New Alliance Could Take May Festival to Next Level

Cincinnati May Festival Chorus

Collaboration is the name of the game in the arts these days.

There have been all-out mergers, as in Dayton with its symphony, opera and ballet, and cooperative endeavors, as with the just-announced partnership between the World Piano Competition, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.

One of the models for these ventures is the 26-year-old partnership between the May Festival – the oldest continuous choral festival in the Western Hemisphere -- and the CSO. The two organizations share services while remaining independent non-profit entities with separate boards, budgets and artistic leadership.

The May Festival Chorus (made up of 130 primarily volunteer singers, many with college training) and VAE: Cincinnati’s Vocal Arts Ensemble (a paid chorus of 24 music professionals , many trained at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music) are following suit. “We’re calling it a ‘strategic partnership,’” said May Festival executive director Steven Sunderman. “It’s split into two parts. One part is administrative, the other artistic. Formally, it’s administrative. The artistic is more of an understanding than a formal document. We look at it as almost two separate things right now.”

What each has to give to the other is significant. The May Festival, through its access to the resources of the CSO in marketing, development, box office, accounting, technology and the like, can pass those benefits on to the VAE. The professional chorus, founded in 1979, can fortify the May Festival Chorus with supplemental singers, especially men’s voices, providing balance and the potential for an optimal artistic product. On the roster for the upcoming May Festival (May 10-18) are seven VAE singers, four tenors and three basses.

VAE executive director Nathan Bick, who moved into an office at Music Hall in November, is now serving as development manager for the May Festival, relieving Sunderman of some of his work as one of three full-time staff members of the May Festival. Use of the CSO box office has freed Bick of “having to spread out all the tickets on his dining room table,” said Kelley Downing, president of the May Festival board of trustees. In terms of cost, the partnership has already saved the VAE $3,000, said Bick.

The need for “supplemental singers” is dictated by changing times, said Sunderman. (The May Festival rejects the term “paid core,” which Chorus America, the national advocacy organization for choral music uses to define professionals singing in volunteer choruses.) From 1989 to 2011, May Festival Chorus membership decreased by 20 percent, he said.

“Back in 1989 we were singing 158 members. In 2011, we were singing 132. For a symphonic chorus, that’s getting down there. The average symphony chorus is about 157. We worked with Bob (Porco, director of choruses for the May Festival) and the chorus committee, trying to recruit new members and keep members, but it’s a different day than it was back in 1989. People are much more into their jobs, they are traveling a lot more and people move more. Work life is no longer 9 to 5.”

At the same time, the May Festival Chorus is being called upon to do much more. “Last year they participated in the World Choir Games,” said Downing. “They do recordings, they sing for the Pops, the CSO, the May Festival. I mean there’s a lot.” According to Sunderman, “the balancebetween men and women was becoming pretty precarious.” (Male voices make up only 38% of the current chorus.) During this time, Porco brought in paid male singers (not just from the VAE) on an as-needed basis. “It’s what we had to do when Bob felt that we were just not quite where we needed to be at concert time.”

Two years ago, as part of its long range planning process, the May Festival decided to bite the bullet. “We were working on our strategic plan with three MBA students from the arts administration program at CCM. They knew students who were working with VAE as interns. They started talking to each other and came back and said to us ‘You should talk to VAE because they’re having some of the same issues you are.’”

“Like most organizations at that time, we were in survival mode,” said Bick. “We thought it would be a great idea to start the conversation because we had some needs that a larger, more established organization could fill-- things that as a really small organization with one full-time employee, we just didn’t have. We had something to offer in terms of musician talent.”

It is hard for an organization like the May Festival Chorus – an all-volunteer chorus founded in 1873 – to yield some of its identity to professional singers. For this reason, paid singers receive no special treatment, said Sunderman. “The paid singers are required to do as much as the volunteers. They are required to be at every rehearsal. If they miss, they have to come sing for Bob the next week. They are not treated any differently. In fact, if you went through the chorus and asked them who’s paid, they probably wouldn’t know. It’s just the men at this point, and it’s been very well received.” For the VAE members, singing in a symphony chorus is an important opportunity. “They get to sing big works with a great chorus like the May Festival Chorus,” said Bick, “and work with Bob Porco and James Conlon (May Festival music director) and the CSO.”

Porco stressed the importance of keeping the Chorus’ spirit strong. “Had I mentioned this a little while back, I think there would have been some resistance. There’s a lot of pride. However, the state of the business now is that there are almost no choruses -- I mean none -- at the level at which we’re operating (i.e. symphonic choruses) that are entirely volunteer. I make it clear to the folks we bring in that I do not consider them section leaders or anything like that. I think every individual has to be important. That’s my whole concept about choral singing, that everybody leads and no one follows.”

The responses of choristers contacted for comment on the new partnership varied from overwhelmingly positive to no comment. VAE tenor Jeffrey Stivers, who has sung in the May Festival Chorus throughout the year forthe past couple of years, sees no problem working with volunteers: “They treat me the same as others in the group. I have great admiration for the dedication they have and the massive time commitment they make. The group has a wonderful camaraderie and while it sounds cliché, they really are like a family.”

“Being surrounded by more and better singers only enhances my musical experience,” said a MayFestival Chorus bass, who wished to remain anonymous. VAE tenor Anthony Beck summed it up: “As with any mix of professional and volunteer musicians, there is the possibility of resentment. Collaborations of this sort require understanding and compromise from both parties. The May Festival is in the need of male singers. The VAE will benefit from added exposure, stepping outside of their usual venues and repertoire. The partnership also provides extra income for people who, in most cases, really need it.”

“The thing that I would stress with the May Festival is maintaining that artistic quality and involving members of the Vocal Arts Ensemble when we need to,” said Downing. “I don’t think we look at it any differently than -- depending on the piece and what we need -- bringing in the May Festival Youth Chorus, or doing other kinds of collaborations.”

As for artistic collaboration with the VAE per se, “there has been no discussion of that,” said Porco. One reason is the departure of VAE music director Donald Nally, who leads his last concert with VAE May 5. (A new VAE director will be named in April, Bick said.) “There’s all kinds of thoughts out there in terms of how do we grow the May Festival,” said Sunderman. “We can’t ask the Chorus members to do more because they’re already swamped those two weeks of May. What about on Thursday night between the two weekends of the Festival? Maybe there’s a VAE concert in there and maybe other choirs, but those are music and artistic director questions.”

The start-up costs of the new partnership, which ultimately will be a cost-saver and revenue-enhancer for both parties, are being met thanks to grants from ArtsWave, the Greater Cincinnati Foundation, The John C. Griswold Foundation and others.