Belize Choral Society to hold 35th anniversary concert Sat. night

It was Bob Marley who said, “When the music hits you, you feel no pain”. The spirit of that quote is being promoted by the Belize Choral Society, who on the occasion of their thirty-fifth birthday, is calling on Belizeans to appreciate the power of music. News Five’s Marion Ali reports.

Rose Musa, Founding member, Belize Choral Society
“You find some marriages that don’t even last for thirty-five years. I think we’re doing quite a bit by staying together.”

Marion Ali, Reporting
Membership in the Belize Choral Society has blossomed and waned over the years but the resilience of its older members has earned the group distinction on the local entertainment scene.

Valerie Lovell, Business Manager, Belize Choral Society
“It’s because there’s at the core of the group a nucleus of people who love choral music and who love the choir. And so it fluctuates, you have people coming, people going but that nucleus stays there and I think that is what has kept it going and because they have been there at the bottom just hanging on doing whatever it takes. Personally, I would do whatever it takes to see this choir survive.”

But surviving has become an increasingly steep challenge for the group.

Rose Musa
“It’s very difficult to try and get a full house because people don’t support our local culture. People come from abroad and they’re inclined to pay sixty, seventy-five dollars and all we’re charging is twenty dollars.”

To change the status quo, the choir’s business manager Valerie Lovell is attempting to have her young students appreciate music, not just sing it.

Valerie Lovell
“I basically only teach them choral music and so they understand and they like it and as much as they listen to Fifty Cent. And I have said to them in ten years you will say fifty who? But Mozart and Bach will always be there. That’s the beauty of it. Just listen to that behind you and then you understand. I wish I could tell you what it does to you inside. It’s a soul thing you know, not just a body thing and I think the hip hop thing is a body thing, where you could gyrate and so on but capturing the soul, this is it.”

And capturing the soul is exactly what the thirty-member group will attempt to do when they take the stage at their thirty-fifth anniversary concert on Saturday night.

Rose Musa
“We cater to all sorts of audiences because we have contemporary music, we have operatic music, we have Latin music, we sings folk songs, the Belizean folk songs. We have a selection of so many things.”

Valerie Lovell
“I’m proud of the choir, long may she live, long may she continue to provide good music to Belize.”

Saturday night’s concert will take place at the Holy Redeemer Parish Hall. Reporting for News Five, Marion Ali.

Tickets to the concert are twenty dollars each and viewers are urged to be seated by seven forty-five as the concert will begin promptly at eight. If you would like to join the Choral Society, please contact Rose Musa at Brodies.