When the pandemic began in 2020, choirs quickly canceled rehearsals, notifying singers with an email, phone call or text. It was not that easy for the Dallas Street Choir, a chorus made up of people experiencing homelessness.
“We had to put signs up at our rehearsal space that rehearsal had been canceled until further notice because we don’t have access to our singers like other choirs would via email or telephone,” said Jonathan Palant, Dallas Street Choir’s conductor.
With rehearsals resuming and performances planned, the choir is hoping for support from the community on North Texas Giving Day, an online giving campaign on September 22.
Get DFW local news, weather forecasts and entertainment stories to your inbox. Sign up for NBC DFW newsletters.
“Nonprofits are honestly still reeling from 2020,” said Chris McSwain, Director of Community Engagement for North Texas Giving Day. “This year, we’ve encouraged people to find their passion and give with purpose.”
Before the pandemic, Dallas Street Choir sang at Carnegie Hall and regularly performed in public. Unable to rehearse, Palant reconsidered how the organization could continue to serve while staying true to its mission to provide a place for people affected by homelessness to experience music. Palant organized 26 noontime concerts featuring professional musicians at Dallas shelters like The Bridge.
Local
The latest news from around North Texas.
“These ranged from everything from solo harp to jazz trios, string quartets from the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, pop artists with electric piano, solo jazz saxophone with a karaoke track, you name it. Our goal was to just bring arts and music to those who weren’t getting it otherwise,” Palant said.
Beginning in the summer of 2020, Palant worked with Cullen Blanchfield, an SMU film student, to create a series of short films featuring the choir. The films range from a response to George Floyd’s murder to a lighthearted collaboration with British a cappella octet, Voces8, for a rendition of Here Comes the Sun, to featured stories about how the singers were faring during the pandemic.
“The sense of isolation is still very much present in the homeless community, but folks are isolated in different parts of the community, different areas. It’s no longer just down there at Park Avenue and Young Street,” Palant said. “But there wasn’t despair. Those who live on the street are resilient. They are strong-willed.”
In July 2021, Dallas Street Choir returned to in-person rehearsals at First Presbyterian Church of Dallas with six feet between the singers. The choir also provided vaccinations to singers who wanted them. Resuming rehearsals nurtured the spirits of the singers.
“What we do is complete the soul,” Palant said.
The choir is smaller, shrinking from 70 members pre-pandemic to 28-31 singers currently. That smaller size has been advantageous.
“The sense of community that we have, there’s more sense of continuity in our members. The singers come back. The ones who are there come back every week,” Palant said. “The sense of family – we’ve gotten to know each other much better because we’re smaller.”
The choir has returned to the stage. The group auditioned and was subsequently invited to sing for the American Choral Directors Association Southwestern Region Conference in Little Rock, Arkansas earlier this year.
“We got about three standing ovations at different points of our program,” Palant said.
The choir recently sang at Grand Central Station, a nonprofit in Sherman serving those affected by homelessness. The choir members tell Palant they feel like each performance is better than the last.
“They are just so grateful to have these experiences,” Palant said. “They feel seen.”
Palant is looking forward to the choir’s series of lectures and demonstrations about singing, music, and community at Bishop Lynch High School this fall.
“I think the future is education. I think the future is teaching others that though we might stay on the street or in a shelter, we’re not less than,” Palant said.
Early giving for North Texas Giving Day began September 1.
“We like to welcome in September with that spirit of generosity, with that spirit of celebration and also give people more time,” McSwain said. “They have a few weeks to not only make gifts to a number of organizations but to spend some time using the website to learn about other organizations they might want to support.”
Palant hopes North Texas Giving Day donors will recognize what an asset Dallas Street Choir is to the community.
“When people look through and find arts organizations and non-profits, they see an arts organization unlike any other in our city. This is so unique,” Palant said. “To be among all of these different arts groups substantiates the work we do.”
Funds from North Texas Giving Day will help the choir pay for travel expenses like hotel stays and meals as well as music purchases and special events so the choir can celebrate the holidays as a community.
“One hundred percent of North Texas Giving Day dollars goes right into our programming and programs for our choir members,” Palant said.
Every gift makes a difference.
“We really want more people to see North Texas Giving Day as an opportunity to express their philanthropic passions,” McSwain said. “Our goal is to get more people to see themselves as change-makers in our region.”
The value of a donation is more than monetary.
“It would be wonderful to make a dollar more than we did last year, for the community to realize the work we are doing is filled with good intentions, that we’ve been doing this since late 2014, that this is not a project,” Palant said. “This is a mission, it’s a ministry, it’s a community endeavor that serves those who both need it and want it.”
Learn more: North Texas Giving Day
