It is my pure privilege to know our beautiful and talented director, Kathy Matkin Clapton. Kathy provides us with the opportunity to perform and learn beautiful music, as well as making us individually better performers. But more importantly, she has taught me to be a better person; to be more caring, empathetic, to see the joy in the small details of life and to laugh. Kathy’s laughter is beyond infectious.
Music is one of the few things that are universal to all human beings. Melody and rhythm can trigger feelings from sadness to serenity to joy to awe; music can trigger memories and bring stories to life. I consider it an honor to stand beside my beautiful altos, sing and laugh till I cry on a weekly basis with these amazing people.
I can’t stress enough the fundamental importance of music as an outlet and an inspiration, nor can I overemphasize the need for music as a kind of creative greenhouse for growing both empathy and imagination. Empathy and imagination—you can’t have one without the other, can you? Thankfully, the Incanto Singers takes its cue from its director, Kathy Matkin-Clapton, who seems to have an inexhaustible supply of both, to say nothing of her genuine talent and passion for teaching music. Let me repeat: singing in the Incanto Singers is not just singing in another choir. To participate in the Incanto Singers is to rediscover music altogether, to learn that song is a fundamental human expression that dissolves all differences and discriminations, and to experience a rare and precious depth of communion with one’s humanity in the process. If that isn’t good, I don’t know what is.
I think that anyone who has come to our concerts and has heard us sing can see that we work hard together to create beautiful music, but I think that perhaps the most amazing part of Incanto happens behinds the scenes.
Incanto is open for any young adult with a desire to sing and it is that desire that binds us together but it is not that want alone that makes this choir so incredibly unique. I cannot speak for anyone else but I know that I look forward to Wednesday evenings each week because of what choir means to me. See, choir isn’t just about the music, and it isn’t just about seeing old friends or making new ones. Incanto is more than just a choir because it is a place where everyone is able to feel welcome and important; Incanto has instilled a sense of self-confidence in me that I have never felt before and that is the most remarkable thing to me.
Kathy is an incredible person and never fails to make choir a unique experience. I’m extremely grateful that she created The Incanto Singers for “younger than her” adults so that we all feel welcomed into a choir community where we can all come together and make music (and talk and joke around a little more than we should).
There isn’t any better place to be on a Wednesday evening!