When V first picked me up from the train station, she offered to take me to “gospel choir” the following Thursday if I was interested. It slipped my mind until last Thursday morning when she reminded me. I hesitated for a moment because I didn’t know if “gospel choir” meant a concert by a traveling group, a church service, or a rehearsal with us participating. I decided that any bad night could at least be made into a good story!
I’m very glad that I did, because I had a wonderful time. As I expected, the choir was predominately composed of younger French people looking for a way to spend some time away from the family and enjoy their love of music. One of the benefits of the organization is that three people with strong musical backgrounds lead the choir, giving it direction and depth (as opposed to “Hey, let’s all have a Sing-A-Long!”) On the other hand, the other participants were relative amateurs so I didn’t have to worry about my lack of perfect pitch. The repertoire was a mix of African and African-American spirituals sung in languages such as Xhosa, Zulu, and English. Furthermore, I discovered that the choir only performs locally 3 times a year so I would have plenty of travel time. Finally, it is actually attached to the church I’ve been attending in Nancy. It is quite rare to find a Catholic diocese with an associated gospel choir, but I’ll go for it!
I would write more about the nice people, but my ride is picking me up soon for the next rehearsal!
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