City Of Sails Barbershop Chorus presents An Evening Of Harmony

As the title suggests, a lovely evening of male voice choir music, in Auckland.

In fact that’s not the whole story, for breaking up the chorus were the quartet Chord Of Appeal, and female soloist Lisa Lorell. Given the high calibre of all three acts, it’s a minor shame that the final number didn’t feature them all collaborating together, but no matter. This was my day off, and as such losing myself in the melody was just the serenity that I was looking for. The acoustics of East City Wesleyan – unusually good for a church – helped tons too.

There’s a distinction that I need to make here. I don’t go much on a cappella when the singers’ voices are impersonating musical instruments. That always reminds me of eating a vegetarian alternative – I feel as though I really ought to be enjoying it as much. When human voices are performing as precisely what they are though - voices forming words - well, that authenticity is much more my thing.

The biggest surprise of the night though had to be getting invited to join them. It was the interval, and a guy called Richard approached me and started to enthuse “We can teach anyone to sing!” I was seriously impressed. This meant that many of the performers who I’d just been listening to had been similarly invited and trained... and to what a standard!

As I walked home tonight, I had not just enjoyed an evening of beautiful life-affirming music, but also been empowered to believe that I could achieve the impossible too.

What more can a good show do for you?

Website here.