Life. It can be a rough ride, full of stumbles and pratfalls.
But it can be beautiful and inspiring, too. In many ways, it’s an art form, the universe at hand.
That’s what Heritage Chorale conveyed Saturday evening in its fall choral celebration at Grace Lutheran Church in River Forest, which was highlighted by a commissioned piece by Emmy Award-winning composer Alex Wurman.
The piece, titled Norb: Life as an Art Form, was dedicated to Norbert Teclaw, who helped form Heritage Chorale 40 years ago and was Wurman’s teacher at the Free-School, a special arm of Oak Park and River Forest High School.
Chorale members with vocal talent ranging from soprano to bass hit all the notes with aplomb, delivering Wurman’s lyrics in almost a sonic fashion, with accompaniment by drums, bass guitar and Teclaw’s daughter, Ingrid Schimnoski, on violin.
No doubt for Schimnoski that the evening was an emotional one. Teclaw died in 2019: What would he have said about Saturday and Sunday afternoon’s follow up at Oak Park’s Grace Episcopal Church?
“What a treat and he would have loved to see everybody and it probably would be really moving,” she said. “There is a lot here who did know him. Alex’s mother was my violin teacher, and her memorial was here in this church.”
The words of the Norb: Life as an Art Form spoke to the impact Teclaw had on Wurman, but also Heritage Chorale and the Oak Park and River Forest community at large:
This spaceship Earth is ours to steer,
in all-inclusive peace with ev’ry and all peers.
So let us sing, let our voices ring
our choral ode to mentor and friend,
for Bucky’s dream and Norbert’s spirit
bestowed to us this precious gift of congregation!
The name Bucky is a nod to architect and philosopher Buckminster Fuller, whose book Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth had a deep influence on Teclaw.
Wurman lives in Los Angeles now, but the local community is never far from his mind.
“It’s the same every time I come back,” he said. “I’m always surprised at how nice my childhood was and I didn’t know it.”
Wurman said he spent less than half the time writing the music. Writing the lyrics took about 70% of the time. All in all, it took three months, and in man hours, two weeks.
“Most of the time was spent developing the idea of the piece,” he said. “I started out with a blank canvas and I didn’t know what I wanted to do, so the first thing I did was interview Ingrid, and she mentioned Buckminster Fuller and immediately something started coming together.
“The most amount of time I spent on the piece was in writing the words and the story. The story turned into the lyrics.”
What was it like watching that creation come into being with a chorale group in rare form, led by artistic director Wen Chin Liu-Young with further accompaniment on piano by Tehra Hiiolski?
“It’s a thrill, man,” Wurman said. “Every time. Especially when it’s the culmination of a whole life’s experiences. I met Norb when I was a child, and to finally realize through the study of him and Buckminster Fuller the impact he had on my life, and to celebrate it in this way? I’m so honored.”
There was a lot more to the roughly hour-long concert with one intermission. Classics like Schubert’s Des Tages Weihe and John Wilbye’s Adieu, Sweet Amaryllis were woven around newer works like The New Moon from David N. Childs and Leonard Bernstein’s Make Our Garden Grow, from Candide.
Wen Chin Liu-Young said conducting and directing the group is no place she’d rather be.
“Because they are a community-based group, a lot of people are coming in with the heart that they just want to sing,” she said. “So when I’m conducting them, I’m focusing on what we can do to strive for perfection, rather than, ‘You have to get the notes right.’”
Sarah Campbell, president of the Heritage Chorale board of directors, and an alto singer as well, said Wurman’s piece was the backbone of the performance.
“We try to do a commissioned piece every year and because of the 40th anniversary and he was very excited to do that,” Campbell said. “He came to a rehearsal to teach us the piece.
“I think this piece is cool and fun, and it’s a little bit funky and it has a lot of heart to it.”