BCS Connections and Reflections no. 10: In this reflection and musical offering, Abby Henkel describes how she uses music to serve others and the process of creating music in a video she shares in this post. Abby has been singing soprano 1 with BCS since 2012.
Are you enjoying these connections? What would you like to see more of? We welcome your feedback.
Serving Others with Music
The first funeral I sang was for a friend’s grandmother. The singer for the small-town church needed to step down at the last minute, and I was asked to come the next morning to sing Schubert’s famous setting of Ave Maria.
As the organist played the introduction while I stood at the pulpit, I took a look around the room. This was not an audience I was singing for, but a gathering of a hundred mourners remembering the long life of a remarkable woman.
I wasn’t performing; I was serving. As the notes started to flow out, I experienced something no concert could ever provide for me. My music, coming through my voice and my heart, was helping these people. I was using my art to help them connect with their feelings, their loved ones, and the woman they were saying goodbye to.
Every performance is meaningful if you love to sing, whether it’s a huge festival or a small gathering of friends. There is always a joy that comes from sharing music with others, live and in the same room. (Obviously I’ve been thinking about that more and more these days, as my patient girlfriend is the only person I can inflict my singing on.)
Music serves many meaningful purposes. I love singing Renaissance polyphony with the Bloomington Chamber Singers. I love opening a beer and jamming on bluegrass music with my family and friends around a campfire. I love putting on a Brandi Carlile record while I do the dishes. But there is something unique about using music to help others when they’re troubled.
Lately, it seems like the people I know and love are more troubled than usual. The isolation from the pandemic has been really tough. Confronting the realities of systemic racism and white privilege is huge on people’s minds now, and I think that’s a good thing because we are finally taking more action than ever before.
To help people connect to each other and the events that are happening in this weirdly disconnected world, I prepared Andrew Lloyd Webber’s duet, Pie Jesu, with two fellow BCS members, soprano Claire Tafoya and pianist Paul Pisano. We used email, text, and Zoom to collaborate on plans. We practiced in our own homes, sending ideas and working out things like rubato and breath marks. It wasn’t the same as singing together in the same space, where we could feel each other’s energy and progress together in real time. But it was a wonderful experience. I’m so glad we embarked on this project.
But the bigger purpose behind this recording is to honor and remember the Black victims of police brutality in this country, and in their names, to raise money for the Southern Poverty Law Center. The lyrics, from the requiem mass, pray for everlasting rest for the dead.
After BCS rehearsals had to end abruptly in March, we, like musicians across the world, felt a painful void. Projects like this one help to keep us connected through this unusual time in our lives.
Musical Offering
I invite you to listen to our video on YouTube, and if you feel moved and have the capacity, consider donating to our GoFundMe campaign. All donations received will support the Southern Poverty Law Center’s work to fight hate and bigotry and to seek justice for the most vulnerable members of our society.
