From within a circle of broken glass, a woman kneels, eyes closed and arms outstretched, offering to her audience a fragmented wine glass. Within the glass lie slips of edible paper inscribed by her audience with things they wish to bury or release. As the papers get placed into her glass, she lifts them to her lips, swallows them and raises her glass back up.
This interactive performance, entitled “The Funeral of Consumption,” was one of eight pieces performed at the Contemporary Choral Collective‘s most recent event, “Love Letters.” The event took place Feb. 16 at The POPera Shop in Highland Park and explored themes of love, sex and intimacy through a mix of choral music, performance art and interactive sensory booths.
Drew Corey is a composer, conductor and founding member of the Contemporary Choral Collective (C3LA), as well as the paper-eating artist in “The Funeral of Consumption.” She said C3LA offers a unique venue to sing and conduct choral music in a new and refreshing way.
“C3LA is a choral collective, so there’s no artistic director; we all decide on things collectively,” Corey said. “It’s basically challenging the hierarchical model of a lot of groups […] it gives the choir world a chance to work more collaboratively.”
Corey said C3LA’s structure encourages members to rotate who will perform, conduct and compose music depending on the piece. She said this allows members to support each other in different ways and experience different roles within the group.
“I recommend everyone to try to conduct at least once. There’s something just so powerful about moving your hands, and it changes what happens in the room,” Corey said. “As a conductor, the energy exchange that happens between you and your singers is just crazy. It’s very palpable.”
According to Vera Lugo, a C3LA member and performer in “Love Letters,” the group is modeled off of The Choral Composer/Conductor Collective (C4), based in New York. Lugo said that the C4 model is structured around performing new music. She said that C4 often performs music written by members of the choir, something C3LA excels at.
“C3LA is known for doing things that are kind of off the grid and a little bit more weird than a lot of contemporary music,” Lugo said. “We do a lot of stuff with extended techniques and sounds that you don’t normally hear from a choir.”
According to C3LA member Rachel Steinke, C3LA is made up of a very accomplished cast of professional musicians but without the pressure of perfection that often accompanies choral music.
“We have a lot of really smart amazing people, but it’s kind of like we’re all here after hours and it’s just chill,” Steinke said. “No one’s enforcing any kind of musical standards or anything like that. It’s a really nice place to openly explore music without any kind of hard destination or rules around it.”
Steinke said around 80 percent of the songs C3LA performs are composed by members, something that you cannot find in any other choir.
“It’s a really safe space to try new things,” Steinke said. “Anything that you could possibly do as part of an experience for the audience is fair game, which is awesome.”
Lugo said C3LA seeks to perform three concerts annually, highlighting different members at each event depending on their interest and availability. She said that currently, she estimates they have around 30 active members, but they continue to audition new members and are always excited to hear new voices.
Lugo said the group does not typically need to make back the money they spend on shows because they are a nonprofit organization.
“We get grant funding from the county of LA and the city of LA, and we’ve received a New Music USA grant before,” Lugo said. “We have a development chair whose job it is to look for those grants and apply for them for us, so that’s how we stay running.”
Lugo said that in the future, C3LA is excited to plan events that specifically highlight the unique skill sets each member brings to the group, from opera to folk music. She said the next event they are planning will be on May 31 and will be a performance of original works in collaboration with an orchestra.
“We’re constantly growing and changing, trying to always get to the next level of what we can do as a group,” Lugo said.
Contact Estel Garrido-Spencer at garridospenc@oxy.edu.
