What Do These A-List Celebrities All Have in Common?
You will be surprised by the answer.
What do Tina Fey, Ashton Kutcher, Brad Pitt, Amy Adams, Anne Hathaway and Jamie Foxx all have in common? a) They are celebrities – yes. b) They all sang in choir at some point in their lives.
Did you guess b?
This is an interesting fact worth paying attention to: Many A-list celebrities began their journey into the world of performance through choir.
Am I suggesting that you too will become famous if you sing in a choir? No, of course not (well, maybe, if that’s your goal!). But there is something to it. At least, I think there is!
Check out what Alfonso Ribeiro has to say about choir. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYRLRIYwyR8
Choir IS awesome (and a little 90’s throwback is also awesome;).
The voice is our PRIMARY instrument. It’s innate. Primal. ALL other instruments are secondary.
There is a reason why universities require all music majors to participate in a choir every year of their program regardless of their instrument of study – because THE VOICE is the first instrument.
If you don’t have a strong connection with your voice, your primary instrument; you will never reach your truest and most full potential on your secondary instrument.
Let that sink in for a moment.
For most of us, the voice is our primary tool for communication. We use our voice to sing, speak, hum, shout, to share thoughts and feelings, and to communicate our wants, needs and desires.
Our voice is deeply connected to who we are, which is why it can be so difficult to share.
Choir provides a safe space to share your voice, to learn how your voice works, and how to use it in an expressive and healthy way. But choral singing goes far deeper than that.
Choral singing has the longest history of any collective form of music that we perform. Choral music stretches back a thousand years to when people could first write music down. Long before orchestras.
Choral singing teaches empathy, compassion, history, languages, focus, commitment, conviction and connection. It questions humanity and creates an ethical foundation of understanding.
Choir allows us to build meaningful friendships and a community. A shared experience that you just can’t have on your own. Confidence, creativity and skill blossom in these shared experiences of storytelling, questioning and uncovering.
And at the heart of it all is musical and personal excellence and A LOT of fun.
Choral singing is a warm hug on a cold day. Singers leave rehearsal with a warm heart and a smile on their face. There truly is nothing like it. When you step into rehearsal, the worries of the day melt away.
So back to the A-list celebrities I mentioned above.
I believe the choir experience gave these individuals a voice: an understanding that their voice mattered, a community of belonging and acceptance to share and be heard, and a confidence to go out into the world and make a difference.
Choir is a beautiful thing.
Keep singing,
~Andrea “you’re on my A-list” Donais
P.S. RISE & RISE Prep are opening up a few spaces for January for any interested singers. Auditions are December 3 and 17. You can find out more details here.