A Day With Detroit Children’s Choir

Children amaze me.

S.O.U.L. worked today with Detroit Children’s Choir in Detroit Symphony Orchestra Hall. Each person from the quartet was supposed to teach the choir a song from their country. We had 2x 20 minutes each to do that.

When we don’t know in which order should we perform/ teach we usually go in alphabetical order by countries. Today was one of those days we didn’t know… so our tour manager James suggested we should go in alphabetical order. Meanwhile, Andrew said that he would go first. So after I told someone about the alphabetical order and the fact that Nigeria will go before Croatia, I explained that that’s this special Croatian alphabet…

Anyway, once again it was a challenge, because, to be honest, I didn’t know how to start. I wasn’t even sure about which song I would teach them. We sent the choir directors some scores and I thought the children would have them, but they didn’t, so I went with the flow. I taught them Letovanic, although I was planning to do Zeko i potocic (the non- Croatian speakers must be enjoying this, I can give you a few more random titles later).

So, after the first 20 minutes of rehearsing the Croatian song, I was a bit scared. It’s fast and it has many weird- sounding Croatian words.

Well, after I heard them singing during the second rehearsal, when I thought they wouldn’t remember anything… I was probably again scared, but only because of the fact I was standing in some kind of wunderkinds. Little sponges! I mean, it was crazy! They were so well- behaved and concentrated on what we did. I really couldn’t believe it. We worked all day and they were focused the whole time.

I was so honored to stand in front of them and conduct them while they sang Letovanic in the evening concert. They blew me away (I will definitely put the video of it, when I figure out a way to convert the video poor James recorded. He was actually standing for over an hour holding a camera in his hands).

We sang a couple of our songs with the quartet, and I was so happy to realize before I even started singing, that our starting pitch somehow went from e1 to a1 in Crece desde el pie. But then again, I was told my whole life that an elephant farted into my ear (gotta love Croatian sayings), so I didn’t want to be the one who’ll dramatically stop the song (although, that could easily be me). I knew I was definitely right about my thoughts, though, when after the concert, Shih- Hao asked me:

-HAHAHAHA, did you die on Crece desde el pie?! HAHAHAHA

-Oh, no… I’m just a mezzo (occasional alto/ baritone) who happens to sing soprano 5 half-steps higher than she’s supposed to! No biggie.

Well, I guess these things happen. People sometimes die when singing Uruguayan songs, but that’s not an excuse to stop singing…

Anyway, another special thing about today that made me admire kids that I met even more occurred during lunchtime. I was sitting at the table with the ‘Croatian group’ (the choir was divided into groups by our 4 countries), and we had a very interesting conversation going on. Actually, we talked about Egypt. I love Egypt and I’ve been fascinated by Egypt since the 5th grade. So when I was asked what animals do I like, I said- camels. For some reason, that’s the first animal that came to my mind.

-They spit.

-Not only do they spit, but they also smell. Still… I like them. They’re interesting.

-Did you ever ride a camel?

-Yes, when I was in Egypt.

-You’ve been to Egypt?!

And this is where it got interesting. They are children and they know SO MUCH about Egypt and they are just as fascinated by it as I was when I was in the 5th grade (and as I am now), so that’s the reason I was thinking of mentioning some extra details about mummification, embalming and how they would remove internal organs through the nose etc, but I thought: “Gosh, Sonja, NO. They are little kids. No!”. And I usually think twice before I say something, so I almost gave up on saying that… and then I hear the girl sitting next to me at the table saying:

-I read in one book that they took out the organs from a person’s body… and that they did that through the nose! That’s creepy! Is that true?!

I’ll just hope I was sitting at the table of the smartest kids on the planet. Just so I would feel better about myself.

Andrew taught the kids ‘Akwoi wana geri’, Gabe did ‘La Siesta’, and Shih- Hao his legendary ‘Train Song’.

The children seemed to enjoy all of those songs, and it doesn’t surprise me, guys did a great job and entertained them. But today I was particularly amazed by Shih- Hao’s conducting. I can’t explain it. I noticed that before but when I was looking at him today I just thought:

-Oh, my… I reaaaally don’t know why does he study International Business?! He would be an AMAZING conductor. Sonja, you’re standing in front of a Shih-Hao von freaking Karajan! Quick, quick, you need to get your camera, no one will believe you in 20 years!

And then you know what happened?! We’re sitting in our ‘SOUL Train’ (that’s the name of our van) on our way back home, and he says:

-Aaaaaaaaa!!!!!!! I look at Sonja, and she’s conducting so beautifully and I jump around and do all this and this and this.

How little does he know. He’s amazing and the kids love him! I told him about my thoughts on his conducting, but I don’t think he believed me. Little does he know. Oh, well, it’s always like that, businessmen.

Today was the first time we wore our national costumes. One sweet little girl told me that I looked like The Beauty from Beauty and The Beast. I’m still afraid she was mistaken and thinking of the beast when she said that, but that’s okay, they can’t know everything. It’s important they know about Egyptians and the removal of internal organs.

And again… it was a beautiful day. I worked with wunderkinds, met wonderful people, great conductors who prepared the Detroit Children’s Choir for our visit and I am aware of the fact I’m probably the luckiest bastard on this planet. I’m so grateful. I love my job and it’s so much more than just a job. I love every second of it.

Even when it’s 5 half-steps higher than I expected.