I have spent the last four days experiencing a bit of heaven- on-earth, and not just because I’ve been in scenic Decorah, Iowa. What has really made it heaven-on-earth has been the experience of singing once again with the Weston Noble Alumni Choir. 78 of us (his 78 angels, and he once referred to us, earlier this week) – alumni dating back to the class of 1949 up to the class of 2001 – are back on the campus of our alma mater, singing under the direction of the one-and-only Weston Noble. The group came into existence almost by chance back in 2006 when a Luther and Nordic Choir alum, Myron Heaton, was taking his wonderful Las Vegas- based community choir on a European tour, with Mr. Noble as the very special guest conductor. Somewhere in the planning of that trip, Myron got the idea of supplementing his ensemble with a few Nordic Choir alumni who might enjoy the opportunity to sing once again with Mr. Noble- and that adventure proved to be so incredibly fun and inspirational that the Weston Noble Alumni Choir was born … and this summer’s group is its 7th incarnation. Each summer’s choir is a slightly different group of singers, although there are a number of stalwarts who have never missed and most likely never will miss out on such an opportunity. I’ve done it twice before, so this is my third time singing with the Alumni Choir and it has been a remarkable, moving experience each time.
But I hasten to add: this really isn’t about turning back the clock and reliving what it was like to sing in Nordic Choir, one of the greatest choral ensembles in the world. This isn’t Nordic Choir nor a strict recreation of it or of the experience which we had when we were part of Nordic, back whenever that was for each of us. When we were in Nordic, we were in college… just beginning to find out who we were… and for every single one of us, Nordic was a mountaintop musical experience like nothing any of us had ever known before in our young lives- and for most if not all Nordic members, it was like nothing any of us have known since. It was also an incredibly powerful bonding experience as each new Nordic Choir rehearsed together five days a week, performed together, toured together, laughed and cried together, and became incredibly close. And leading the way was the world-famous legend himself, Weston Noble, to whom we felt remarkable devotion. I think most of us felt like we would have gladly walked right off of cliff if he had asked us to do so. We felt such love for the man, and felt such love from the man, although I think most of us did not begin to understand what that love was all about, nor did we fully appreciate it at the time.
The Weston Noble Alumni Choir is in almost every respect an entirely new and different experience … in part because we come from so many different eras. It means that this is not a Reunion Choir in the typical sense of the word, and because we are so far-ranging in age, there’s actually not all that much reminiscing about past experiences we’ve shared together – because there aren’t any. As the character of Tony Soprano once said on the hit HBO series, “ ‘ Remember when’ is the lowest form of conversation.” The Weston Noble Alumni Choir is much more about the present than it is about the past . . . about building new, exciting experiences with Mr. Noble rather than trying to relive or reminisce about the experiences of our past. I love that about this group.
And there are ways in which it is an even more exciting and moving and satisfying experience than it was to sing in Nordic in the first place. Not that this group can begin to approach the kind of extraordinary excellence that Nordic Choir achieved. We couldn’t hope to achieve that, even if that were the goal. We are, after all, a somewhat ragtag group, self-selected when it comes right down to it. There is no gatekeeper rigorously guarding the gate and permitting only the most skilled singers to enter. We essentially invite ourselves into this experience, having earned the privilege simply by having sung under Mr. Noble’s direction once upon a time. So we are not a carefully selected group like Nordic was and is. There are no gauntlet of auditions and callbacks – and aside from the leaders of the group watching for a basic balance of the four sections, it is a matter of whoever fills the seats first, so to speak, that ends up comprising the newest Weston Noble Alumni Choir. Given that reality, it’s rather incredible that the group ends up sounding so beautiful in terms of balance, blend and sheer quality of voices. There is also the matter of age, and the fact that as time marches on, whatever we gain in terms of maturity, skill and experience as musicians is balanced by the inevitable aging of our voices. Not that older voices can’t be extraordinarily beautiful …. but it is a different kind of beauty than what one hears from a group of superbly trained college students, devoted day in and day out to the craft of singing, buoyed by the vigor and vitality of their own youthfulness. We are not that sort of choir, with those kind of voices – which makes the excellence we achieve all the more gratifying and impressive.
And then there is the matter of Mr. Noble himself. (The whole world calls him Weston, but I call him Mr. Noble. I simply can’t help myself.) Yes, he is an ageless wonder, and no one I have ever known wears 90 years as lightly and joyously as he does, and there are many times when the years melt away and I would swear that the man standing on that podium is the Weston Noble I first sang under back in the fall of 1978. . . 35 years ago. But those moments are rather fleeting, and most of the time there is no denying the encroachment of age on his hearing, focus, memory. But he carries on with such courage and determination … so deeply dedicated to the music we are singing and so anxious to make our performance of it as fine as it can be … and so profoundly grateful that we have gathered around him to make music with him again.
And we in turn are so profoundly grateful that he wants to do this with us … and I think most of us are also acutely aware that as time marches on, the day will come when Mr. Noble will no longer be standing atop that podium. It makes each and every experience all the more precious, which in turn makes it very easy to be patient and understanding when that is what’s called for. I’m talking about those moments in the rehearsal when Mr. Noble will be bearing down on the tiniest bits of minutia involving the style of a given pickup or the shape of a certain vowel, endlessly, when there are pages and pages of difficult music that we have yet to sing through even once …. or those moments in a rehearsal when we will painstakingly rehearse a given passage, adding one voice at a time until it’s all put together – and then proceed to do the very same thing with the very same passage all over again, as though the previous ten minutes never happened. It is in those rare instances when he seems especially fragile and vulnerable to the onslaught of time that are in some ways most precious to me and I think to a lot of us in the choir. Kathy Gentes, one of Mr. Noble’s most devoted friends (and this year the pianist for the choir) said something about that at our membership meeting this afternoon, remarking at how moved she has been at how patient and understanding we are with Mr. Noble in those moments when he is, in a sense, at his weakest. Those are the moments when you really sense a very powerful, gracious, unconditional love in the room.
And so we all carry on as best we can …. sustained by our love for music, for singing, for each other, for our school, for our esteemed and cherished director …. and for the God who makes it all possible. The very first words we will sing on tonight’s concert (as set so brilliantly by William Byrd) are “Sing Joyfully.” That is exactly why we are here.
pictured above: this is a photo I snapped during Monday afternoon’s rehearsal. (I didn’t get to Decorah in time for Sunday’s rehearsal.) We spent the firs three and a half days rehearsing in the choir room of the Jensen Hall of Music, which didn’t even exist when most of us (including me) were at Luther. But now after three years of being part of this group, this rehearsal room is starting to feel almost homey to me.