The Beit Shalom Choir

Posted at 10:00 PM, Sunday, November 23, 2008

Every once in a while, I tell the story of when I came to visit Beit Shalom Synagogue in Adelaide back in May 2006 to decide if we might be a good fit for each other. I toured the synagogue (this didn't take long), visited Massada College, and saw some of the sights. Mostly I drank lots of espresso coffee and excellent wine with a representative cross section of the synagogue, all of whom were very pleasant. At the end of a leisurely week, I arrived on Friday evening to lead my first worship service. Six members of the choir were present, which wasn't a very impressive number. What was impressive was that they sang in majestic four-part harmony. I was hooked!

Two years later, I've been conscripted into the choir after one of our sopranos dropped out due to the pressures of first-year university coursework. I had a rather challenging time at Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur singing in the choir, leading services, and delivering sermons. And there was many a Shabbat afternoon on August and September when I just wanted to go home for a nap rather than staying for a ninety minute rehearsal. At the same time, I felt myself nostalgically returned to the considerably larger Temple Sinai Choir from nearly thirty years ago. I joined at age fourteen and discovered that I was at least forty years younger than the youngest members. Nevertheless, it was hard to imagine a more meaningful way to spend the High Holy Days than beautifying the service with our music.

The Beit Shalom Choir is really nothing like Temple Sinai's: even at the High Holy Days, we were only ten people, while the choir of my youth had thirty or more members. We always sing unaccompanied, as opposed to the electric organ which is a mainstay at Temple Sinai. We are also a nicely varied group, with members ranging in age from early twenties to mid-sixties.

Six of us went off to sing as part of an interfaith concert this afternoon, and I must say we were pretty darn good. We sang four short songs in the ten minutes allotted to us, and at times I had that lovely feeling that comes when the harmony is spot on and the voices are soaring. It helped to be singing in an old Anglican church with magnificent acoustics, and it also helped that the event was well-attended by a very friendly audience.

Even when we don't have enough choir members in attendance at services to sing more than two parts, there is a lot of music at Beit Shalom. This is a singing congregation. I attribute this trait not only to our luck as a synagogue in attracting a large number of people (including bar/bat mitzvah students!) who can sing. I also want to extend credit where credit is due: to our small sanctuary and low ceiling, which mean that those in attendance can hear each other's voices. If you're in Adelaide, come on down and add in your voice!