World peace concert

My flatmates are members of a community choir, and I've gradually gotten involved in it as well. I've always been self-conscious about performing in public (and not particularly talented) but this choir is really laid-back. It's got a drop-in rehearsal scheme, with a come-as-you-are policy, and really just operates on the principal that it's fun to sing, so let's sing. We do a mix of world music, lots of Latin American, African, and American-folk stuff (etc) that has repetitive motifs so it's easy to pick-up and remember without much sheet music or rehearsal.

What's amazing is that we end up sounding really good with only one rehearsal a week, getting standing ovations and such, which I think is mostly attributable to Julian, our choir director. It blows me away to step back and listen to our motley crew bust out some pretty rockin' choral numbers.

It's ironic that we rehearse behind a Methodist church, too, since John Wesley (founder of Methodism) was all about singing for the fun of it. He wrote some rockin' hymns with his brother Chas back in the day.

Anywho Friday night we had a gig at the Yoga Center for Daily Life. There's a Peace Summit in town this week, where scientists and yogi masters and other such religious and community leaders discuss how climate change affects world peace (or lack thereof). We were pegged to perform as part of the "curtain opening", a little evening of all sorts of stuff to honor the presence of this one particular yogi from southern India.

I got there a little early and watched some of the preceding acts - man I wish I had pictures. These Indian girls did this amazing dance, with their long black braids swinging down their backs and rings of bells around their ankles. The Indian style of dancing really seems to elongate their limbs and necks, especially when they do the head bobs with their arms curled above their heads. With three of them dancing it looked a bit like the images and icons you see from Hindi temples.

I think we followed up pretty well with 6 or so songs from all over. We ended up doing a round with the whole audience of "We All Love Peace". Even the yogi stood up on his podium and sang along.

At the very end we did a gospel song, "Over My Head". It's a series of verses about "trouble in the air" or "angels" or what have you, with the chorus "there must be a God somewhere". Whether you believe that or not, and that room was certainly a mix of everything and everyone and they/we were all deep in it. I think the point of the song isn't necessarily God but faith. The yogi said something like that we we finished - he said over his head he felt mercy in the air.

I really wish we could all inspire world peace by singing. Wouldn't it be cool if there was a grassroots movement to build world peace through community music?

Before you start to think I've completely jumped onto the hippy love bus, I have to say that I thought it was a little weird, having the yogi sitting at the front on a pedestal and all. I guess I feel like a truly enlightened soul would just sit out in the crowd with the people. Admittedly that's coming from an anti-authoritarian populist. I should probably lighten up on the guy, especially since he gave everyone in the choir yoga gift certificates and chocolate after we sang. I'm actually looking forward to checking out the studio a bit more and seeing if I can get back into the whole yoga shtick.

I think the whole concept of having a world peace summit involving scientists and politicians and religious leaders is much more powerful than the typical monoculture summit. Breaking down the barriers between scientific knowledge, religion, and policy would go a long way to making a real difference in world problems. I was really glad to get to be a part of the whole thing, even in a small way, and I hope that these sorts of events happen more often.