By Amelia Wonder
Picture this: members of Lovett’s HR department, your upper school English teacher, and lower school math teacher standing side by side, singing for all to hear, with students at chapel. It was certainly unexpected.
The Lovett Faculty Chorus is relatively new to Lovett, having been established last spring.
I sat down with Ms. Ulrich, Lovett’s Choral Program Director and founder/member of Faculty Chorus to gain some more insight into this program.
Ms. Ulrich said that her inspiration for the Faculty Chorus was community building. “Singing is something that belongs to everybody,” she said. And while she was hoping the chorus would sound good, she said that singing isn’t always about the sound you produce. It’s about expressing yourself and the gift of being with others.
Bringing people together was on the back of Ms. Ulrich’s mind when she spoke with a colleague one day during lunch. In her conversation, the topic of chorus came up, and she wondered, “How many of our faculty members have done chorus before?” After this moment, she sent out an email, and “got an overwhelming response.” “It was around 30 people that said they sang,” she explained.
The number of interested faculty went up when she sent out the reminder in the fall.
Now she had compiled a group of eager singers as well as a place to practice. The challenge was coordinating when to practice. “It’s somehow difficult, especially for the faculty, because everyone has their own schedules and you have to take into account tutorials and things like that,” she said.
Even so, “we’ve had around 20 people show up to practice, which is a really great number she said.”
Upper school English teacher, Larken McCord, was one of those people. Ms. McCord joined the program because singing has always been a part of her life. “I sing in my church choir, so it wasn’t too far of a leap in terms of skills,” she told me. Not to mention, she is good friends with Ms. Ulrich, so that encouraged her to join even more.
Like Ms. Ulrich, Ms. McCord has found the sense of community to be the most meaningful part of the chorus. “It is so nice to be able to socialize with other faculty/staff members, as it isn’t too often we have social events with those of other divisions,” she explained. “Ms. Ulrich has made rehearsals convenient for everyone, with them being around only 15 to 20 minutes each,” she added.
At a rehearsal for the Faculty Chorus, Ms. McCord crossed paths with a middle school teacher she actually taught. “We both didn’t know each other sang, so it was a fun surprise!” she said.
As for her future hopes for this program, she truly just loves to sing and hopes for more opportunities to do so, whether that be “in chapel or just incorporating it more into our day-to-day lives.”
When it came to the actual chapel performance, there was stage fright. “Some students might be embarrassed to sing in chapel, but as a teacher, I have nothing to lose,” Ms. McCord joked.
I asked what her dream place to sing would be, and she replied with one word, “New York City. It doesn’t need to be Carnegie Hall, but this musically innovative city would be a dream to sing in.”
In advance of the chapel, they had three rehearsals. Their debut took place on November 10, and they performed with the Honors Singers. They sang I Choose Love.
“It’s talking about just the different things that we choose, choosing war, choosing hate, and remembering above all that we choose peace, that we choose love, we choose deliberate choices that we make,” Ms. Ulrich said. There were approximately 66 total singers, including 41 honors singers from Lovett and 25 faculty and staff members.
While the first piece was pretty simple, according to Ms. Ulrich, she discovered that “we’ve got some really solid musicians. I mean, it’s some really, really fine singers in this group, and people who read music really well. So I think the next piece will be more challenging,” she told me.
Ms. Ulrich described the rehearsal atmosphere as “lighthearted and joyful.” She said it was a great way for faculty to let go at the end of a busy day. “No pressure, and there’s just laughter and goodwill towards each other, just a lot of fun,” she said. She said she has actually made many friends so far.
When asked about what’s next for Faculty Chorus, Ms. Ulrich said her personal goal right now is “gathering together and singing, so the performance opportunities would really be secondary.”
So how did the students feel about singing with faculty? Both senior Olivia Jaje and junior Mary Wonder remarked on how much they enjoyed this new experience at Lovett! “It was nice to hear some different voices and to make our chorus a little bit larger,” Olivia said.
Mary thought that singing with the faculty was so much fun. She thought it was “so cool to learn that some of my teachers enjoy singing as a hobby, and are really good at it!”
As for the song itself, Olivia described it as being about “togetherness and bringing love to everything you do.” She explained how the messages of songs can inspire us in terms of how to live our daily lives.
Mary appreciated that the environment singing with faculty was “much calmer than a typical performance would have been, and people seemed to care more.” Olivia felt that “students were more respectful, given that teachers were around.” Overall, the faculty encouraged students to sing and bring forth their best effort in singing at chapel.
Both hope to have the chance to sing with faculty again. “I know the second semester has a lot more opportunities singing for chapel performances and Prism, so hopefully we can collaborate again, soon,” Olivia told me.
Ms. Ulrich believes that music is for everyone, and she hopes for her chorus to “sing many more types of music in the future.”
Ultimately, though, it’s about more than music for her. She said it’s “about teachers and staff sharing laughter, supporting one another, and creating moments of connection that will echo through the halls of Lovett for years to come.”
