Collegium Collaborates on "Boundless Realms of Joy"

UPDATED: April 11, 2014, at 1:47 p.m.

“The concept of a choir is so poignant,” Taylor E. Weary ’16, manager of Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium Musicum, says. The Collegium hopes to showcase the ability of choirs to bring people together with their upcoming concert, Boundless Realms of Joy, which will take place on April 11 in Sanders Theatre. Featuring the combined forces of the Collegium, the Brattle Street Chamber Players, renowned conductor Alice Parker, and Joyful Noise (a chorus of adults with neurological and physical challenges), Boundless Realms of Joy also includes an all-day symposium on the intersection of music and neuroscience on April 12.

Boundless Realms of Joy’s program will feature a combination of large orchestral-choral works, lighter songs, and a piece composed by Collegium member Gus Ruchman ’15. “It’s exciting to be doing something together that’s original,” Ruchman says. Based on a poem by Sara Pyszka, an author with cerebral palsy, the lyrics of Ruchman’s piece convey an empowering message about everyone’s significance. “No one is reducible to just how they look, talk, or act,” Ruchman says. “That’s part of the point of the concert and what we’re celebrating on Friday.”

For the Collegium, working with Joyful Noise has been a moving and educational experience. “Something very striking when Joyful Noise sings is there’s a total loss of inhibition,” Collegium conductor Joseph Fort says. Collegium Music Director Andrew Clark agrees: “What Joyful Noise demonstrates is that powerful experiences with music aren’t always begun through the pathway of the mind but also a pathway through the heart.” Collegium President Maura D. Church ’14 recounts the story of a Joyful Noise member who, though unable to talk normally, can communicate through singing, and details the significant impact the choir has had on both its members and their loved ones. “Choral singing is greater than just one group, greater than an individual,” Church says.

With Boundless Realms of Joy, the Collegium is moving toward a greater awareness of a marginalized group’s experiences and showcasing music’s collaborative and unifying power. As Clark says, “The [Collegium] wanted to get to the heart of why we do what we do, and it was a chorus of individuals who society might think are deficient that had the answers.”