Ours is a relatively recent choir.
We got together at the beginning of year 2001, by the good
offices of a group of friends that were already members of
a very historic choir ensemble of our hometown, Prato.
A group of people coming from different choral experiences gave birth
to a project that more or less covered a still uncharted territory
in Prato's musical environment.
They decided it was time for somebody to take a path toward
a genre that, even rather distant and different from our traditions
and our cultural background, undoubtedly represents a confrontation
that's more familiar to us than we could possibly imagine.
It's nothing less that the daily struggle, sometimes painful
and sometimes more bearable, or even enjoyable, against ourselves,
our small and big battles, our conquers, our faith, our hope
for a better tomorrow.
What was sung by African American people,
curved towards the hard soil of the vast cotton plantations,
bound to slavery by the unmerciful hand of their white brothers
was nothing but their pain. They sung the despair of a life
in chains from which they couldn't escape, but that at the
same time, no matter how hard and unbearable, still couldn't
take their pride, their freedom of soul away from them. They
were slaves, but deep down in their hearts, nothing could keep
them from taking God as a vehicle of salvation, something
that could actually break the invisible chains that imprisoned
their souls, and could help them, if nothing else, to bear
the material ones with renewed strenght and courage.
Today, hundreds of miles and years far from that reality,
we find ourselves fighting against exactly the same battles,
struggling against the same invisibile chains, to be able
to affirm our dignity as people, day by day. But Gospel is
not just this: it is rejoyicing, happiness for having found
in singing a way of praying that sets the heart free.
That's the reason why we chose to call ourselves "joyful
voices" : the joyful voices of men and women,
kids and grown-ups, that turned Gospel into a time for social
aggregation, good times and introspection.
At the moment the choir can count on about 30 elements, divided
into the 4 classical vocal registers: basses, tenors, altos
and sopranos. Our repertoire is based almost entirely on gospels
and spirituals, even though we are considering the idea of
expanding our range of genres, in the near future.
A "j"
shaped as Christ's Cross, a "V" shaped as
a pair of wings that symbolize mankind's salvation from
eternal damnation, through Jesus' sacrifice. It's as
if to say "your faith will set you free"
