Common Voices Celebrates A Quarter Century Of Song

Jane Lowey, director of Brewster-based community choir Common Voices, is thrilled to be celebrating the group’s 25th anniversary, considering that in her own words, when she founded Common Voices, she had “no business starting a choir.”

The members of Common Voices, along with the many audience members who have been delighted and charmed by their concerts since they first raised their voices in 1999, heartily disagree.

Lowey recalled a moment of inspiration which led to the birth of Common Voices. It all started when she attended a singing camp focused on singing in the African American tradition in the late 1990s at the Omega Institute, a non-profit educational retreat center located in Rhinebeck, N.Y. Singer and composer Ysaye M. Barnwell, a longtime member of the three-time Grammy Award–nominated all-woman African American a cappella ensemble Sweet Honey in the Rock, was there. It’s safe to say Lowey’s world was rocked.

“We went through different types of African music, and the development of styles of African American music, and we sang day and night,” Lowey said. “I was so opened by that. I couldn't wait to get home and find someplace to sing. The driving thought form in African American culture, we learned, is that everybody can sing. You don't have to be trained. It’s a community thing. At that point I had no musical training at all. I just liked to sing.”

When Lowey returned to the Cape, she searched high and low for a place to sing. She tried an existing all-woman group, but it just didn’t seem to be the right fit. Inspired by her recent experience at the Omega Institute, she asked the woman running the group if she could try teaching them one of the songs she had learned at singing camp.

“When I tried, I didn't do well,” Lowey admitted. “Then three women stopped me in the parking lot and said, ‘That’s what we want! We want to sing like that! You should start a choir.’ I thought, I have no business starting a choir.”

The spark had been lit, however, and soon Lowey found herself creating flyers and posting them around town to see if there was any interest in a new community choir. About a dozen women showed up, to Lowey’s delight.

“I did simple rounds and songs, very basic,” Lowey said. “Someone sent a young lady to me who was in college to be a musical theater major, but she had been in a car crash. Her fiance was killed, and her vocal apparatus was injured. She was told she would never speak or sing again. At the end of our 10-week session, the young woman brought a song she wrote for her fiance. I thought, I don't know what I am doing, but something is happening here, and I want more of it. It was really powerful.”

Lowey called on her friend Allison Beavan, longtime artistic director of the Outer Cape Chorale. She recommended a music teacher in Brewster, and Lowey took lessons every week for 10 years.

“I had to learn everything,” Lowey said. “How do you start the singers and stop them? I got the help I needed to develop my musical skills. We all have it in us, and we just need a little encouragement. If I can do it, anyone can do it.”

Common Voices is currently made up of between 25 and 30 members, but over its 25 years it has sometimes included as many as 40 to 50 singers. They meet on Wednesday evenings at the Federated Church of Orleans from 7 to 8:30 p.m. from September to May, with the exception of Christmas and about half of January. But don’t make the mistake of calling the weekly meetings rehearsals.

“I’ve never liked the word,” Lowey said. “It says you're trying to get to something else. For me it's about the process. I was trying to think of something else to call it, so now we call it the Singamajig. I also thought of the word Songregation: next week we will Songregate. We come together in so much joy. I have more joy than anyone on earth.”

Common Voices’ annual concert takes place on the Friday of Mother’s day weekend. The next one will take place on May 9. Lowey said they almost always include a sea shanty, along with world music from cultures with an oral tradition, South African music, some foreign language world music songs, and a variety of uplifting, inspirational community songs.

“This year I am thinking of what will really calm the nervous system,” Lowey said. “We are all in an anxious place in this world. We want to bring joy, calm and humor. I have about 50 million more songs that I can do.”

Lowey’s signature move is a triumphant flinging of both arms up into the air, a joyful move which she shares with the members of Common Voices.

“Arms in the air is my favorite,” Lowey said. “You raise your wings and say, ‘I am the happiest bird in the sky.’ It opens all your limbs, lungs, heart. I am known around town for doing this.”

For more information about Common Voices, including how to join in the fun, visit commonvoiceschorus.com. The Songregation — or Singamajig — begins on Sept. 11 at the Federated Church of Orleans from 7 to 8:30 p.m.