It’s another year, another impossibly big dream come true for the Flin Flon Community Choir.
Choir members are rehearsing for a June performance at Carnegie Hall, their second appearance at the world-famous concert venue and third time singing in New York City.
“I’m starting not to say, ‘You have to do this because it’s never going to happen again.’ It keeps happening,” says choir director Crystal Kolt. “We are just enjoying each new challenge and each new opportunity, and we have realized in this city of Flin Flon and region that so much is possible, that you can just dream far, far broader than one would imagine in a small community.”
About 40 Flin Flon Community Choir members will join some 60 other choristers from The Pas, Winnipeg and possibly Australia at Carnegie Hall on Sunday, June 12.
They have been chosen to perform “Lux Aeterna” – Latin for “eternal light” – by Morten Lauridsen, a renowned contemporary American composer.
“It’s an extraordinary piece,” says Kolt, describing the harmonies as lush yet serene.
The choristers will perform under the direction of maestro Jonathan Griffith. He was also maestro for a 2013 concert at New York’s famed Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts that involved Flin Flon choir members.
Griffith is principal conductor for Distinguished Concerts International New York (DCINY), a leading producer of concerts
in celebrated venues. He’s also a big fan of the Flin Flon choir.
Following 2013’s success, DCINY contacted the choir last year asking if they would return to New York for an encore in 2016.
Initial rehearsals started before Christmas but got underway in earnest this past weekend at École McIsaac School.
Kolt is looking forward to delving further into “Lux Aeterna.” She’s also eagerly awaiting Griffith, who may be visiting
Flin Flon to work with the choir in late May.
The June concert will mark the Flin Flon choir’s second performance at Carnegie Hall.
In June 2002, 23 choir members joined a larger choir from the US to sing “Celtic Mass for the Sea” at the legendary venue.
That was followed in December 2013 by the performance at the Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall. At that time, 66 Flin Flon choir members lent their voices throughout the second and third parts of Handel’s Messiah, with up to 200 choristers from around the globe on stage at any given time.
Come June, Kolt says about 10 choir members, including herself, will have performed at all three New York appearances.
