Westerly singers raise Ocean State’s profile abroad

SWEET MUSIC: Chorus of Westerly Music Director Andrew P. Howell says the largest chunk of the funding for a recent international trip came from the singers themselves. / COURTESY CHORUS OF WESTERLY
SWEET MUSIC: Chorus of Westerly Music Director Andrew P. Howell says the largest chunk of the funding for a recent international trip came from the singers themselves. / COURTESY CHORUS OF WESTERLY

Performing in concert halls in Vienna, Prague and Budapest in July, Andrew Howell and the Chorus of Westerly showcased the talent and training of the multigenerational Rhode Island group to audiences with limited familiarity of the Ocean State.
Now, audiences in those cultural centers in Vienna, the Czech Republic and Hungary may know a little more about the determination of the Chorus of Westerly to bring challenging classical music to the countries where it originated.
The chorus earned standing ovations in the group’s first European tour in nearly 20 years.

PBN: What led you to envision and plan the July European performances for the Chorus of Westerly?
HOWELL: It goes back to 1995, the year I joined the Chorus of Westerly as a singer. The chorus had just gotten back from what ended up being their last international tour for 19 years. From hearing all those stories, it was a tremendous community-building exercise, good for Westerly and good for the singers. I always had this image of this wonderful international tour in my mind and waited and waited and waited.

PBN: Why was there such a big gap – 19 years – between the international tours?
HOWELL: Part of it was just money issues. We looked into touring at least four times, but there was always something that came up that prevented it – at one point, it was Sept. 11.

PBN: What are the ages of members of the chorus and how many members went on the European tour?
HOWELL: We’re an intergenerational chorus from age 8 and up. We have people in their 80s. We have about 190 members and it was some of the youngest kids who didn’t go on the tour. Almost all of our teenagers went. We had a total of 227 on the tour, including about 120 singers and about 100 others who were family, friends and staff.

PBN: How did the chorus finance the 10-day tour?
HOWELL: The largest chunk of the money came from the singers. The cost per singer was $3,250. We subsidized a portion of the cost for our singers through fundraising, mainly from individual donations. We have a few dozen corporate and business sponsors that account for about one-third of the fundraising goals and we really didn’t want to strain relationships we have with those who give to us during our normal fundraising year. For the 100 or so nonsingers who came along, they paid $3,650.

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PBN: Did you sell tickets?
HOWELL: Two of the concerts, in Prague and Vienna, were ticketed concerts. … The third concert was a donations event [for] charity.

PBN: What kind of music did you perform?
HOWELL: We can’t do anything small. We chose a huge masterwork – Antonin Dvorak’s Stabat Mater. We wanted to bring Dvorak home. Dvorak was a Czech composer, so it was really nice to bring it back there. Unfortunately, that piece is rarely performed and part of the reason for that is that it’s such a beast of a piece. It’s a 90-minute work. We had a 45-piece orchestra and we worked with two different orchestras over there, one Prague-based and one Budapest-based. We found that it’s not performed over there much either, because it’s a daunting task. Our singers rose to every challenge and the people over there were very excited to get to hear this piece.

PBN: How many people attended?
HOWELL: In the three concerts, a total of about 2,100 people.
PBN: What was the reception?
HOWELL: At the first concert, the audience erupted at the end. We did four curtain calls. The other two were equally well-received. We got wonderful standing ovations. It’s wonderful that the audiences enjoyed it so much, because if anyone should know the music, it’s them.

PBN: Although it obviously can’t be measured, do you think the European performances might have any long-term impact, especially an economic impact, on Rhode Island?
HOWELL: I hope so. It’s not going to bring a business from Hungary to Rhode Island, but it does help with our prestige locally and abroad. If it brings more people into our doors, it can bring more people into businesses in downtown Westerly. When we have concerts, people go out to dinner and go shopping. We do have an impact on our community.

PBN: Are there other groups like yours in Rhode Island?
HOWELL: There are not any like us in the state. We are unique in some ways. One is that we own our own building. Other than churches that have choral programs, I think we’re only one of three choral organizations in the country that owns its own performance facility. The other thing that makes us unique is that we have all the ages singing together. We end up with multigenerational groups, so we have a grandmother and a daughter and a grandson all singing together. •

INTERVIEW
Andrew P. Howell
POSITION: Music director of the Chorus of Westerly
BACKGROUND: Andrew Howell is a Rhode Island native who took piano lessons as a child because his mother thought it was a good idea, though he didn’t enjoy it. When he was 12, a couple of friends who sang with the Chorus of Westerly convinced him to give it a try. He joined and music became his life path. He has served as director of the URI University Chorus. He is organist and choirmaster at St. James Episcopal Church in New London, Conn. During the summer, he serves as music director and organist at Watch Hill Chapel. Howell has also worked as a harpsichord technician and tuner.
EDUCATION: Bachelor’s degree in music education, University of Rhode Island, 2005; master’s degree in choral conducting and organ performance, URI, 2007
FIRST JOB: McQuade’s Marketplace in downtown Westerly pushing carriages and restocking shelves
RESIDENCE: Westerly
AGE: 31

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