The question must have crossed the minds of some of the nearly 3,000 audience members.
How the heck do choristers from a place called Flin Flon, Manitoba, end up singing here, at Avery Fisher Hall at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, one of the world’s premiere musical venues?
They got their answer when members of the Flin Flon Community Choir stepped onto the renowned stage last Sunday, Dec. 1 to help bring Handel’s Messiah to life.
And if the sophisticated New York City audience was awestruck – as they surely were – the feeling was mutual. For these small-town singers, this was the ultimate “pinch me” experience.
“You’re trying to put your head around the fact that you’re at the Avery Fisher Hall at the Lincoln Center, and that you’re in New York,” said FFCC director Crystal Kolt.
“It’s just really an overwhelming, exciting experience and opportunity.”
While in New York – Manhattan, to be specific – Kolt put aside her usual conducting duties and sang as one of 66 FFCC performers.
They formed part of a harmonious and globally diverse roster of choirs and individual vocalists. Represented countries included not only the United States and Canada, but also Australia, China and Singapore.
At any given time there were 175 to 200 choristers on the massive stage. The FFCC members lent their voices throughout the second and third parts of Messiah.
“We were actually one of the largest choruses there,” said Kolt.
Naturally, the concert was a formal affair. Lasting about two and a half hours, it was produced by an organization known as Distinguished Concerts International - New York.
DCINY literally scours the globe for compelling, highly gifted choirs and individual vocalists ready for the ultimate in breakout performances.
Through the sort of twist of fate that always seems to find the FFCC, DCINY program developer Jason Mlynyk learned of the small choir with big talent.
One day Mlynyk, himself a musical prodigy, logged onto a website called ChoralNet, billed as a “portal for those interested in choral music.”
He found not the FFCC’s current webpage, but a link that brought up an old version of its site dating back at least a half-dozen years.
“He saw the website and he was really intrigued,” Kolt said, “and even though it was older information, he couldn’t get it out of his mind. He was really interested in it and us.”
Kolt was at home cooking supper early one evening in November 2012 when her phone rang. It was Mlynyk. He was prepared to invite her and her choir to the Big Apple.
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After an audition recording passed muster with Mlynyk and the DCINY, the choir was formally asked to participate in the Dec. 1, 2013 concert.
Kolt graciously accepted, and as humbled and surprised as she was, this would not be the FFCC’s first musical adventure in New York City.
Back in June 2002, 23 FFCC members performed at Carnegie Hall, New York’s other world-renowned performance venue.
Along with a larger choir from Washington, the Flin Flonners sung the Celtic Mass for the Sea before an audience of about 1,000 fine-music enthusiasts.
For the Avery Fisher Hall performance, Kolt envisioned a larger FFCC contingent. And she wasn’t going to limit the line-up to current residents, either.
Kolt joked that the group that travelled to Manhattan this time was more like “FFCC International.” Vocalists with past ties to the choir who had since left Flin Flon were encouraged to join in.
The most recognizable among them? Jennifer Hanson, the beautiful professional musician who hails from Flin Flon but now calls Atlanta home.
Indicative of the hype surrounding the DCINY concert, the performance sold out a full two weeks in advance, with audiencegoers paying up to about $100 a pop.
The concert garnered rave reviews from the audience and was expected to glean similar enthusiasm from critics, including that fussiest of publications, The New York Times.
Kolt said the FFCC stacked up favourably with the other choirs – and that’s not just the Flin Flonner in her talking.
“I was very proud of them,” she said. “We were well prepared.”
Comparable
Avery Fisher Hall is comparable in size to Winnipeg’s Centennial Concert Hall, which has also hosted the FFCC.
But in Manhattan, Kolt said the choristers welcomed the clearer view of their audience.
“You really have a sense of that connection between the audience and the performers,” she observed.
Throughout several days in New York, the FFCC fostered a special musical relationship with a choir from Shanghai calling itself The Graduate Singers.
At an independent studio, the FFCC and The Graduate Singers together performed three pieces – one chosen by each choir and then the famed Auld Lang Syne.
The Flin Flon group shared with the Shanghai choristers a piece called Star of Bethlehem, composed by none other than Mark Kolt, the FFCC’s resident musical genius.
What Mark’s wife, Crystal Kolt, will always remember from this latest New York experience – beyond the spine-tingling performance, of course – is the sight of Flin Flonners taking Manhattan.
“It felt like all of Flin Flon was in Manhattan,” she said. “(We were in) a small area and our hotel was right across the street from the Lincoln Center, and so as I was sitting at the restaurant attached to the hotel I would see one of my choristers running with packages of some great things she had bought. I’d see another fellow heading off to his fourth opera. I’d see other people coming, they had just scored tickets for The Lion King (musical). So everywhere you looked there were Flin Flonners.”
Choristers
Representing the FFCC at the DCINY concert were: Sarah Aamot; Katy Anderson; Tanis Asselstine; Stacy Becker; Carley Belfry; Marlene Bodnarus; Alistair Callegari; Joanna Dauk; Noelle Drimmie; Janice Elliott; Cindy Fahie; Carla Fleming; Nora Fontaine; Susan Fulford; Laurence Gillespie; Fran Gira; Sonia Goodman; Penny Grove; Myrna Guymer; Patricia Hall; Richard Hall; Jennifer Hanson; Joni Hanson; Rhonda Head; Lisa Highmoor; Amy Horrock; Janice Imrie; Kevin Imrie; Anna Jardine; Kim Jones; Brandon Kolt; Crystal Kolt; Julian Kolt; Katryn Kolt; Mark Kolt; Linda Lautamus; Lori Lawrence; Susan Lethbridge; Patricia McKenzie; Bogdan Njegovan; Muriel Njegovan; Karen O’Brien; Kate Pauley; Ken Pawlachuk; Jennifer Person; Judy Pettersen; Susan Power; William Price; Jackie Ray; Fran Reiben; Linda Romphf; Susan Shairp; Lara Smith; Elly Spencer; Peter Spencer; Tim Spencer; Marylou Spooner; Joan Stephens; Susan Thompson; Sarah Trevor; Josee Vaillancourt; Rod Walker; Wendy Weseen; Katrina Windjack; Edgar Wright; and Mary Wright.
Flin Flon Community Choir members pose for a photo outside the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. On the right is Avery Fisher Hall, where they performed.
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Flin Flon’s Kolt family with concert maestro Jonathan Griffith. Left to right are Brandon Kolt, Carla Fleming (Crystal’s sister), Jonathan Griffith, Crystal Kolt, Julian Kolt, Katryn Kolt and Mark Kolt.
Flin Flon’s Hanson sisters were among the choristers. Left to right are Linda Romphf, Judy Pettersen, Susan Lethbridge, Cindy Fahie, Joni Hanson and Jennifer Hanson.
A poster at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts advertises the Dec. 1 concert.
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