In March 2020, the Old North Festival Chorus was two rehearsals into the planned performance of Dan Forrest’s stunningly beautiful “Requiem for the Living” when COVID struck.
In response, chorus member Clem Schoenebeck wrote a poem, entitled “Fermata,” on rehearsing then pausing Forrest’s Requiem. Clem wrote:
“I cannot find the measure when we went silent. But the notes Know where they are, suspended above in a holding pattern, Waiting for Maria’s trusted hand to wave us into the downbeat, We will again be connected, chorus and music, and we will sing.”
Maria van Kalken, director of the ONFC, sent the poem to Forrest, who set it to music and made the score available, free of charge, to choirs and choral groups everywhere.
In 2024, the ONFC sang “Fermata” as part of its Lenten Concert. And, finally, five years after rehearsals started, we sang the “Requiem” itself on Palm Sunday!
“Our one-hour Lenten Choral Concert marks the beginning of Holy Week and was established to offer members of the community a program of musical reflection by candlelight,” said Maria van Kalken. In Forrest’s own words, his “Requiem” is to be performed “just as much for the living and their own struggle with pain and sorrow, as for the dead.”
Weeks of rehearsals with the chorus sitting in pews in Old North Church led to a Wednesday night rehearsal in the risers in the front of the church; singing out to the sanctuary rather than into the wall — a different sound for Maria to judge and juggle where she placed singers.
Then on Saturday, a full dress rehearsal with the orchestra for the only time. As chorus members we looked down to the orchestra and saw many familiar faces, as several of them have been playing with the ONFC for many, many years.
The orchestra creates another new sound, more juggling for Maria. By this time the chorus had largely made its notes in the scores, scribbling Maria’s directions. Saturday was the orchestra’s turn to make their notes as Maria gave them their instructions: A little softer from the oboe here, a pause here, etc., etc. The pencils went to work marking the scores.
And then, finally, Sunday. There is always a certain nervous excitement amongst the chorus members ahead of a concert, but somehow this just felt different. Five years of waiting. And a new work to the chorus, one that many if not most of the audience would not have heard before.
A final warm-up with Maria and her frequently expressed exhortations: “Look up!” and “There is only one tempo and that is – Here, we all chant!”
A harp plays “Amazing Grace” in the candlelit sanctuary and a calm descends on the audience of 300. We sing the opening hymn and two other short pieces, and then…. then the “Requiem.”
I stand in the centre in the front of the chorus and have a bird’s eye view of the audience, but they were so silent and still that I could not read their reaction. In the final movement, sung like the rest of the “Requiem” in Latin, a voice sings in English, “Come unto me all you who labor; Come unto me all ye who are heavy laden; Come unto me and I will give you rest, I will give you rest.”
This leads into the familiar and exuberant “Requiem aeternam” (rest eternal), but at the very end, (dona) nobis pacem — grant us peace — the pacem is sung very softly, very slowly, getting softer and softer until there is no more sound.
And Maria, the chorus and orchestra remain motionless, entranced, for some 10 or 15 seconds before Maria turns and bows to the audience. Whereupon the audience was instantly on its feet in rapturous applause, a reaction like no other many of us had ever experienced.
Often at the end of concerts the chatter among chorus members includes comments like ”We were a bit late on that entrance in the xxx” or “The sopranos sounded great.”
But not on Palm Sunday. As we emerged the universal sentiment was “We aced it!” — spoken not with arrogance, but with the exhilaration from knowing that we had achieved something remarkable, something that will long live in our memories and in those of the audience.
Was it the music? Was it the five years of waiting? Was it the memory of those chorus members who would have sung five years ago but were no longer with us? I have no idea, but I do know that what we achieved was as close to perfection as many of us could ever have imagined.
A music director of another church told me that he sat next to a singer who had sung this work four times but said he had never heard it sung as well. That director said he always tried to listen to our Lenten concerts because even if the work was a familiar one, Maria had the gift of making it sound fresh. And what makes it even more remarkable is that she does this with an unauditioned chorus.
Year after year at Christmas and Easter, Maria creates evenings of wonderful music and memories. Not to mention the regular Sunday services at Old North Church, including highlights like Jazz Sunday.
If you’d like to sing either on Sundays or in our concerts — or both — contact Maria at vankalken@gmail.com or come to a Sunday service at 10 a.m. and talk to Maria.
I write this several days after the concert. I was exhilarated on Sunday, and I remain exhilarated today. All our concerts leave me feeling excited, but this one? This one was special.
Former Marblehead resident, Andrew Oliver, traveled from his home in Naples, Florida, to sing in this concert.
Andrew Oliver
Former Marblehead resident Andrew Oliver is a Realtor, market analyst and referral specialist.
