Friends of the Mill District Secures Grant for Mill City Choir
Monday, July 4, 2016 at 1:07PM
By Claudia Kittock
On June 29th, the Board of Directors of the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council (MRAC) approved an Arts Activities Support grant in the amount of $8,000 to Friends of the Mill District. This grant will be used to fund the Mill City Emanuel Singers which is sponsored by the Friends of the Mill District.
Our choir began on a run. A group of Mill District neighbors formed a running group and invited residents from Emanuel Housing to be part of that group at its inception. We discovered the commonality of running was a means to become friends. On these runs we talked about running, the neighborhood, and our diverse backgrounds. During one of these runs, a runner brought up music and asked the question, “Why isn’t there more music in the neighborhood . . . you know, like a choir?” The simple answer to that question was, “I don’t know, but I will find out.” When I asked a MacPhail Center for Music employee the same question, she promised to do some research. Within a week, she suggested MacPhail might be willing to help us set up a pilot project to see if we could make a choir a reality and offered us J.D. Steele as the director.
The Downtown Minneapolis Neighborhood Association (DMNA) agreed to provide the seed money for the pilot project and with word-of-mouth and posters put up in residences around the Mill District, we began our first rehearsal with 42 people! It was immediately evident that a neighborhood choir, directed by J.D. Steele, was going to be as unique as our neighborhood and as the genius of J.D. While we love singing together, we also discovered another purpose, building community and developing personal connections through singing together.
J.D. Steele is as talented as he is unique in the world of music. Rehearsals begin with a ‘call’ from J.D. He loudly sings, “Day-Oh!” and the singers echo back. J.D. continues to go up the scale by half steps until we are warmed up and ready to sing. We do not use printed music. J.D. never learned to read music and teaches us using a music technique known as ‘lining out’. Lining has a long and storied tradition in American music. J.D. sings every vocal part by lining, teaching the singers the words, the music, and each part of harmony.
Our hope is to make this choir a permanent part of our neighborhood. At present we have 85 members, most of which are 55 and over. We would like to extend our outreach even further into the homeless community and people living in low income housing, particularly to People Serving People, a family shelter in our neighborhood.
We will rehearse in three 8-week sessions of rehearsals every year. Our goal is to perform at community events at least twice each session. The Guthrie Theater, American Academy of Neurology, and First Covenant Church have already partnered with us to provide rehearsal space. We would like to add neighborhood venues for rehearsals to increase visibility.
The choir has already performed at Holidazzle, the MacPhail Music Matters Luncheon, and will be singing Take Me Out to the Ball Game at the August 11th Minnesota Twins game. Look for the upcoming schedule of rehearsals. We welcome you to join us for one rehearsal or for everyone. However, be very careful. After one rehearsal, the chances of being ‘hooked’ are very high!
Contact Claudia for more details & how to participate at cjkittock@gmail.com
