Formed during coronavirus pandemic, new OKC chamber choir provides outlet for OU professor

In her research, Jenel Cavazos delves into how using the latest technology to teach can affect students' outcomes.

In her free time, the University of Oklahoma associate professor of psychology prefers to delve into choral music composed hundreds of years ago.

"I think it's really important. One of the things that has always been super interesting to me just having all of these various interests in really different areas of my life is that they do kind of buffer each other," she said.

"When I feel like I'm stressed and overwhelmed at work, well, I have this other outlet that I can go and do something — and be — completely different."

The master teacher and curriculum coordinator for introductory psychology at OU, Cavazos also has been singing for four years with Canterbury Voices, Oklahoma City's premier symphony chorus.

When the 2020 COVID-19 outbreak sent OU classes online and prompted Canterbury Voices to suspend rehearsals and postpone its spring concert, Cavazos — like the rest of the world — suddenly found both her professional life and her personal outlet upended.

"We were rehearsing for the Oklahoma City bombing memorial concert at the time. We were learning the music, and it was wonderful. But at the same time, I'm a scientist, I'm an educator, and I'm watching the news reports about the pandemic coming. ... and then we were out. We were done," she recalled.

"That was so devastating, because it was so close to doing this amazing concert. It felt like just hitting pause on this major part of your life — but it was all aspects of life. ... Everything just sort of stopped for a while."

But out of the pandemic came another opportunity to sing that has continued to flourish: The new Canterbury Chamber Voices, formed during the COVID summer 2020, will perform May 19 at the Oklahoma History Center as the stars of "Crescendo," a new fundraising event for Canterbury Voices.

"The challenges we’ve faced as an arts organization in the past two years encouraged our creativity, Canterbury Chamber Voices is the result, and now has become another fine ensemble under the Canterbury banner. We anticipate a full crowd for this first event," Canterbury Voices Artistic Director Randi Von Ellefson said in a statement.

Virtual mini-concerts Chamber ensemble put on virtual mini-concerts during the pandemic

In the dreary days of summer 2020, Cavazos got a call from Ellefson about a new musical outlet.

"He said, 'Everybody is just down, they're devastated, their worlds are changing and falling apart. People need something to be able to believe in to keep them happy. And we want to keep Canterbury's name going, to have people not forget about us when we can't be practicing and we can't be performing,'" she recalled.

He proposed assembling a small group of singers to perform together at different OKC landmarks. The performances would be filmed and posted on Canterbury Voices' social media channels.

"He was very careful to tell us that we would be practicing minimally as possible in person, socially distanced, definitely spaced apart, wearing masks 100% of the time — and only if we felt comfortable with it. ... I thought it was just a fantastic idea, a way to get us involved, and a way to keep us motivated and going forward. And it was so much fun," she said.

"To be able to just see some faces in person and make some music together was just the best thing — and nobody got sick. We were very, very vigorous as far as the safety protocols."

For their first mini-concert, the ensemble performed Italian organist and composer Giuseppe Ottavio Pitoni's (1657-1743) "Cantate Domino" in the atrium of the Oklahoma History Center. The 20-person group that became Canterbury Chamber Voices sang the patriotic "America, the Beautiful" outside the Survivor Tree, Stephen Paulus' hopeful "The Road Home" on the grand staircase of the historic Skirvin Hilton Hotel and the state song, "Oklahoma!," inside the Myriad Botanical Gardens.

"They were empty spaces, and we wanted to showcase some of Oklahoma City's coolest places that we were able to go and do these performances," Cavazos said. "Being able to sing in all these really cool places with these amazing acoustics was just really fascinating.

Cavazos was thrilled when the ensemble performed the hymn "Unclouded Day" at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, where security director Tim Tiller became a viral social media star during the pandemic.

"I actually took a picture next to a cardboard cutout ... of him, which was awesome. It just felt very appropriate for the times that we were in," she said with a laugh.

Chamber choir keeps making music

Even after the singers resumed rehearsing and performing together in larger numbers, the new Canterbury Chamber Voices continued making music as a group.

"Back in the '80s and '90s ... we had a chamber choir. We had so many amazing singers that came back to Oklahoma during the pandemic, from graduating from ... different colleges or different master's programs. We had some incredible talent here, and we had the need for being out there in the public, wanting to keep relevant, stay active, continue singing during the pandemic. It just all came together for us, and we decided to bring it back," Canterbury Voices Executive Director Pam Mowry said.

"Not everything that happened during the last two years is negative. I do believe that this is something very positive that ... came from the pandemic and will continue into the future."

The Canterbury Chamber Voices sang as an ensemble during the flagship chorus' long-awaited presentation of the OKC bombing memorial piece "Of Perpetual Solace" and its 2021-2022 season-opening performance of composer Dan Forrest's "Jubilate Deo." But Mowry said the smaller group also offers opportunities to learn new music.

"The type of repertoire that we can perform with the Canterbury Chamber Voices is very different than what we do with the large chorus on the stage of the Civic Center with the (Oklahoma City) Philharmonic," she said. "It just allows us to be more dynamic ... and provide more opportunities to highlight the talent that we have."

'Crescendo' to feature chamber choir at Oklahoma History Center

Canterbury Voices' inaugural "Crescendo" will put the chamber choir in the spotlight while helping the nonprofit arts organization raise needed funds.

"During the pandemic, we applied for every PPP, every CARES Act funding opportunity, we could find. If we had not done that, we would have been at a significant deficit for the year. While we provided programming all year long — we continued our season, and didn't really have to cancel anything — we had limited numbers ... and just couldn't sell as many tickets as we normally could," Mowry said.

"We were able to pull it out with a break-even year, so I celebrate that every day. Moving forward, it's important that everyone get out and support the arts and keep all of the performing arts in Oklahoma City alive through ticket sales and through donations. It's now more important than ever that we're all able to come out of this and thrive."

Along with the chamber choir concert, the new fundraiser will include an array of hors d’oeuvres and signature cocktails by Kams Kookery and Guilford Gardens, an open bar and the announcement of Canterbury Voices' 2022-2023 concert season. Plus, G. Jason Johnston, a longtime Canterbury Voices singer, board member and two-term board president, will be honored with the second Myles Criss Visionary Award.

The event also will allow the Canterbury Chamber Voices to return to the Oklahoma History Center, the first venue they ever performed in together.

"It was gorgeous. We all walked in and said, 'Wow, this is a dream.' So, being able to be back there, I think, is going to feel very full circle. But at the same time, this is a completely different event where we actually are going to have hundreds of people in front of us," Cavazos said.

With both her classes at OU and her musical outlet with Canterbury, Cavazos, a Norman mother of three said she is grateful for the return to normality over the past few months.

"Most of the people at Canterbury don't know me as a professor at all; they don't really have a lot of inkling of what I do on a daily basis. Then, of course, the people in my professional life and my students sometimes are like, 'Oh, wait, you sing? What? That's weird,'" she said with a chuckle.

"When my daughter Taylor started getting involved in choir ... in high school, I was like, 'I've missed that. I did that all through high school, too.' ... I wanted to try to spend some time on that aspect of myself, and I've really enjoyed it. I've grown a lot, and I've learned a lot."

Canterbury Voices 'Crescendo'

What: Inaugural fundraiser featuring Canterbury Chamber Voices in concert, open bar, hors d’oeuvres and signature cocktails by Kams Kookery and Guilford Gardens.

When: 7 p.m. May 19.

Where: Oklahoma History Center, 800 Nazih Zuhdi Drive.

Tickets and information: https://canterburyokc.com.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Formed during COVID, OKC chamber choir provides OU professor an outlet