Tell Me A Story: The Personal Impact of Singing

My father was a great consumer of politics and news. I have an indelible image of him in my memory, his round face donning half-glasses and peering over the top of a newspaper at the dining room table as he schooled me about the issues of the day. On Sunday nights, the ritual was to gather for the CBS television program 60 Minutes. Okay, so I'm dating myself, but back in the day this TV news magazine format was groundbreaking and, for me in particular, it made the news (that Dad said I should read and watch even though I didn't like to) much more interesting.

So while the last several months have been full of emotional celebrations of the lives of so many well-known personalities (from Ted Kennedy and Eunice Shriver to Walter Cronkite and Ed McMahon to name a few), I found myself feeling strangely nostalgic about the recent death of Don Hewitt, the creator of 60 Minutes.

As his colleagues reflected on Hewitt's life during the days that followed his death, they talked about how Hewitt really did invent television news as we know it today, including seemingly mundane changes (for example, he is called the father of the cue card, which was evidently a compromise when a famous TV anchor under his tutelage refused to learn to read Braille as Hewitt wanted so that the anchor never took his eye off the camera).

But the oft-told, simple refrain from Hewitt colleagues was this: Don didn't do news, Don did stories. He was known to bust into a news room barking, "Tell me a story!"

In 2009, Chorus America released the Chorus Impact Study, which includes new and compelling data about the value of choral singing for adults, children, and communities. Since we released the report at Chorus America's Conference in 2009, the data has been featured on network news, in print, on blogs, and more. But one of the most compelling things for me was during the Conference, when we handed delegates digital voice recorders and asked them to record their personal stories that could illustrate the findings from the Chorus Impact Study research.

Over the summer, the Chorus America staff listened to these recordings and we discovered some gems that can help us in our continued efforts to get the word out about the importance of choruses.

The stories shared on that June day are striking in terms of their diversity. Some illustrate the intrinsic value of choruses and the communal expression of great art. Others reflect on the way that choral music speaks to audiences with universal themes that are timeless, poignant, or deeply personal. Many people had evidence of the power of singing for children and schools. And a number of the stories shed light on how choral singing helped singers develop positive attributes, or gain confidence to tackle difficult things.

Here's just one example from Rob Istad, assistant conductor of the Pacific Chorale and director of choral studies at California State University at Fullerton:

"...I'm now working with an immensely talented student who just over a year ago almost dropped out of high school. His first two years were basically failures, he'd gotten involved with a gang, and things looked very bleak for him. The choir director happened to attend a talent contest at the school where, as a joke, the student sang a rap song. She heard some talent and approached the guidance counselor who told her this student really had no hope, he was going to be sent to an alternative high school. She said let me just have a semester with him, so he enrolled in classes again in the fall and joined the choir. He fell in love with music and started taking lessons. He became extremely proficient and was so inspired that he wanted to go to college to study music. He made up the two previous years of failing grades in addition to his regular coursework with all As. This last spring he auditioned at my university and was awarded our top scholarship: full tuition, fees, and a computer because of his great talent. His mother says that the day her son entered that choir is the day his life turned around."

I'm sure that the stories we collected that day are the tip of the iceberg, because no one had a chance to prepare for this assignment, or to mine their own chorus for ideas. But the point was to remind us how valuable stories can be in communicating the value of our choruses, and to take a moment to remember things about our own experiences that could connect us with others outside of our choral world.

What are the untold stories within your organization? Is yours a story of exchanging values and traditions, building community, enriching education, or inspiring creativity? As your season gets underway this fall, I hope you'll take an opportunity to reread the Chorus Impact Study report and to consider how this might help you "Tell a story!" that communicates your value to your singers, audiences, and communities.

Ann Meier Baker
President and CEO

This article is adaptedfrom The Voice, Fall 2009.