Stir Q&A: Vancouver Bach Choir's Leslie Dala on Behind the Keys, his love of piano, and the problem with Zoom
The digital edition of Behind the Keys features mezzo-soprano Krisztina Szabó
Mezzo soprano Krisztina Szabó (above) and Vancouver Bach Choir music director Leslie Dala perform in VBC’s digital concert Behind the Keys.
Vancouver Bach Choir’s Behind the Keys premieres March 26 at 7 pm online, with a live watch party and artists in attendance. The concert will be available for viewing for 30 days, with “name your own price” tickets starting at $5.
AS THE VANCOUVER Bach Choir celebrates its 90th anniversary this season, it’s keeping up a tradition that started in 2014 called Behind the Keys. The concert has sold out every year since.
The online edition for 2021 was recorded at the Orpheum Annex. Featuring VBC music director Leslie Dala on piano with mezzo-soprano Krisztina Szabó as special guest, the mixed program is made up of duo music.
Stir caught up with Dala to hear more and to get caught up on this strange and milestone season for the beloved choir, which held its first concert at the Orpheum in December 1930.
With the pandemic leading to the cancellation of live performances and shuttering of theatres, the arts sector has been particularly hard hit. We understand the effects of physical distancing are acutely felt by choral singers in particular, professionally and personally. What has the era of physical distancing been like for you and Vancouver Bach Choir? And how have you been coping?
It's now been just over a year since life as we knew it changed. At the time, none of us really knew how long it might be until things might get back to normal but within a couple of weeks, the VBC continued to meet regularly on Tuesday evenings but instead of in person, we met on Zoom. Now, of course, this is no substitute for making music and singing together in the same space, but since that was impossible, this at least gave us a chance to stay connected and to work on music even if the singers could not hear each other.
We were looking forward to our 90th anniversary season, which would have opened with Beethoven's 9th Symphony as guests of the Vancouver Symphony to open their season; our own presentation of Beethoven's Missa Solemnis with the West Coast Symphony Orchestra in November; Bach's epic Mass in B Minor; and the West Coast premiere of Indigenous composer Barbara Croall's Miziwe. We had just performed Beethoven's 9th Symphony on March 1, 2020 with the Vancouver Academy of Music Symphony Orchestra to a sold-out house at the Orpheum having no idea that this would be the last time we would be making music together for a long time.
I know that this has been a really challenging time for all of us and we are all looking forward to being able to see each other in person and making music together.
How has the experience of pivoting to a virtual season been for you and VBC's members? We gather Zoom is a nightmare for choirs.
When the fall rolled around and not much had changed, we realized that we would have to reimagine our 90th anniversary season, and already other organizations were announcing digital seasons so we decided to be a part of the trend. Since I am also the associate conductor with Vancouver Opera, I was involved in meetings all summer long to help create a digital season so I had an understanding of what the VBC might be able to do. So we decided that we would take our two traditional family concerts, Christmas with the Bach Choir and SummerSing! (coming up in June) as well as the Behind the Keys and turn them into digital offerings.
It is unfortunately not possible to sing together over Zoom as there are too many factors to prevent synchronicity in sound. Instead, we treat these sessions as tutorials where we work on music often over pre-recorded tracks created by our professional section leaders and our wonderful pianist, Stephen Smith. Also, we have had the chance to invite guest speakers and clinicians like Gabriella Minnes Brandes talking about Alexander Technique; Sarona Mynhardt talking about vocal health; and Phillipe Bourque, the music director of the St. Lawrence Choir in Montreal discussing the Brahms Requiem. Our executive director, Nina Horvath, put together a panel discussion on Decolonizing Choirs, which was extremely informative and inspiring.
Since January, we tried a hybrid model of rehearsals where our vocal section leaders, Stephen Smith, and I met together in person to rehearse sections of Bach's Mass in B Minor, which was streamed to the rest of the choir members at home who could sing along with us, even though they were on mute. We followed every COVID-19 protocol with all of us being masked and three metres apart, and I must say it was extremely satisfying for a small group of us to be able to make music together. In fact, we did a similar thing in December with a sing-along Messiah which we broadcast publicly on YouTube so that anyone could join us and we did in fact attract singers from all over the continent: So you see, we are trying to stay sharp and try different things so that when we are back we will be ready to go!
What is it like performing for a camera rather than a live audience?
This season I have been involved with a number of livestream events as well as videos which are different experiences but they share in common the lack of a live audience. It took a bit of getting used to because it is not the same without a live audience but I feel so grateful to have had the opportunity to continue to make music and to perform a wide range of repertoire.
Tell us more about Behind the Keys. As a show that routinely sells out, what makes it special? What can you share with us about this year's performance with Krisztina Szabo?
Behind the Keys started back in 2014 when we were looking at alternative ways to fundraise, and I offered to put together recitals accompanying singers, instrumentalists and playing some solo repertoire, which is also something very dear and vital to me as a person and as a musician. I started taking piano lessons when I was quite young and then took up the violin and pipe organ as well as a lot of choral singing as a student at St. Michael's Choir School in Toronto. I owe it to this school that provided a very rich and thorough musical training.
I knew from a young age that music was magic to me, and I could not imagine doing anything else with my life and I completed a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in piano performance at the University of Toronto and UBC respectively. I have tried to keep up my playing over the years even when my career shifted more to conducting like with the Vancouver Bach Choir, Vancouver Opera, and stints as music director with the Prince George Symphony and the Vancouver Academy of Music Symphony Orchestra.
Since I couldn't do a lot of conducting this past year I turned to the piano and probably practised more than I had in years with more time on my hands. In fact, I was able to make a recording of the Complete Etudes of Philip Glass, my first full length recording as a pianist.
In the fall of 2020 my dear friend and colleague, sensational mezzo soprano Krisztina Szabo, was appointed as a professor of voice and opera to the Faculty of Music at UBC so I was very much looking forward to having more opportunities to work together. This will be our third project this year. We collaborated on a recital as part of the Noon Hour Series at the Chan Centre back in November; a digital concert for Vancouver Opera called Wagner for Valentine's back in February; and now Behind the Keys.
Krisztina is an incredibly versatile singer having performed in concerts and operas all over the world and we happen to share a joint cultural lineage as first-generation Canadians of Hungarian heritage. In this program we perform works by Hungarians Liszt and folk-song arrangements by Kodaly as well as a set of songs by Austrian composer Alban Berg (a favourite set for both of us) plus a little surprise at the end. It is always a huge pleasure to make music with Krisztina and it was fun to do a program that featured our shared cultural heritage.
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