I’m Thomas DeBusk, the director of Blue Ridge Vocal Connection, which is a regional chorus based in Blacksburg, VA that I started June 15, 2021. My goal is to create a singing culture that connects people to their voices and to each other. It’s purposefully non-auditioned because I believe everyone has the raw materials to become a singer, given adequate tools, a willing spirit, and a nurturing context.
We rehearse Thursday nights and perform year-round, mostly because our members enjoy it that much. We also host a one-day choral workshop each spring (this year, 3/15/25) to bring high-quality musical training and a fun-filled choral experience available to singers and wanna-be singers who don’t have such opportunities readily available.
Today, the state of the choral art and practice is bleak. I don’t need to chronicle the forces that have reduced many church choirs to a bare handful of singers. Rather, I hope this blog will provide inspiration and encouragement for choir leaders and singers who seek to reclaim and re-establish this vanishing performance art, both as a community-, faith-, and family-building activity. It’s a therapy perfectly appropriate for such an otherwise splintered and challenged society.
12/29/2024
Today I’m briefly reflecting on a recent performance & looking ahead to our next one. Yesterday we performed at a nursing home that recently ditched an aging acoustic piano. Unfortunately, they replaced it with a cheap imported keyboard. Of course, this well-intentioned “upgrade” will never go out of tune, but the tiny onboard speakers were easily drowned out by my 20+ singers and the sustain pedal scurried across the floor like a hunted mouse. That might’ve been forgivable if it had worked, but it didn’t, rendering the accompaniment painfully staccato. But my singers crooned like champs and the residents swooned like doting aunts. Sigh. I wish every audience were so welcoming and responsive.
We’re also making last-minute preparations for our 1/1/25 appearance at the Biltmore in Asheville, NC. To describe the ambiance there as “grand” would be as understated as the house is elegantly overstated. It’s a season-wrapping treat we’ve come to enjoy, almost as a “family vacation”. We perform in the Winter Garden right next to a grand dining room and magnificent entrance, where the natural acoustics carry our voices throughout the main floor in the most flattering way. Imagine a “Candlelight Christmas Eve” in a royal European castle and you’ll be close to picturing the experience accurately.
Last year some of us unofficially toured nearby Biltmore Village’s Episcopal church, where it’s said the House’s original organ was actually installed. Since then, Hurricane Helene’s vicious waters cruelly swept through that beautiful sanctuary. It’s one reason why we decided to dedicate half of our December fundraising income to hurricane relief via our Givebutter website.
It takes intentional effort to create and maintain beauty in a sometimes-hostile world…