I've told this story so many times, orally, over the years, that I can still remember all the details of it very clearly. Thanks to a friend, who recently asked me again how I managed to build a choir, here it is, finally!
Chapter 1:
Early Beginnings – Luminaria – September 1996
It starts back in September 1996, with my decision to look for a choir to join, in order to find musician friends in Chicago. This was right after I moved to the USA from England, in July 1996. I was newly married, young (age 24) and in love! But apart from my new husband (Dave), I didn't know anyone at all here in Chicago! He was about to begin his PhD classes at the UIC, and I was about to be left alone in our small one-bedroom apartment. So, soon after settling in, I went about looking for two things: 1) some students to teach piano, flute and voice to, to earn some money and 2) a choir to join!
Back then, there was no internet, but the main source of information on local events and things of interest was the Chicago Reader newspaper. Many things were advertised in this, from items for sale, to services on offer, to community and cultural events and opportunities. So I read through it and it was here I found an ad for a brand new choir called Luminaria. It was being started up by another young woman, just 2 years older than me, called Deborah Skydell (age 26). She was seeking singers to audition for her new choir, and advertised it as a new community effort, with a focus on performing new, contemporary music, as well as music from around the world. I went along for the audition in Wicker Park. I soon discovered that she wasn't just seeking singers; she was also seeking people to help her get the choir up and running! She only had a handful of people so far! So, not only did Deborah accept me as a singer, but she asked me if I would consider being one of the founding members of this group, and join the "committee". There was no Board of Directors. There was just a small group of volunteers; a handful of Deborah's friends who were also singers in the choir, who formed a small, organizing committee. I said yes! I was so new and fresh in Chicago, and I knew this could be a good opportunity for me.
So, in September 1996, I became a singer and founding member of this new choir, Luminaria, and a member of the organizing committee. As well as regular weekly rehearsals, we also had regular weekly committee meetings, and I found myself becoming completely involved with all aspects of getting this new choir up and running. At that time, we weren't focused on setting up a Board of Directors. We were just the organizing committee, and we focused solely on the essentials: putting on concerts, raising money and raising awareness of our group. I helped mainly by designing and printing out flyers and tri-fold brochures, on my home computer and home printer! And after making these flyers and brochures, I got them photocopied at Kinko and ran around distributing them and putting up the flyers everywhere: around the UIC campus, around the local churches, at local clinics, local stores, coffee shops, restaurants, hair salons, nail salons, anywhere that would take a flyer and/or brochure! I did an awful lot of leg work in those days!
Gradually, we built up Luminaria to 24 singers, and we put on concerts about 3 times a year, in a few churches around the Chicagoland area. We had found a very cheap rehearsal space at the Wicker Park Field House: a small pavilion in the middle of the Wicker Park recreation area. It had a basketball gym and a wood-floor room adjacent to it with an old beat up piano, that was just large enough to accommodate our rehearsals. The fee was nominal! (Something like $6 a week I think!) We found church spaces to perform in, from asking around our neighborhoods and becoming friendly with local pastors.
Deborah was of course the Artistic Director of Luminaria, and she made all the decisions on what music we performed, how we performed it, etc. She put together all the concert programs, and directed the rehearsals and concerts. However, being one of the most experienced musicians in her choir, I quickly became like a deputy AD to her, filling in conducting rehearsals if she was sick, taking sectionals, etc. I also became the official piano accompanist for rehearsals. (I didn't play the piano in the concerts; everything we sang was a cappella, but I did play the piano for the rehearsals, to help the choir learn the music). I was like Deborah's "right hand man", listening to her ideas, debriefing with her after rehearsals, being a sounding board for issues, and trouble shooting problems with her, etc. We talked a lot on the phone, via email, and in person, always about Luminaria.
During this time, in addition to teaching piano, flute and voice privately in my apartment, and helping to run Luminaria, I was also composing music. In the early spring of 1998, I finished composing one of my first choral compositions (a Mag & Nunc). Luminaria had been up and running for about a year and a half. This was when I asked Deborah if she would consider having the choir perform one of my choral composition! She seemed very enthusiastic! She was absolutely all for that, as one of her missions was to focus on new composers. She couldn't fit it in the program immediately, but she promised me she would put my composition into a concert in the following year, spring 1999. Even though this was a year away, I was quite happy with that.
In the meantime, we had a big project to focus on in the fall of 1998: Deborah's Master's Degree recital! She told us all that she was working towards her masters degree in conducting. And, as part of her final exam, she had to do a recital with a choir, with her conducting. This recital was down in Champaign-Urbana, at the University of Illinois. We were all very fond of Deborah by this time, and we were all very enthusiastic about trekking all the way down to Champaign-Urbana to perform for her recital. So we did! This was late fall, probably late November / early December 1998.
We also did a Holiday concert in mid December 1998, and everything seemed to be going really successfully with Luminaria. The music was fun, the singers were lovely, and we all got on so well. As well as helping to run the organizational side of Luminaria, I was also helping to run the social side of Luminaria. I wrote a little monthly newsletter that I printed out and distributed among the singers, keeping everyone up to date with what was going on with Luminaria, and doing spotlights on one singer each month. I created a phone directory of all the singers phone numbers (and those few who had email) and distributed that among the singers. I hosted a few parties at my apartment, and every week, after rehearsals, I encouraged the singers to hang out for drinks at a local bar in Wicker Park, just down the road from our rehearsal. Not everyone came to these parties or the weekly bar hang-outs, but a decent bunch of people did, and this was the social life and heart and soul of the choir.
Chapter 2: The
Big Shock – December 1998
HOWEVER! We all got a big shock in late December 1998! It was just after Christmas, and right before New Year's. Since this was before most people had email, Deborah made an announcement to everyone BY TELEPHONE! She called every single one of us on the phone, and left voice messages. And what a shocking voice message! It was a long message and it sounded like she was reading from a script. Her voice was all bright, cheery and breezy. I can still hear her voice in my head to this day:
It went something like this: “Hi! I just wanted to thank each and every one of you so much for singing for my Master’s Degree recital, and for all your wonderful support over the last 2 years. You’ve all been great singers, and great friends, and I’ve been so honored to be your conductor, and perform all this wonderful music with you. I’ve now got some exciting news to share with you! I’ve had a wonderful new opportunity come up, which is taking me off to Israel in the new year! I’ll be leaving in January. I’m going to be in Israel for 2 years, teaching and doing music. So, I wanted to let you all know that Luminaria has now come to an end, but it’s been a wonderful ride while it’s lasted, and a wonderful adventure. And I really can’t thank you all enough for all your hard work, dedication and singing over the years! I hope we’ll keep in touch, and I’ll see you hopefully in a couple of years, when I come back to Chicago!”
Well!! As you can imagine, I was totally shocked! And, (as I soon found out later), so was everyone else! How could she sound so bright and breezy while announcing the end of Luminaria? She was clearly just really excited for her own new adventure in Israel! (We all knew she was Jewish, so her going to Israel was not in itself a surprise, but still!) I couldn’t believe it! I was devastated that Luminaria was suddenly and abruptly going to come to an end: it was almost my whole life, or at least a good chunk of it. I had put SO much time and energy into it, helping to run it, helping to organize it, and investing so much of my life into it. And it was also my entire social life! All my friends were in it! I couldn’t bear the thought of it all suddenly disappearing. And not only that, but what about her promise to perform my choral work (the Mag & Nunc) in the Spring of 1999? That had also suddenly evaporated, along with the choir!
That night, after going to bed, I woke up in the wee hours of the morning and couldn’t sleep because my thoughts were churning about what to do. And then I had a sudden epiphany. If I wanted my choral composition to be performed, and if I wanted the choir to continue, there was only ONE thing I could do: I had to step up and offer to take the reigns. I had to save the choir! I knew that I wouldn’t be the only one shocked and devastated with this news: I knew that many of the others would feel the same.
The very next day, I got on the phone and called all the singers in the choir. I was right: everyone else was equally shocked and devastated at Deborah’s announcement too! A few of them were more sanguine about it: I think there were a few who had been considering stepping down anyway, due to the time commitment, and so those people were ready to be done anyway. But the majority of singers were equally shocked and not ready to be done at all. So, it soon became clear that I had a lot of support for my idea of stepping in to take the reigns and save the choir.
So I called an emergency meeting for the following week. I typed up an agenda and got ready to face all the singers with my plan. My idea was to offer to step up as a temporary conductor, until we could find and hire a professional replacement conductor. My friend John Staas (one of the basses in the choir) offered to host this emergency meeting in his apartment.
However, unbeknownst to me at the time, during this week, between Deborah’s big announcement, and my calling of the emergency meeting, other things were happening behind the scenes! My friend John Staas (who had offered his apartment for the emergency meeting), was also very close friends with Deborah. He told Deborah about this meeting, and told her what I was planning to do. I still don’t know (to this day) how he framed it to her, but when she found out about it, she wasn’t happy! To be fair to John, he was kind of caught in the middle of things: he was genuinely supportive of me and my plan, and wanted to help me, but he was also feeling loyal to Deborah, and feeling that he had to inform her of this meeting.
What I didn’t know (and what I don’t think John knew or realized either) was that, when Deborah found out, she was very upset about it! She immediately called her closest friends in the choir, including a girl called Sarah, who was her best friend, and one of the most active people on our Luminaria committee. And she apparently called other people too. I don’t know how many people she approached altogether, but, before the meeting even took place, she managed to get hold of many of the singers and fed them the false idea that I was suddenly trying to usurp her! I don’t know (to this day) what else she said about me, but she somehow managed to poison many of my own friends and singers in the choir against me!
So that already put many people off even coming to my emergency meeting! Instead of the full 24 singers, I only got about 10 people show up at my meeting! However, I proceeded with the meeting anyway, thanking everyone for coming and handing out my printed out agenda. I made it clear that I wanted to save the choir, and was offering to step up as a
temporary conductor, until we could find and hire a new professional conductor. Everyone there was very supportive of me and my idea of continuing the choir. Like me, this choir was their main social life and their main source of music making. Like me, they couldn’t bear the thought of suddenly letting it go, and they were all willing to do what they could to help me continue it on.
And then, suddenly, in the middle of the meeting, Deborah herself showed up! With her best friend, Sarah, by her side. They both came in together and interrupted the meeting! With the adrenaline that was pumping at that moment, my memory of what
exactly what Deborah said is hazy, but I remember that she stood in front of the group and made this case to everyone there, (as she had done over the phone to others prior to the meeting) that I was suddenly usurping her, and that she didn’t want Luminaria to continue under anyone else’s direction! She made this case that she was somehow the victim, and that I was somehow in the wrong! She took me totally by surprise and I was absolutely shocked and aghast! I remember attempting to argue, and state my case, but Deborah just shut me down, and proceeded to shut down the entire meeting! Everyone was very uncomfortable and they began to sheepishly creep out and the meeting dissolved. It was absolutely shocking and unbelievable!
In retrospect, later on, it became clear that Deborah had only formed Luminaria in order to complete her Master’s Degree in Conducting, and to have a choir to perform at her recital. She had never had any intention of continuing the choir beyond her Master’s recital. And so, when she discovered that the choir had taken on a life of its own, and didn’t want to be shut down, she was taken by surprise and didn’t like it!
At the time, not only was I shocked by her reaction to my idea to save the choir, but I also felt hurt and betrayed by Deborah. What had happened to our friendship? What had happened to her promise to perform my choral composition? Not only was she trying to thwart my idea of saving the choir, she was also ripping our friendship away.
When Deborah declared that she did not want Luminaria to continue, she made the following caveat: she said something like, “Well, if you insist on continuing this choir, you will have to change the name to something completely different, and you’ll have to start completely from scratch because I’m not supporting you!” It’s kind of funny that she thought this would prevent me from proceeding, but it actually gave me a way forward.
The very next day, I started brainstorming new ideas for a new name. And I came up with the name, “Cantabile”. It was one of my favorite Italian musical terms and means “in a singing style”. I’d seen this term written many times in my piano music, often indicating how the right hand melody line should be played. I loved the sound of it and thought it would be an appropriate name for a choir. So this is what I named my new choir, and we kept this name for the first year, before we changed the name to the CCC – (see Chapter 4 for this part of the story!) I was also quite willing to start again from scratch, without Deborah’s support, and I felt quite confident that I could do it, with all the experience I’d had, helping to run Luminaria over the prior 2 years. (Not to mention my in depth music experience in England over the last decade since my teens.) And I even felt excited by the freedom of starting afresh! I started getting new ideas for ways in which I could shape my own choir to be anything I wanted!
Luckily, Deborah didn’t manage to poison
everyone against me! John Staas (who’d hosted the meeting) was sorry that she had done this. He still regarded her as a friend, but he also understood that Deborah was in the wrong, not me, and that I was just trying to save the choir. So he promised to support me going forward. And so, with his support (and Dave’s by this time, who stepped in), I called another meeting for the following week, at the rehearsal space at the Wicker Park field house. This time, I made sure that no one told Deborah, and I managed to get 10 people to come to that meeting as well. They mostly comprised the people who had been at that first meeting. They had all been supportive of me in the first place, and they all saw how Deborah came in and was acting kind of crazy, and they (luckily) didn’t believe her claims that I was usurping her!
Despite the excitement of starting afresh, I did find it very sad that the rest of the group were not only not willing to support me, but they went off with a bad impression of me, having been poisoned against me, by Deborah. It was a shame that there was this split, and I never saw those people again. I’d not only lost Deborah’s friendship, but I’d also lost the friendship of half of the choir! However, I knew I just couldn’t dwell on that. So, I just picked up the pieces, and took the 10 people who were willing to support me, and moved forward.
Chapter 3: New
Beginnings – Cantabile – January 1999
Up until this point, Dave had never been involved with my choir, mostly because he knew that this was my thing, my social life, and that I needed this, to stay sane and have an independent life outside of our marriage. However, after Deborah stepped down and made this big fuss and forced me to start my own new choir from scratch, Dave stepped in to help me. Being such a great mathematician, it was a no-brainer that he would become my new treasurer. (As I said, we had never had a Board as Luminaria, but we’d had a treasurer on the committee, who was one of the people who left). And, since Dave could also sing really well, he also joined the choir as a singer, and became one of my new tenors! Dave made it clear, from this point on, that he wasn’t going to run the choir for me, but he would be my new “right hand man” and help me with the finances, and anything else I needed. And he did!
Then there was John Staas. In addition to being a good friend to me, and one of our most staunch basses in the choir, he also happened to be an attorney! (Which turned out to be VERY useful in the near future!) He had already been part of the Luminaria committee, and he continued on as one of my very first committee members as well. Even before we created the very first Board of Directors, John Staas was already encouraging us to apply for Not-for-Profit status and get funding. And with his connections as an attorney, he helped us tremendously.
I can’t remember everyone’s name who joined me in the very beginning, but I ended up with about 10 singers, and about 6 of them willing to work with me on my committee. My initial core group of singers comprised Dave, John Staas, Brad Krause, Molly McCabe, Michael Collins, Mae Pittman, Andrew Sudds, Jerry Fusselman, Inga B, Scott Townsend and I can’t remember who else at the moment...
Clearly, 10 singers was not enough though, so I immediately got to work advertising in The Chicago Reader for new singers! Just as I’d responded to Deborah’s ad for Luminaria in The Chicago Reader, back in September 1996, it wasn’t long before I got lots of people responding to
my ad for my new choir, Cantabile! Since I had a piano at home, I invited people to come to my apartment to audition, but I also remember doing some auditions at the Wicker Park Field house as well. Being in Chicago, it wasn’t long before I managed to build up the choir again to 24 singers! It grew slowly at first, over the first few weeks and months, but then, word of mouth spread, and more people came, friends of friends, etc. I can’t remember when we hit 24 singers, but that was my goal, and I know it didn’t take too long.
The audition process was interesting. I accepted most of the people who came along, but I do remember turning down a few, who couldn’t read music at all, or who had had absolutely no experience singing in a choir before, or who couldn’t really sing very well! I couldn’t afford to be
too fussy, at the time, but I could definitely draw the line, so that we had singers who could at least read music, sing, and be molded into a decent enough ensemble.
During those first few months of Cantabile, I worked really hard to build up the choir and to work towards our first big performance in June 1999. Even though my initial idea had been to step in as a
temporary conductor, it soon became clear that everyone wanted me to stay on as the main conductor and not try to find anyone else. So, I knew I was now established as the Artistic Director. As such, I had to focus mainly on the music: choosing the program, teaching the music to the choir, and teaching the choir how to sing together as an ensemble! However, even while focusing on the music, I still continued doing many of the same things I had been doing with Luminaria. For example, I created and printed new flyers and brochures, put them up all over the place, revisiting all the same haunts I’d visited before, to get flyers up in windows and on notice-boards. I called around and did some footwork, and finally found a new venue for our concert: a local church just up the road from where Dave and I lived. One fortunate thing was that I managed to keep the same rehearsal space in the Wicker Park field house, thanks to having built up a good relationship with the owner of the building, from before. I just took over the payment of the rent, and managed to get the owner to give
me the key instead of Deborah!
Luckily, Dave and the friends I had around me in my “committee”, helped me tremendously with lots of other stuff, but there were still a few times when the amount of work involved in running and building this choir seemed overwhelming. But I was still very young, fit and energetic and I didn’t have any kids of my own yet, or any other major responsibilities, other than my private students. So I was able to pour all my time and energy into building the choir, running it and putting on concerts!
After a successful first big concert with Cantabile in June 1999, I then worked towards putting on a second big concert in December 1999. Before that, we did a few smaller “gigs” including a memorial service for Mae Pittman’s mother who passed away. I was finally able to have some of my choral compositions performed at these concerts! I had continued to work on composing, and now had 3 works, the “Mag & Nunc”, “How the Sun Rose” and an arrangement of a folk song called “Wondrous Love”, which we performed at both big concerts and got them professionally recorded.
Chapter 4:
Becoming the Chicago Chamber Choir – mid December 1999
During our first year as Cantabile (Jan 1999 to mid Dec 1999), not only was I working on putting on concerts, but the committee and I were working hard towards setting up a proper Board of Directors for the first time, and achieving Not-For-Profit-Status. John Staas, my attorney friend, helped gather all the necessary documentation, read up on all the laws and bylaws, etc, and taught our committee what was going to be involved. With his help, and the help of others on the committee, we finally became ready to take this next step by mid December 1999. Since I was the Artistic Director, everyone agreed that I should appoint the positions of the people on the Board.
By this time, I had become quite close friends with a dynamic woman called Molly McCabe. She was one of my altos in the choir, and was also a successful businesswoman in her own right. She was the obvious choice for President of the Board, since she had a good business head on her, and was confident, articulate and very smart. Dave was already my Treasurer, so that was an easy choice. Mae Pittman became my Secretary as she was a hard worker, loyal and a sweet person. I honestly don’t remember who I appointed as Vice President. It may have been Timm Adams. Timm Adams was one of my most talented basses in the choir, and he would soon be stepping up as our new Artistic Director, after I had to reluctantly step down later that year. (But that’s another story!!) At this point, in mid December 1999, he was either my Vice President or at least an active member of our brand new Board.
Immediately after becoming an official Board of Directors, the very first thing we did was apply for Not-for-Profit status. During this process, we had to take a close look at ourselves: our group and our mission, because in order to apply, you have to write a description of each of these things. Who are we as a group? What is our name? What does it mean? What is our mission? So this is when the subject of our name came up and became a BIG discussion.
My brand new President of the Board, Molly McCabe was the one who came up with the idea that we should change our name. She had two main reasons:
1) She was very concerned that the name “Cantabile” was not a good name because not many people knew how to pronounce it properly! Most people (especially non-musicians) would say “Canta-
bile” (rhyming with “mile”). Which obviously sounded yucky!
Other people, in attempting to say it correctly, would say “Can-
tee-blay” which was better, but still wrong!
I immediately argued that we could easily teach people how to pronounce it properly, by writing the phonetic spelling underneath the title, ie, “Can-
tah-bee-lay”. But Molly quickly dismissed this argument saying, “no, if you have to teach your audience how to pronounce your name, you’ve got a problem and should change your name!”
2) She felt that we ought to come up with a name that put “Chicago” in the title, which would be better for business. It would link us to our location, (since we were in Chicago), link us to this historical city (of which we were proud), and help us gain financial support from donors and other organizations, and help us gain wider recognition.
She was absolutely right, of course, especially with her second reason. However, at the time, I was (understandably) too emotionally attached to the name Cantabile, that I had chosen, to be able to recognize the wisdom and truth of what she was saying. Firstly, I loved the sound of the name “Cantabile” purely from an aesthetic viewpoint. Secondly, I didn’t like the idea of putting “Chicago” in the title. This was my choir, and to be honest, I didn’t yet feel like Chicago was “home” to me. I had only lived in the US at this point for 4 years. I wanted to somehow imbue my choir with my British identity, not have my choir be swallowed up by the name of this big city! Of course, in retrospect, this all sounds rather selfish and narrow-minded, but it was understandable!
Luckily for the future of the choir, I was the only person who dissented against Molly’s idea. Everyone else on the Board agreed with her. I listened as they all tried out various names with “Chicago” in the title. They obviously couldn’t choose “Chicago Symphony Chorus” because that was already taken, and they obviously couldn’t choose “Chicago A Cappella” since that was already taken. It was Molly who came up with the title, “Chicago Chamber Choir”. She had already done her research on this name! Apparently, there had once been a “Chicago Chamber Choir” but it had disbanded 15 years ago, and so the name was once more up for grabs! I remember she turned to me and asked, “Toria, what is the definition of a
Chamber Choir?” and I said, “It’s an old term, dating back to medieval times, meaning a small choir at the King’s Royal court, that can fit into a chamber, ie, a room.” That answer satisfied her. “OK, well, we’re a relatively small choir of 24 singers. Is that small enough to constitute a chamber choir?” I said “yes”. “Good,” she went on, “and since Chamber Choir is an old English term, and referred to choirs at the Royal Court, that does give a nod to your British roots!” I had to give a wry smile at her brilliance. It wasn’t much of a nod, but OK.
Everyone liked the sound of “Chicago Chamber Choir”. It had a nice ring to it, and could be shortened to the acronym “CCC” which was cute. The Board put it to a vote and it was almost unanimous. I was the only person who voted against it! It would take me years to be able to look back and see how wrong I was to try to cling to the name “Cantabile”, and how right Molly was to push for this name change to the “Chicago Chamber Choir”! However, thanks to the laws of Board votes, the name change won and the new name, “Chicago Chamber Choir” became established from that point on.
So from mid December 1999 on, I was now the Artistic Director of the Chicago Chamber Choir. At our big Holiday concert on December 12th 1999, therefore, I was able to publicly announce the name change, and introduce the world to “The Chicago Chamber Choir”. With my husband's help, I've recently converted the old VHS video recording of that concert to digital format, and so you can now see that entire concert at this YouTube link here:
CCC Holiday Concert, December 1999How and why I stepped down as Artistic Director of CCC, in early 2000, is written up as a separate story on my Blog, titled, “How I handed the baton of the CCC to Timm Adams”. I had actually announced his take-over at our big Christmas concert in mid December 1999, at the same time as announcing the name change. I had also given him the chance to conduct one piece in that concert. However, the following four months, from January to April 2000 was a transition period, when Timm Adams was officially the new AD, but kind of “in training”, with me at his side, co-piloting as it were! Finally, I stepped down altogether and he took over completely in April 2000.
Suffice it to say, my stepping down was with
great reluctance, and was only due to health issues. And, despite stepping down as AD, I continued on with the CCC, as Associate Conductor and deputy to Timm, Composer in Residence, Secretary of the Board and a singer for many more years to come. While I’m no longer involved with the CCC now in any official capacity, I am still to this day a great friend and supporter of the choir and its current director, Christopher Windle. And, I will always have the great honor of being the CCC’s official Founder and first Artistic Director.
Epilogue:
Controversy over CCC’s history
While things went smoothly after Timm Adams took over as AD at the beginning of 2000, there was unfortunately a point at which something controversial happened. I think it was around 2005 to 2006. Not long after Timm Adams started, the idea of writing up CCC’s history came up. They needed to have a written history to put in their concert programs, and on their new website. (I don’t know exactly when that was). Anyway, they approached me, and asked me to write a short history summary of the choir, which I did. And for the first few years, my written history summary was the accepted history of the choir.
However, in 2005, somebody read this history summary and said, “No, we don’t want the start of the CCC to be with Cantabile in 1999, we want the start of the CCC to be with Luminaria in 1996. THIS way, we can celebrate CCC’s 10th anniversary in 2006!! And this will help generate lots of publicity for us!” Whoever this was then approached John Staas (I think) and got from him the story of Deborah’s founding of Luminaria back in September 1996.
And so, the new written history summary of the CCC now stated that Deborah Skydell was the original founder of the CCC, not me! When I saw this, of course, I was shocked! While I totally understood the idea of wanting to consider CCC as being 10 years old and wanting to celebrate its 10th anniversary, for the sake of publicity, I did not like the idea of Deborah Skydell being given the credit for founding the CCC, when she had actively tried to STOP me from saving the choir and moving forward with a new choir!! I was the one who rescued the choir, took the remnants of it and started my own new choir from scratch, which then became the CCC!
While I tried to protest this new “history”, I was met with resistance! I was told that, well, it was technically true, what I was saying, but that the history could and
should be framed to make CCC go back to 1996, and it was better for business anyway! And things were already moving forward with plans for the 10th anniversary of CCC in the new year (2006), so it couldn’t be stopped now! My arguments were shut down, and the “new history” went forward.
Since then, I have at least managed to get the current AD, Christopher Windle, to be sympathetic towards me, and agree that the history shouldn’t have been changed. BUT, Deborah Skydell’s name is STILL written there, in black and white, in the history on the CCC website, as the original founder in 1996! This is another reason why I’m finally writing down the history, myself, to publish it on my Blog and to put it out there. I’m actually not against including Deborah Skydell in the history, as part of the early beginnings. But I would like it to be known that she neither wanted to continue the choir herself, NOR wanted me or anyone else to continue it, and actively tried to prevent it from happening. And that I’m the one who saved the choir and re-formed it, starting almost from scratch, and was the one who, under my tenure allowed the Board of Directors to be formed, appointed a President and oversaw the name-change to the CCC! I am at least thankful that Christopher Windle and many of my friends in the CCC refer to me and introduce me to people as the “original founder”, and I have that title at least in “oral legend” even if not (yet) in the written history. Changing this written history is something I would still like to see, eventually.
