When one voice stands alone, it's hard to make an impact. But what about a choir of many, bringing impactful programming with voices of community? You're listening to Off the Record with Stephen Philip Harvey, where we sit down and talk to a variety of musicians on today's music scene. Today we're sitting down with Veronica Tomek, Arlene White, and Dr. John Wesley Wright, members of the Salisbury based community choir, Vox Concordia. I sat down with them to talk about the history of the choir and their upcoming performance at the Maryland Folk Festival.
Veronica Tomanek: Vox Concordia is a relatively new chamber choir on the Eastern shore and our mission statement actually says a lot about us. And we provide diverse musical experiences for singers and audiences on the Eastern shore through high quality and, what we hope are, inspiring choral performances. And one of the things we'd like to do is educate people with things that are not as well known. And I know that we've had comments from audience goers who were so happy to be exposed to new composers that they've never heard of before, whose music is just as good as the ones that everybody else.
Community ensembles give various people the opportunity to perform, placing community involvement over professional prowess. Though there are music professionals like Tomanek and Wright in the ensemble, its membership advocates for everyone to keep singing.
Arlene White: I'm a retired, French professor from Salisbury University. I've been, um, singing all my life in a variety of ways, and I had the honor to be one of the founding members of Vox Concordia and served as the president of their board for the first few years. So it's been very exciting to see us take root in the community to continue to search for talented singers to be a part of our ensemble, and to, as Veronica has said already, to bring a variety of music to the Eastern shore that may not be accessible in other ways.
When community voices come together, it's a unique opportunity to represent the diversity of its membership. With a lot of musical voices comes a lot of musical tastes. Vox Concordia helps to present that to their community. As well as some other surprises.
Dr. John Wesley Wright: I, for one, love it. I can't tell you... I wish I had a dollar for every time somebody said, "You know, I used to sing in choir!" I'd be a rich man. And so my, my stock answer is, well, there's opportunity here for you to open that door once again! So, Vox Concordia is just one of those awesome doors. And, uh, we, uh, sing a range of repertoire from Spanish folk music to African American spirituals, and believe there's something... a piece from Nova Scotia and just all kinds of repertoire that would excite just about anybody.
That was Veronica Tomanek, Arlene White, and Dr. John Wesley Wright. Members of the Salisbury-based community choir Vox Concordia. This weekend, Vox Concordia takes the stage along with many other diverse offerings as part of the Maryland Folk Fest. More information can be found a mdfolkfest.com. This was Off the Record, hosted by me, Stephen Philip Harvey, a Delmarva Public media production.
To hear more off the record interviews or to listen to other original segments like this, visit delmarvapubticmedia.org
