St. Albert Singers Guild hits big 3-0

How time flies! That’s the buzz phrase as St. Albert Singers Guild celebrates a major milestone under the tag line Singing Our Song, 30 Years Strong.

It’s three decades and counting for music director Criselda Mierau who enjoys her 25th anniversary conducting both the St. Albert Singers mixed choir and the St. Albert Women’s Vocal Ensemble.

In a one-time multi-media performance, Singing Our Song, 30 Years Strong is on Sunday, May 15 at the Arden Theatre.

Fifteen soloists will stand in the spotlight singing golden gems including Michael BublĂ©'s Haven’t Met You Yet, The Impossible Dream from Man of La Mancha and One Day More from Les Miz.

The concert also features 30 bits of “wisdom” paired with songs that allow the singers to express their thoughts on daily life, relationships and community.

“We decided to shoot 30 very short video clips one day in February and hired Judy Cloutier, a budding film student at Concordia to assist us. In fact, we managed to involve almost 40 of our 80 members and we got it all done in one great big long eight-hour day,” Mierau said.

In reflecting on the past, the community singers did more than raise the harmonic bar. They developed a bold theatrical flair for innovation driven by Mierau’s Olympian stamina and can-do imagination.

Singer-archivist-prop maker Beryl Shoults, a 23-year member, describes Mierau as a modern day Pied Piper.

“She is amazing for always wanting to be better and bigger and she dragged us along with her. And we loved it. She is unique and she cares so much about people. She draws it out of you. And the beauty is she strives for the best, but gives praise for the best we can do.”

Even as many conductors require their choir to wear matching formal attire that signals uniformity and blandness, Mierau threads together music that narrates a specific story. The triptych of musical theatre – costumes, props and sets – is added and ‘voila’ every concert morphs into an adventurous visual and oral palette.

Expect the unexpected became an unspoken mantra with wide-ranging concert themes from Christmas through the ages to Alberta pioneers to environmental sustainability.

Sleighs, cars, 10-foot mountains, piles of garbage, stacks of presents – whatever the script called for was built or borrowed. The increasingly net positive effect snowballed. More singers joined and audiences expanded.

A look back

In the early ’70s, classical pianist and educator Dr. Lillian Upright developed what would eventually become the St. Albert Singers Guild from a loose group of singers that met and rehearsed at St. Albert United Church.

By 1985, the choir joined the St. Albert Community Services Cultural Department and was chartered as St. Albert Singers Guild. However, because of time and energy constraints, Upright left in 1989 to pursue other ventures at the University of Alberta.

Tim Hankewich, a master’s student at the University of Alberta, picked up the baton for the 1989-90 season and Jan Dammann was hired the following season.

“Unfortunately Jan left us in the lurch and we were starting from scratch,” noted charter member Chris Chaston. She was also on the board charged with hiring a replacement.

The board placed an advertisement in the newspaper hoping to find long-term associates.

Originally Mierau and her father, Eric, were hired in 1991 as a package deal. He was the conductor. She was the young accompanist. At their first rehearsal 24 people dropped by and in Mierau’s words, she was “immediately smitten.”

“There was something about this whole getting together and making music with your body and soul as an instrument that appealed to me. It’s one thing to move your fingers on the piano. It’s another thing to create music that comes from inside your body. There’s something special about a resilient choir that goes through three or four conductors and sticks it through saying ‘we want to make music,’ ” Mierau said.

The following year, Eric landed a position teach ESL students and unfortunately it was scheduled on the singers’ rehearsal night. Mierau offered to conduct on an interim basis until a new conductor was hired.

But the board had found the right blend for the choir’s needs.

“She has ‘oomph.’ I don’t know what else to call it. She’s absolutely wonderful. She’s done wonders for people and she’s made the choirs grow and grow. She’s turned the choirs into the biggest thing in St. Albert. I don’t even know if I’d want to be in a choir if she wasn’t there,” said Chaston.

For the first time in a few years, the choir felt motivated. They quickly grew from a scant 24 members to more than 50 vocalists. Eight years into Mierau’s leadership the mixed choir had a waiting list of almost 20 women.

“Since I couldn’t allow the mixed choir to be overbalanced with women’s voices, I simply started a women’s choir which we called St. Albert Women’s Vocal Ensemble,” she said.

The year prior, Mierau added a children’s choir at the request of the adults.

“People singing with me were looking for a place for their kids. We started with 30 kids. We now have 80 kids in four choirs and they’re separate under St. Albert Youth Musical Association.”

One of the first changes Mierau implemented was a ticket charge to the once free concerts.

“It was a way to raise the bar. When you charge for something, it becomes different. It has value. When you approach music, it becomes elevated.”

Under Mierau’s leadership, the singers stepped away from cultural services umbrella to become a completely independent body.

Through the years the singer’s guild has joined forces with a variety of absorbing guests. International saxophonist P.J. Perry has performed twice with them. Eclectic performances from Cirque du Nez, improv troupe Gordon’s Big Bald Head and gospel singer Johnny Collins Jr. were also a few of the memorables.

“Johnny just blew our socks off.”

As the choirs grew in size, the administration’s requirements also expanded and a $250 annual membership fee was implemented.

The current $200,000 budget covers a lot of territory from Mierau’s salary to venue rentals, clinician fees, musician salaries, marketing and costume and set costs.

But as with every other fine arts group applying to Alberta Foundation for the Arts, they are feeling the pinch.

“It’s an operational grant pool. The more people that apply, the less there is. In the good old days we used to get $20,000. Now we get about $6,000.”

For the 30th anniversary concert, the singers applied to the St. Albert Community Events Grant program and received $4,500.

“It almost covers the cost of the theatre recital. That’s huge for us. It may sound like little bits, but it’s a major deal.”

Mierau encourages music fans to see the concert and witness firsthand the choirs’ legacy.

“It’s filled with humour and pathos that delivers that feel of 30 years of friendships, 30 years of learning together, 30 years of giving back and 30 years of enjoying music in ways that have touched many lives.”