Louisiana Inspired Problem sollving led to international acclaim for William Plummer
William Plummer is the associate professor and director of choral activities at the University of Louisiana, where he conducts the Louisiana Chamber Singers, the Ragin' Cajun Soprano/Alto Choir, and the Louisiana Tenor/Bass Chorale.
The Louisiana Chamber Singers (the top vocal ensemble at Louisiana) have risen to international acclaim, winning the International Choral Festival Wales with the highest score achieved by any choir, and attaining the Gold Award in 2021. Recordings by the Louisiana Chamber Singers have received airplay in the United Kingdom on Outreach Radio, and the ensemble was invited to perform for the Belgian parliament in Namur in 2022.
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What are the benefits for people to be involved a choir? Is it simply the camaraderie that happens?
Part of the attractiveness of a choir is the universalism of it. Regardless of socioeconomic background, or whether you had money for music lessons or instruments as a child or not, choir is something you can do as a community and enjoy.
Choir gives people positive experiences to not be alone and to not be on social media — to not close off in their caves, which happens a lot, especially with that age group (in college).
It also builds positive experiences around people who think, look and act differently than you. There's a giant slice of life there in that room, and everybody's working toward the same goal.
With the music, almost every piece that you hand out is in a different language. There's this fear factor that happens early on in the semester, but it's important for people to experience something different from what they're used to — and get to the point where they learn to love it by being open to it. I don't know that there are that many experiences like that that exist within the boundaries of our communities, towns, cities and states — you often have to travel somewhere else.
That facet of choir changes the brain to be able to take these "alien" experiences and interpret them in a positive way.
You mentioned people hermiting with social media. Has social media affected the choral world at all?
As a director and as musicians, we have an inward face that goes toward our practice, whether as individuals or as a group. Some of that we choose to show the world. I'm grateful that some artists are opening up their practice realms to social media so that we can kind of see what's under the hood. That's healthy.
The danger is that we only see these polished products, and we can't live up to that. This pressure to be perfect has existed in music for a long time in unhealthy ways, but I think the rest of the world is seeing that in some ways on social media, too. It's nice to have a space where everyone just says, "I'm getting better every day, and that looks different every day."
Did you always want to be a choir director?
I was a biology pre-med major. One day I wandered into a choir classroom and really loved it — I ended up being a music major. I try to keep that same sort of pathway open for people who are trying to figure out what they want to do in life.
How did you facilitate the choir during COVID? Were there any positive results that came from any changes you made?
I spent most of the end of spring 2020 and all of summer devising a plan for us to practice and hold concerts safely. We rehearsed in a covered pavilion that our recreational sports facility donated for us to use. We were sheltered from the sun and rain — and we had no transmissions that whole year in our class.
We did a virtual concert where we filmed everything in small, 15-minute filmography sessions every two weeks through the semester. It was transformative for our students.
It made recording a non-scary thing for them. We had a large number of people who watched the fall concert of 2020, and a lot of schools that couldn't teach choir in the same way watched. The performance is actually a finalist for the American Prize and Virtual Performance Award.
We also applied for the International Choral Festival in Wales in spring 2021, which was a virtual competition. We won with the highest score of any choir. The students weren't intimidated by recording, so we applied for the Michelangelo Competition in Florence, Italy, which was also virtual. We ended up winning both of our categories and the best overall score of any choir.
All of that came from the problem solving that had to happen because of COVID.
With all of the competitions you're entering and the success you're garnering, do you have any tips to grow a pattern of success that can translate to life outside of choir?
The biggest thing is to just make sure that something is better every day. That's a message for individuals, students, administrators, public officials, etc. Our job as people is to make things better.
We also have to understand that that is not a linear path but just because it's not a linear path doesn't excuse us from the focus and determination to try to continue to make something better.
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