Beauty takes work.
That lesson has been taken to heart by any singer conducted by Minnesota choral legend Dale Warland. To create richly textured layers of vocal color requires shaping, sharpening, taking things apart and putting them together again. And singing a piece again and again until it sounds exactly right.
Yet the consensus among former Warland singers is that it was not only worth the effort, but it was a profoundly powerful experience.
Few groups have done more to alter America's choral landscape than the Dale Warland Singers, the 40-voice professional chorus that he led from 1972 to 2004. Commissioning and premiering 270 works, the choir recorded and released 29 CDs over the decades.
Now, as Warland approaches his 90th birthday in April, 80 alumni from that group are converging on Minneapolis' Orchestra Hall for a reunion Sunday afternoon that will celebrate his work and legacy, with Warland himself watching from a balcony near the stage.
Onstage will be the Singers, a group formed after his ensemble disbanded.
"While the Singers is a distinctly different organization, we did start with 34 singers from the Dale Warland Singers, which is a pretty good way to start a choir," said the group's founder and leader, Matthew Culloton.
Only five of those members remain, but the Warland sound, style and commitment to new music remain alive in the Singers.