Choral group preps for upcoming show

By Ella McCabe

SOUTH BURLINGTON — Soft choral music floated through All Saints Episcopal Church as singers stood at the altar, practicing for an upcoming concert. 

Channeling his lifelong relationship with music, choral director Glenn Sproul led the group, called Syrinx, through a repertoire with soaring melodies and rich harmonies.

Syrinx will present a free concert from 3 to 5 p.m. Nov. 30 at All Saints Episcopal Church. 

Syrinx has been bringing choral arrangements to the Greater Burlington area since 2001, and currently has 12 members. Though the group practices weekly at All Saints, only three singers belong to the church. 

Sproul said that the choral group’s music is, “eclectic, with the mix shifting noticeably from year to year and season to season. When I started the group, we did mostly madrigals, a genre we have often returned to.”

The group performs without instrumentation, just voices. 

“Unaccompanied (music) brings its own challenges, like staying on pitch, but it’s rewarding, right?” Sproul said.

Sproul has been living in Vermont with his wife, Dr. Marga Sproul, since the mid-1980’s. Glenn Sproul retired from teaching college mathematics in 2011. Marga Sproul practices family medicine in Colchester.  

The Sprouls are longtime singers. They have sung in the Vermont Symphony Orchestra Chorus and Vermont Choral Union, and have found members for their group through those connections. All members of Syrinx are invited, rather than recruited through an audition.

In the upcoming season of shows, Glenn Sproul has compiled a variety of songs. 

“Our program this season includes a short, hymn-like piece I wrote for Marga’s and my wedding, two settings of traditional German folk songs by Brahms (and) a round I wrote on a short poem by Yeats,” Sproul said. 

The program also includes his arrangement of a Bach piece, as well as spirituals, Christmas carols and a piece by Bernice Johnson Reagon of Sweet Honey and the Rock, which comes out of the Gospel tradition, Sproul said.

Along with the upcoming performance at the All Saints Episcopal Church, Syrinx sings at various retirement homes in the area. 

Singing to older people is something that Glenn Sproul has been doing for a long time, said his wife.

“When Glenn was a kid, his mom used to say, ‘Why don’t you go down and visit Mrs. So and So?’ — an elderly woman in his neighborhood. It was a little tiny town, and he would go down and sing for her. He just had that from the beginning, that idea of sharing music with people who might not be able to get out around,” she said.

The value of community connection, love of music and Glenn Sproul’s creativity help bring Syrinx members back to rehearsal week after week. 

“Glenn brings us back. He’s got such a unique repertoire and it’s just such a good group. We have fun, and we all love to sing and he makes it interesting. The music that we do, it’s never the same and it never gets old,” member Susan Wells said.

“We go to assisted living, and that’s the mission. They just love it. It’s so fun to bring them joy and music,” Wells said. 

Longtime Syrinx member Larry Dean agreed with Wells about the joy of performing at assisted living homes.

“And that’s the real reason to do it,” he said. 

Marga Sproul said that she comes back weekly for wonderful people. 

“We make good music and we share it with people who might not otherwise get to hear live music. That feels like an important mission,” she said. 

Music holds a special place in Glenn Sproul’s life. 

“In our last yearbook, people picked a quote for me that I found out is from Confucius, which says, ‘Music produces a kind of pleasure which human nature cannot do without,’” Sproul said. 

Admission to the upcoming concert is free, but cash and food donations are encouraged and will go to the South Burlington Food Shelf. The All Saints Episcopal Church has had a longtime partnership with the Food Shelf and takes donations weekly.

Via Community News Service, a University of Vermont journalism internship for The Other Paper