The Kimberley Community Choir, led by conductor Marta Zeegers, has been hard at work preparing for their spring concerts. They will perform “Songs from the Journey” at Centre64 on Friday, Jun. 7 at 7 p.m. and Saturday June 8 at 2 p.m.
As of this year, Zeegers has now been at the helm of the Kimberley Community Choir for 20 years. She grew up in Quesnel in northern B.C., and did a music degree at the University of Lethbridge before settling in Kimberley, as she had some family who already lived here.
“We lived about a 20-minute drive out of town and so whenever we got in the van to go to town we were just always singing, since we were little children,” Zeegers said. “Then our parents made it a priority for all three of us to have music lessons, singing and piano. My siblings also did sports and 4H, but I didn’t (laughs). I was straight up music.”
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When she arrived in Kimberley she attended the Christmas concert of the choir, which at that time was around seven or eight years old.
She joined the choir that January and by the following September she was directing it.
“The folks who had started the choir were moving away and they were quite anxious to find someone who could take over so it worked pretty seamlessly,” she said.
There are around 40 regular attendees of the choir, with over 50 showing interest in January, but not all able to commit due to time constraints. Zeegers said there is a handful of singers that have been with the choir since before she was involved with it.
“It has been such an amazing thing,” Zeegers said. “I had some serious health challenges two years ago and basically the choir members buoyed me up through all that. On a music level, it’s very rewarding because the teaching that I’ve been doing over the last two decades sticks, right?
“The ones who’ve been there that long, they understand right away what I’m asking them to do and then consequently they’re able to help the newcomers that are around them.
“So with that music literacy piece, but also the technical parts of singing too, I’ve definitely watched the singers individually become better musicians, as well as a group.”
Zeegers said the choir is always looking for new members, specifically male members, but added that for consistency’s sake, this year they are going to add a “please-join-by-date” when they start up again in the fall. This will ensure that Zeegers is prepared with the materials such as sheet music that’s needed for everyone.
For this next concert, “Songs from the Journey”, Zeegers said attendees can expect to hear — and perhaps even sing along to — country and pop music of the 20th and 21st century; all songs with good story telling in them.
“Choosing repertoire is always an interesting job to do and this year we have a very dedicated Swiftie in the choir and so I wanted to make sure there was a Taylor Swift piece in there,” she explained. “So I started there, and then I thought, well you know she kind of had her roots in country, so we have some John Denver, we have a Dolly Parton tune.”
There will also be plenty of nostalgia for the Canadian audience, with songs like Wood River by Connie Kaldor that “paints such a landscape about southern Saskatchewan” and, from the Canada Council Moments from the 1980s, The Log Driver’s Waltz.
In addition to enjoying listening to the choir, which for these concerts will be accompanied by their “one-man-band” Tim Plait, Zeegers said it’s important to her that the people attending get to sing along as well, which is why there will be at least a few songs, such as Stand By Me, that are easy to sing to.
“You think about going to Christmas concerts and singing Christmas carols or hymns together, that’s been part of a lot of people’s music experience, but it doesn’t necessarily happen at other times of the year,” Zeegers said. “I wanted to make sure that we can still sing together. Because there’s something that happens, like you’ll sit there and you’ll be singing and it just feels really special.”
Tickets for the concerts are $10, cash only, and are available at Kimberley Friends Art Collective or at the door.
“Just come ready to listen and laugh and smile and maybe cry and sing!” Zeegers said. “It’s so special to be able to do and I encourage everybody to keep singing. I’ve had so many experiences with people saying ‘oh somebody told me I shouldn’t’ or ‘somebody told me I couldn’t.’ But singing is for everybody.
“It is there for everybody, so give yourself permission.”