Dr. Rodney Wynkoop answered each of OnCuba questions with an exciting look at choral music. He has been for many years immersed in the musical movement in his country, the U.S., and is looking forward to this tour that will take him to Cuban cities such as Cienfuegos, Santa Clara and Havana.
With the usual hustle and bustle of preparing an essential cultural trip for him and his singers, Wynkoop doesn’t stop expressing his gratitude, “on behalf of all members of the choir, for the interest in our tour of Cuba. We are honored by this. I would also like to thank all Cubans who have made our trip possible. ”
The renowned artist, trained at Yale University, says that everyone is “really looking forward to sharing our music with you and at the same time know your country, its people and its culture.”
I was told you have certain predilection for the music of your country: is it hard for you to take that music tradition of your country to choir music?
First of all, let me start by expressing my appreciation, on behalf of the entire choir, for your interest in our choir tour to Cuba. We feel honored by it. I would also like to express our gratitude to all the people in Cuba who have made our trip possible. We are greatly looking forward to sharing our music with you and to learning about your country, your people, and your culture in turn.
Now to answer your question, as in Cuba, there are many different musical traditions in the United States, some with very long histories, others with shorter ones. Nearly every musical tradition eventually manifests itself in choral Music, which gives choir directors a vast array of choral styles in which to perform. My own preferences include the slow, lyric folksongs of the US, like Shenandoah, and the African American spirituals, which speak so eloquently of a hunger for freedom from oppression and a deliverance to a better world. In my experience, both of these styles are deeply meaningful to nearly everyone who hears them.
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It is sometimes assumed that choirs should maintain a static projection on stage, though not a few directors today do the opposite, like Coral Triangle does.
In most of the repertoire that my various choirs sing, we find that the singing can be enlivened when the singers allow themselves a modest amount of movement, as if their bodies, just like their mouths, are unable to keep the music entirely inside them. If there is a lot of movement, however, we find that many listeners start to watch more carefully than they listen, which detracts from the true nature of the art of music, which is the sound itself. Nevertheless, in some folk music of a highly rhythmic sort we find that not to use more movement seems to limit the full expression of the music, so completely is it linked to the sense of dance.
You come to Cuba for a short tour and already they have announced three presentations: what repertoire we will see here in Cuba? Have you scheduled other activities like lectures, meeting Cuban directors and so on?
We will be performing quite a few Cuban pieces, including a bolero, a cha cha cha, a rumba, a cancion, a guaguanco, a guaracha, a guajira, and a son or two. These include the beloved tune Guantanamera, Grenet’s Songoro Cosongo, Richard Egues’s El Bodeguero, and Beatriz Corona’s Corazon Coraza. Our repertoire will also include one Brazilian piece, several pieces from the American folk tradition, some popular music, and some spirituals, as well as music by well-known American composers Morten Lauridsen and Eric Whitacre.
Last year US and Cuban choir directors had a fruitful meeting in Havana: what do you think of this kind of cultural exchanges?
I think this is wonderful! In fact, it’s this exchange between our choir and several Cuban choirs that we are looking forward to more than anything else on this trip. For one thing, we recognize that there are countless details about the way that Cuban choirs singing Cuban music, for example, that we Americans can learn most readily by listening to the Cuban choir sing it and perhaps asking questions about the music. For another, the opportunity to speak with and spend time with people from another country and another culture almost
inevitably forge bonds between those people that mean that we can never be unchanged by that encounter. Whatever the realities of the political world, people connect with other people on a basic human level.
Do you feel this tour will enhance relations between the two peoples?
I think there’s no doubt that this will be one of the results of our choirs’ shared time together. I’m sure that each singer will recognize that there are more similarities between them and the Cuban singers than there are differences. There are probably singers in the Cuban choirs who speak English, but none of us speak Spanish with any degree of fluency. And yet, the language of music is a shared language through which I know that we will understand our Cuban counterparts.
In Cuba there is a strong choir movement, whose successes are international: do you know it? How would you describe it?
I have to admit that before we started preparing for this trip, I knew virtually nothing about Cuban choral singing. Since we have not yet worked with any of these choirs or Heard them sing, I cannot really comment in any detail on these choirs, but some of what I have heard
online in the last few weeks is very beautiful. Entrevoces, for example, has a beautiful group sound, with lots of energy, clarity, and lyricism. We all look forward to hearing the Cuban choirs with whom we are scheduled to sing, and we are eager as well to learn about some of the Cuban choral compositions that these choirs have in their repertoire.
The US has a very strong choir movement in universities and other institutions, as well as amateur artists, can you describe this movement?
There are indeed many excellent choirs that can be found in US colleges and universities, ranging from schools that have highly talented singers who rehearse many times a week and have access to very fine voice teachers to other schools that may include many singers with more modest natural abilities and less rehearsal time but who nevertheless still love to sing and to polish their choral repertoire and make it highly expressive. We also have community
choirs and church choirs of various sizes in many US cities, as well as choirs affiliated with symphony orchestras. Some of the community, church, and symphonic choirs have a certain number of singers who are paid to sing, but there are also very skilled professional choirs in
the US, in which each singer is paid to rehearse and perform.
Are you planning to set up some kind of collaboration project with Cuban choirs, or maybe a recording with Cuban artists?
A collaboration or Project with a Cuban choir would certainly be exciting for us, and we are open to ideas, but since this trip is just beginning, it is a little early for us to any particular future project in mind.
After these presentations what are your plans for the rest of 2014?
We will perform our tour repertoire at home 4 days after we return to the US. After that, this group will not meet again, though many of the singers will continue to sing together in one or more of the local choirs in our area. The Triangulo Coral was created especially for this trip. We had 10 rehearsals before coming to Cuba. If a Cuban choir comes to visit us in North Carolina, though, we would certainly be happy to come together again in order to sing in a concert with a Cuban choir!
