By Ruth Ann Ruiz
The Post Newspaper Features Editor
Rehearsals for Bay Area Chorus are taken seriously. If you want to socialize with fellow choir members or the director, you can’t do it between 7:00pm and 9:00 pm on rehersal Mondays.
Director Milton Pullen wastes no time once he is positioned in front of his music stand. With a low, clear voice, he brings his musicians’ attention to the musical piece that will lead the rehearsal.
Choir members quietly and swiftly turn the pages of their music sheets. As Pullen gives verbal instructions, they’re scribbling notes in the margins. On cue, all activity in the choir stops. The pianist begins and Pullen’s hands and arms turn on the magic that only a music director has of guiding the musicians to release their musical talents.
Next, a full choral sound rises from the choir as they delve into rehearsing “America the Beautiful” as every voice blends together to ring out the patriotic song. Then in the middle of their singing, Pullen’s hands bring the choral voices to a pause.
“I heard this,” said Pullen. He sings a few words from the song. “I want to hear this,” he adds. Again, he sings a bar from the song,
He finishes his verbal directions with, “Don’t sing words, don’t sing notes, sing poetically. Don’t punch the consonants.”
It’s back to the choir delivering what their director has asked of them. He is pleased and gives them the praise they have earned.
The choir is directed to a second patriotic piece. This time, no interruptions are needed. Moving through several patriotic pieces keeps the choir and director focused on perfecting their art for their first performance.
BAC, like so many other performing artists, were without a public platform for more months than they care to remember due to the pandemic. Their 2021-2022 schedule is a robust one with six scheduled performances.
“We are all excited to be back to our musical performances,” said Janis Parish, president of BAC. “This year we had more people attend auditions than we have ever had before,” she added.
This season’s choir is made up of 82 members.
Bay Area Habitat for Humanity has elected to celebrate their 30th anniversary with the BAC performing for attendees at their gala. The evening events will be held at Dickinson’s First Methodist Church on November 6. This will be their first public performance in over 18 months.
Their collective voices will ring out a patriotic tribute to honor our troops and Veterans on November 7 at 4:00pm at Gloria Dei Lutheran Church. This will be followed by several Christmas performances along with more BAC events in 2022.
For most of the performers, music is something they love, but it doesn’t pay their bills, as the chorus is made up of volunteer musicians.
Frances Chen, a retired accountant from Pearland, expressed how she feels about being in the chorus: “I’m just an amateur singer. But it is the activity that makes me the happiest. I’ll go home now and be very happy. I just love singing and I find after the concerts I am very inspired.”
Vocal music runs in the Chen family, with Christine Chen of League City joining her mother as a member of the chorus. By the daylight hours, Christine works as an MD in family medicine. “I sang in high school and college and enjoy this opportunity to continue singing,” said Dr. Chen.
While the chorus rehearsal continues moving into spiritual music, Pullen drops his director’s wand onto the stand and folds his arms across his chest. The entire chorus looks at him, with a sense of ‘oh no. What did we do wrong?’
When he proclaims, “The mistake was mine,” a slight sigh of relief ripples through the choir.
BAC has been a tradition for local choral music lovers since 1965 and the tradition lives on because of the many individuals who are committed to the mission, “We believe in enriching lives through choral music and it gives all of us a lot of satisfaction to share our voices in unison with our wonderful audiences,” said Parish.
