Sound of solidarity
Phyllis Holmqvist, who led Dubai Harmony Chorus for nearly a decade, moves to Canada. She directed the 65-member all-woman barber-shop style singers — performing in four part harmony without musical accompaniment — in a touching show, Seasons of Love, which marked her last season with the group. Rajeev Nair profiles her
The hand-woven quilt that decorates the living room of Phyllis Holmqvist’s home in Dubai says it all. It is a parting gift. It bears the pangs of imminent separation and the joy of the good moments shared. Yes, it touches your heart.
Many rectangles have been sewn onto the quilt, and each rectangle has a story. One that marks the contributor’s association with Phyllis. The women had put together a hand-book of the random thoughts that went into the making of each rectangle.
And they tell a story of camaraderie that is at once heart-warming and ennobling.
Phyllis is leaving — after nearly a decade of directing the Dubai Harmony Chorus, an all-woman group, its members drawn in from all walks of life, cutting across barriers.
If the adage of ‘staying together’ can be a bit redefined, she leaves after keeping together a team that sang together. Their barber-shop singing, without instrumental support, has become an integral part of Dubai’s cultural event calendar, and credit is due to Phyllis in no mean measure.
“Sing, sing, sing, will all the love you can bring,” the Chorus members had observed in their parting gift — a collage of Dubai Harmony Chorus’ evolution over the years. And they conclude with a personal note to Phyllis: “And you did.”
She sang, she made others sing, and she brought them all together in one binding passion for music. She took out the fear of performing, and she convinced a number of women that they could easily feel at home in a quartet.
For many, Monday mornings (when the chorus quartet practises) and Tuesday nights (when the chorus comes together) will never be the same again.
A unique cultural get-together that has seen the teaming of more than 250 women at different points of time — the inevitability of expatriation — Dubai Harmony Chorus gave a fitting farewell to Phyllis at the Dubai Country Club that fetched more than 90 attendees.
“It really is a mixed feeling,” Phyllis says. “It has been a wonderful time here and the satisfaction and joy of being part of the group is tremendous.” Yet, she is excited about opening a new chapter in her life too in Canada.
For Phyllis, music was a passion. Backed by a family of music enthusiasts, she trained in piano as a child, and was involved in church choirs and music performances.
She accompanied her husband to Dubai on his posting with Emirates. She had little idea of what to expect in the city, apart from gathering from friends that it is a good place to live.
The initial apprehension that goes with any relocation was aggravated with the start of the Gulf War. By then, the family had made an irrevocable decision to move, and so Dubai, it was to be.
Initially, she missed the ten-acre farmhouse they lived in, in Canada. Dubai’s row-houses with no garden and too close a proximity with other people was a little intimidating but she was involved in the Emirates Wives support groups, offering valuable companionship to new Dubai-residents, especially in the wake of the war.
Her brush with singing was confined to the Emirates Flight Deck Wives Club until Lyn Jacquemot, a US expatriate, who had been part of the Sweet Adelines International, an association of over 30,000 women singing barber-shop style, initiated the idea of a similar group in Dubai.
Phyllis remembers that the first meeting in a potter cabin at the Dubai International Arts Centre had just four members — well, enough for a quartet to get to business. They practised fighting the loud buzz of the air-conditioner, and drawing in more members from the Emirates Flight Deck Wives Club, they — a group of 14 — performed their first programme at Wafi City during Christmas.
After Jacquemot left, Phyllis assumed the responsibility of music director in 1994. By now, more women were coming forward, from all walks of life — “doctors, engineers, teachers…the whole spectrum, regardless of race, nationality or income.”
Barber-shop singing, in four-part harmony without the accompaniment of any sort of music, did not suit children, which is the reason Dubai Harmony Chorus has been a largely a mature crowd, if you may.
Organising the shows weren’t easy tasks. Sourcing music arrangements without infringing on copyrights, the team practises extensively. “We first look at the arrangement, how the parts go together. And we have a fabulous musical team that basically I teach the parts to,” explains Phyllis. The team prepares a learning tape, which is distributed among all chorus members. It is a very good learning system, she says.
The Chorus repertoire has covered the gamut, though Phyllis jokes, they haven’t done a rap song. Especially close to her heart is the song, Sisters are doing it for themselves, which, Phyllis says, represents the group’s ethos of picking up a challenge and overcoming it.
She says for her, the challenge, which varies from one person to another, as a music director, is “that the needs of the individual singer are taken care of. It is important that every one is respected and cared for.”
It has frustrated her when singers moved on but the Chorus had a rather steady influx of members, which has helped it stage more than 100 performances in the last ten years, including two annual concerts — in spring and autumn.
Her own learning experience as a person and musicians is that “you get out of it what you put into it. It has also been an opportunity to know and appreciate other women. The friendships I have developed have been very special to me.”
There were requests to include men in the Chorus, but Phyllis says “it would have complicated things. Moreover, our arrangement suits women.”
Phyllis has been a hands-on director. While leading the group, she also did extensive training under Sweet Adelines International. The first such training was in Mexico, which brought together over 300 directors from all over the world. Training covered not only directing the music but also the running of the group, recalls Phyllis. She also did personal voice training.
Initially, the Chorus attire was a simple black and white affair. With women, can ingenuity be far behind? So came scarves in red, green and black — representing the UAE flag colours too — and then the group tried red tuxedo jackets.
By then, thanks to Laurel Nikolai, a member who was also a dancer-choreographer, Dubai Harmony Chorus was also giving their performances the graceful element of synchronised swaying movements, and the tuxedoes were uncomfortable. They switched over to the current silver and dark attire that lends added grace to their body movements.
Devoting her energy, like a full-time job to Dubai Harmony Chorus, Phyllis says she finds the effort more rewarding than working for money.
She fondly recalls the support from her husband, and the Chorus director, Kathy Young, who has been one of the first-time members.
Now, before she leaves in September, Phyllis is training the Chorus’ new directors, Jane Dales, one of the first members of the Chorus who joined just about two weeks after Phyllis, and Edith van der Deen — “both extremely talented women.”
Yes, the Chorus will sing on, though they will all miss the person who integrated “women of diverse culture, traditions, and languages” into an invigorating, life-asserting harmony.
Phyllis hasn’t decided on what she would do once she returns to Canada but she knows for sure that music will remain a passion. “I will be in music,” she asserts.
Yes, Phyllis will sing on.
Photographs: Chandra Balan
