By Alissa Von Bargen
Accordion strapped to his chest, Greg Furlong leads a group of singers, arranged in a line by pitch from soprano to tenor. The choir sings a lively tune called “Ring Like A Bell” which is about ending wars.
Furlong is one of the organizers of an activist choir in Ottawa, tentatively named Raising Voices. The choir formed to sing about issues of peace, justice and the environment.
“Many of us are activists and we’re used to writing press releases, organizing demonstrations and actions,” says Vallie Stearns, who is also a founding member of the choir. “The more we do it, the more we want to do something creative, something fun, something that draws people in, that’s friendly and gets the message out in new ways.”
The choir’s first public performance will be at the March 20 demonstration on Parliament Hill, protesting the occupation of Iraq.
Stearns says the group hasn’t developed a particular political viewpoint yet, which may be a help rather than a hindrance.
“It takes a lot of energy to develop a particular stand, and we want to spend our energy singing,” says Stearns. “I imagine the people in the group might actually hold (somewhat different views).”
Rob Ryan joined the choir after receiving a notice from an anti-war mailing list.
“I don’t like war and I like to sing,” he says.
Although the choir’s repertoire is mainly songs in the folk and choral vein, they don’t want to limit the kind of music they sing.
“There’s apparently a very good punk-rock band called Anti-Flag,” says Ryan, who found out about the band from his nephew. “We want to have a range of songs that appeal to different generations so it might be worthwhile looking in that area.”
Furlong has been involved in creative activism before in Toronto, where he was part of Song Cycles, a “bicycle choir” dedicated to transportation issues.
When Song Cycles ended, he says the group had started singing more political songs, So he says he thought an activist group singing about these issues would be work well in Ottawa. Raising Voices is also looking for ways to incorporate elements like dancing, chanting and instruments into their performance.
“It’s a performing group, so you can communicate things which are actually pretty serious,” says Furlong. “You can get these messages across without sounding preachy and without making people feel like they’re being talked down to. It’s kind of a sneaky way of bringing things to people’s attention.”
The choir’s lighthearted approach to serious subjects is part of what they hope will appeal to the public.
“We’re not performing Bach or anything, but we can actually do a respectable job, have some fun and do some meaningful stuff,” says Furlong.
Raising Voices meets Thursday nights at 6:30 in Room 125 in Simard Hall at the University of Ottawa.