends: Dan Ihasz (in white), Lance Chanlynn, and Steve Bahr (both in red) who helped anchor the bass section. Kathy was delighted at the chance to be together with them and other choir friends, some of whom she hadn’t seen in decades!