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Excerpt: Winter 2009

Creating Joyful Noise!

Mary Oakwell

MARY OAKWELL: How did you become interested in working with people who say they can't sing?

EVA BOSTRAND: I really enjoy the challenge of teaching, of explaining something to someone who really doesn't know. I especially enjoy adult beginners-they come out of a need-it is something they really want to do. The idea had been hatching for a long time. Because I'm Swedish I knew of a church musician, Jerker Lejon, who in the 1990s put an ad in the paper in his small community, asking, "Would you like to sing? Do you think you can't sing?" He had 200 people show up to the first meeting. He was so shocked. But over the years he worked with these people and had to start second and third choirs. His experience started a movement in Sweden-hundreds of choirs. It has spread to Finland and England as well. The idea stayed with me for a long time because it really fit in with what I like to do. Finally a friend got tired of my talking about it and said, "Just do it," and that pushed it into gear.

MO:How did you get started?

EB: First I worked on a curriculum-what could we work on and sing? Then I printed up brochures; a friend helped me find some pictures. We wanted happy pictures of people singing, not serious ones. I ran into the mother of a former student the other day and she said, "How is your laughing choir going?" And of course that's what I wanted.

I distributed maybe 50 of the brochures and I spoke to my students, and when I started I had about 35 people-enough to make it feel like a choir.

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Winter 2009
Complete Contents of Current Issue

After 14 years, Winter 2009 is our 56th issue of Legacy and our last.

As Legacy's publisher/editor/owner, I have been fortunate to work with remarkable people. My sincere thanks to our thoughtful associate publisher Gurston Dacks and encouraging business psychiatrist/music columnist Ron Chalmers. To talented, remarkable designer Mark Dutton. To patient general managers Mary Oakwell, Liz Grieve, and Yoko Sekiya; and determined ad sales manager Andrea Kopylech. And to two of the best, most sensitive associate editors, Eva Radford and Naomi Lewis. Thank you, also, to the Alberta Historical Resources Foundation for supporting school subscriptions and to Enbridge, Elly de Jongh, and Melcor Developments for public library subscriptions. To the Alberta Foundation for the Arts for editorial support. And to our committed advertisers and many loyal readers.

I have looked forward each issue to wonderfully written columns by Paula Simons, Sid Marty, Ron Chalmers, Laurie Greenwood, Johanne Yakula, Dorothy Field, Gordon Morash, and Patricia Myers. And to beautifully crafted prose and poetry by well-known and emerging writers alike.

But I have decided that Legacy's own story will conclude now. Indeed, it has been fun. Thank you all beyond words.

Barb Dacks, Publisher