Canterbury tales set to beautiful music

Two friends - one who roams the streets singing Faure's Requiem - and at least one other resident will lend their voices to an English festival.

By WAVENEY ANN MOORE

© St. Petersburg Times, published July 19, 2000

ST. PETERSBURG -- Headphones clamped firmly on her head, Freda Caley can regularly be seen and heard as she strides Pinellas Point streets. For anyone who is concerned, she simply is learning her part for a choral masterpiece that will be performed toward the end of July in Canterbury, England.

"I do it at least twice a day," Mrs. Caley said of her unorthodox practice sessions.

"My kids won't walk with me. They say, 'You have no idea how loud you are.' And there's a gentleman down on Pinellas Point Drive who says, 'Oh, I love to hear you coming,' " Mrs. Caley said with a laugh.

Joining her for the trip to England on Saturday is Louise Garrigues, a close friend and fellow chorister at the Cathedral Church of St. Peter. The two were among about 200 singers from around the world who were selected by lottery to study and perform as part of the Berkshire Choral Festival in Canterbury.

"You are allowed to put who you would like to go with, and so we went as a matched pair," Mrs. Garrigues said.

At least one other St. Petersburg resident will participate in the festival.

"It is a singing vacation. That is the way I'm looking at it," said Marion Smith, associate professor of music at Eckerd College and director of music ministries at First United Methodist Church.

"As a choral conductor, I'm always standing on the other side. I usually don't get to be a singer," said Smith, a baritone.

Besides Canterbury, the Berkshire Choral Festival, a not-for-profit educational institution, offers programs in Sheffield, Mass., Santa Fe, N.M., and Salzburg, Austria. Singers spend a week studying and performing under a distinguished choral conductor.

"Canterbury was our second choice," said Mrs. Garrigues, who wanted to participate in the Sheffield program because of conductor John Rutter.

Additionally, though, traveling to Massachusetts would have been cheaper, Mrs. Garrigues said, explaining that tuition for the weeklong sessions is $750. Travel and sightseeing are extra.

In Canterbury, the St. Petersburg singers will live and rehearse at the King's School, at Canterbury Cathedral. Mrs. Caley, who visited Canterbury last year while taking a religion course at the University of Kent, said she and her friend will stay in St. Augustine's Abbey, a sixth-century monastery.

Successful applicants to the Berkshire program were required to have performed at least three major works during the past three years, a prerequisite easily met by the St. Petersburg singers.

"Actually, when I think about my musical background, I think back to what my mother told me, that I could sing harmony before I could talk," said Mrs. Caley, who has four children and two grandchildren.

"Then when I was 6, I started piano lessons. When I was 10, I think I started playing the clarinet. And then my sisters and I -- I was one of four girls -- we sang in the '50s. We sang, danced and modeled on television. But then the music stopped while I was having the four children," she said.

Mrs. Garrigues, who has two children and five grandchildren, was a music and English major at Florida State University.

"I have been a soprano soloist at the cathedral for many years," she said, adding that she also is section leader for the Cathedral Choir. The women, who have traveled to New York and Europe for performances with the Cathedral Choir, also have sung with groups including the Pinellas Choral Society and the Master Chorale. They also are members of the Florida Suncoast Opera Guild.

The Canterbury program will conclude on July 29 with a performance of Haydn's Harmoniemesse in B-flat Major and Faure's Requiem.

Marion Smith said the music was one of the reasons he wanted to take part in the Canterbury program.

"The Harmony Mass by Haydn is his last big major work and it really kind of pushes us into the 19th century. It has this romantic leaning to it," said Smith, who has taught at Eckerd College for 13 years.

About the Faure Requiem, he added, "I like the introspection of that work."

Using tapes supplied by the festival, Smith has been practicing the pieces since May. So have Mrs. Caley and Mrs. Garrigues.

"We've done the Faure, both of us, several times," Mrs. Garrigues said, "but the other one, we've never even heard before."

"But," chimed in Mrs. Caley, an alto, "isn't it lovely?"

Mrs. Garrigues, who lives near Mrs. Caley, rehearses in the comfort of her home.

For a few more days, meanwhile, Mrs. Caley can be seen and heard every morning and evening along Pinellas Point Drive.

"This is beautiful, beautiful music," she said.

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