Award-winning choirs open Missoula festival with casual park concert

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The Shenzhen Yantian Foreign Language School Children's Choir from China sings at a preview concert for the International Choral Festival.

The Montana International Choral Festival opened in Caras Park on Thursday during Downtown ToNight with an atmosphere that couldn't have been more casual, resembling a night hanging out by the river rather than a high-pressure contest.

That was noted by a top guest, conductor Anton Armstrong of St. Olaf College, an esteemed figure in his field internationally. He travels to festivals like this around the world. Those, however, are competitions.

He thought this festival can stand as a model, particularly in divisive times.

"Choral music is one of the last platforms, social platforms, where people can take the things that divide us and put them to the side," he said, adding he wished Congress would take a try at it.

The atmosphere was obvious as 10 choirs from Georgia, Estonia, Uganda, Germany, Missouri and Missoula sang for a full crowd that sprawled out from the amphitheater seating to the grass and sidewalks.

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The festival, founded in 1987, brings award-winning choral groups of all types from around the world. Concerts and workshops are lined out through Sunday at University of Montana venues like the Music Recital Hall, the Dennison Theater and the Adams Center.

One guest ensemble is the Tartu Student Mixed Choir, an auditioned group from Estonia that ranges in age from 19 to middle-aged folks including students, alumni, professors and more. They present everything from folk songs to contemporary compositions.

So far, conductor Küllike Joosing and singer Kärt Katrin said the Missoula event, particularly this opening day, felt less stressful than a competition.

Katrin had wondered in advance if it might be too loose but quickly changed her mind.

"When I arrived here and then we had these rehearsals in the morning, then I understood," she said, agreeing with Armstrong's sentiments.

"How can you come together and compare art?" she said.

They are, after all, accustomed to large choral events. Estonia (population 1.3 million) has a deep history with vocal music. It boasts one of the biggest gatherings of this kind in the world. The Estonian Song and Dance Celebration, held every five years, included more than 30,000 singers earlier this month in Tallinn.

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The setting in Caras on Thursday was markedly different.

While an Estonian Radio Girls Choir member sang a solo piece, down on the new accessible ramp to the Clark Fork River, kids were clambering around on the rocks while boogie-boarders tried out Brennan's Wave.

The shaded benches were filled with fans of all ages, and the circulating crowd included folks who may or may not have known choirs were scheduled until they arrived: People hitting up food trucks and wandering the river trail, 20-somethings with tattoos and surfboards, a guy in a red skull motorcycle helmet with protruding devil horns filtered through the crowd with his visor down. A man in a T-shirt with a "Star Trek" uniform design danced as a new Missoula choir sang their finale.

The 'Aiga Singers, a group founded in 2024 at UM, is led by conductor and artistic director, Leasi Mana. The American Samoan musician, who's soloed with the Missoula Symphony, leads a large ensemble that performs Pacific Islander music and more, including pieces on Thursday with dance and percussion.

The UM Chamber Chorale, an advanced auditioned mixed choir, took on both Hungarian composer Levente Gyöngyösi's ethereal "Te lucis ante terminum," and Indonesian composer Ken Steven's rhythmic "Hentakan Jiwa." It's named after traditional Malay dance movements, conductor Stevie J. Hirner said in the introduction.

"The composer conceived the piece as the journey of a young singer or dancer becoming enraptured by a performance and trying to learn how to perform it themselves, even depicting the frustration of learning with high, visceral cries from the tenor soloist before exploding into a celebration of celebration and mastery of the art form," she said.

Emcee Michael Marsolek noted this is the first time in 20 years the festival has hosted a choir from Africa. The Franciscan Choir Kampala, who gather every Sunday for church, came to the U.S. despite visa issues that limited their numbers to 25. After the members lined out onto the stage, some bearing percussion instruments, conductor Kizito Ambrose pointed out the black, yellow and red striped Ugandan flag that some of their group wore as sashes.

He said they were going to do a courtship dance from the Western part of the country.

"It involves winning a woman," he said. "You have to dance hard to get the woman, so it's what we are going to do."

The kinetic piece, with clapping, call and response vocals and synchronized movements, eventually moved off the stage and into the crowd, making for a lengthy single work rather than a selection of songs.

This was, as Marsolek noted, just a sample. The festival continues through the weekend with all the groups performing again. And after some disruptions and delays during the pandemic, the event will be back in two years.

If you go

The Montana International Choral Festival continues at venues around Missoula through Sunday, July 20. Go to choralfestival.org for a schedule.

Cory Walsh is the arts and entertainment reporter for the Missoulian.

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