WHY DO THEY DO WHAT THEY DO?

The My Pop Choir Directors talk about what it’s like to lead our choirs

Do you ever wonder what’s going on behind the smiling face of your MPC director? Do they really want to spend 90 minutes (or more) with you each week? Can they possibly love music that much?  Read on to find out.

But first let’s meet them all –check out their profiles by clicking the link.

Kent Andrews - https://www.mypopchoir.com/post/a-chat-with-kent-andrews-our-favourite-choir-director-for-vancouver

Mary Lynne Calvert - https://www.mypopchoir.com/post/new-my-pop-choir-director-finds-what-she-was-looking-for

Jenn Kee - https://www.mypopchoir.com/post/the-sixteen-lives-of-jenn-kee

Doug Price - https://www.mypopchoir.com/post/a-lot-of-hard-work-and-a-touch-of-magic

Jocelyn Regina - https://www.mypopchoir.com/post/rapt-in-music

Iain Stewart - https://www.mypopchoir.com/post/renaissance-man

Why My Pop Choir?

Doug was MPC’s first choir director, starting out in 2011 in Oakville.  “What drew me to it was the idea it was a low stress environment where people could be brought together through music. We are hardwired to sing and create community – so I was drawn to that.”

“I usually research things thoroughly,” says Mary Lynne.  “But I went into MPC with little more than a gut feel. That’s very strange for me and yet I am so glad that I did.”

Jenn shared that experience. “I jumped in with two feet!” she says. “There’s other things that I’ve got going on in my career but this has become the central part.”

Being a substitute director for a week was Jocelyn’s first taste of My Pop Choir. “Then when I was asked to direct my own choir, I remembered how nice everyone had been and how much I enjoyed it, so I knew that I was interested in doing it.”

Kent was seeking something completely new. “I was looking for other creative outlets. I had auditioned for commercials and film and done some of that work. Then one of my actor friends sent me a posting from the Equity bulletin for a choirmaster. I interviewed and the rest is history!”

Iain has been in choirs since childhood, when he sang under the leadership of a world-renowned director.  He was eager to recreate that experience. “I knew that you didn’t need to be a professional singer to make a choir sound amazing.”

First Impressions

“It was an incredible feeling,” Jenn recalls. “It was unlike anything that I had been doing before and I knew that I really, really loved it. It was such a great fit!”

Iain’s background and training gave him some confidence in an unknown situation. “I was a bit nervous at first, but I fell into it quickly. Then it just was fun and it’s been fun this whole time.”

None of the MPC directors had second thoughts about continuing to take on the MPC challenge.

“For me, being in front of a group of singers is very comfortable,” Doug says. “MPC offered me an opportunity to be the performance version of me.”

Kent’s first reaction was that he loved it more than he thought he was going to. “It took me by surprise.”

“The energy of the group was so welcoming,” Jocelyn recalls. “But I didn’t know what to do with my hands, as I had never been a director before!”

For thirty years, Mary Lynne taught music to high school students, but leading an adult choir was a completely new venture.  “At the end of the first session, I thought that I couldn’t believe that I hadn’t done this for years and years, and that I hadn’t known these people for years and years.”

It's All About the Singers

What happens when the MPC choirs come together each week is magic, and the directors all feel it.

“If you’ve been there, you know how joyful it is,” says Iain.  “It’s in the air. Singing brings you into the moment and everything else falls away. That’s what I love about it.”

When Kent started his choirs in B.C., he connected with his singers immediately. “I choose to do this because of the people - watching them succeed and seeing them leave on a total high.”

“Thank you to the singers for trusting us,” says Jocelyn. “Sometimes we ask them to do things outside of their comfort zone and I always appreciate it when people are willing to humour me, to try something that adds to the dynamics of the piece.”

Jenn comments on how her choirs react: “The best part about the choir is the journey that they take from the beginning, their first day, and they feel that ‘there’s no way I’m going to be able to do this.’  And then by the end, ‘Wow I did that, we did that.’  What’s great is to see that progress and be a part of that.”

Doug’s focus is completely on his choir members: “Their experience is my top priority all the time. And to that end every single part of how I run a My Pop Choir session is designed to maximize that– not just their experience with me, but with the music, and with each other.”

Mary Lynne sums it up: “I am surrounded by people I like. It’s awesome!”

Choir Highs

My Pop Choir members often talk about the “choir high,” the amazing feeling they feel after a session, no matter how tired they might have been when they began. It might surprise you to learn that your directors feel exactly the same way!

“As tired as I might be going into a session,” says Kent, “I am so rejuvenated by the end that there is a major dopamine payoff!”

Iain feels the same rush. “I always find myself at the end of choir being so invigorated and so inspired. I never want it to be over – I want to just keep going.”

“When we sing together it makes us all feel amazing,” says Doug.

Jocelyn’s enthusiasm is very clear: “I love doing it. I feel that it’s a perfect cocktail of all things that I am good at and that I enjoy!”

“People who have been in a choir have that rush that comes from performing,” Mary Lynne explains. “Working on something as a group has its rocky bits and struggles, but then you perform it and you have that rush. I love that we are getting that experience.”

“It takes all of my energy, but at the same time I am just so energized,” Jenn reports. “It’s an incredible feeling, unlike anything that I had been doing before.”

What They Want You to Know

“Know that I take it seriously,” says Mary Lynne. “The work I put in is a reflection of my care and pride in what we have achieved. We did this together.”

Jenn is both surprised and overjoyed by her MPC experience. “It’s exactly the right niche for me,” she says. “I love that everybody feels uplifted.  I know I contribute to that but it’s the community, the sheer act of singing together. I never saw it coming, but it’s becoming the central crux of my career.”

“I knew immediately that this was going to be something I could see myself doing for a long time,” says Iain. “It is so refreshing to hear how blended and beautiful the sound can be from people who haven’t studied singing their whole lives.”

Jocelyn sees her future with MPC as well. “It’s a really good fit for me,” Jocelyn says.  “I didn’t know that when I first started, but I want to continue with this throughout my career.”

“I am conscious of the fact that we are as much about community as we are about music,” says Kent. “I want people to build relationships and feel that they are a part of it.”

Your My Pop Choir directors want you to know that fun and camaraderie are as much their goals as is mastering the music. And they want you to realize that all of them, as Doug says, “love the choir members just the way they are.”

Loud and Proud

Jocelyn gets the credit for this description of how the MPC directors want their choirs to sing.  And if you’re just a bit hesitant, she has some advice: “If you’re feeling a little nervous or vulnerable, come sit in the front. Then you get all the voices coming from behind you and you get a lot more feedback from your peers.”

Mary Lynne sums up her choir philosophy this way: “Awesome doesn’t come from luck but from diligence, work, caring, trying, risk-taking.”

The MPC experience “happens to be musical and communal, but it’s also fun and uplifting and joyful,” says Doug.

Jenn agrees that this unique combination is what makes the MPC singers and their music special.  “We don’t always hit the mark exactly,” Jenn says, “but we’re always having so much fun doing it.”

As do his colleagues, Iain knows how his singers feel. “I realize how taking your eyes off the music is scary, because you think you’re going to make a mistake. But you know more than you think you do. And until you push yourself that far, you don’t know you can do it.”

Hopefully, you will come to share your director’s confidence in you. And then you can follow Kent’s wish that you “sing with reckless abandon!”