Los Angeles Times

By JEFF ADLER

Photos by Shlomit Levy / Our Times

Sunday, August 13, 2000

News from Santa Monica in the Times Community Newspapers

SANTA MONICA -- Except for the whirring of a few fans strewn about the room, it is dead quiet inside the Bay Cities Jewish Community Center where 250 eyes stare intently at the hands of Sue Fink, waiting for a movement, for a sign, for the beginning.

All at once, the hands spring to life. Her arms move quickly in sweeping motions lifting the voices up and up, the sopranos soaring atop the booming of the baritones. Subtle gestures of the hands cause the voices of the Angel City Chorale to ripple with changes, which echo off the walls of the crowded rehearsal room.

Fink, 52, is focused, her face ruddy and thriving off the energy. Her hands seem to move freely with a will of their own. They are the same hands that guided the choir through its infancy seven years ago when there were only 18 voices, and they are the same hands that will lead the 125 singers now in the group when they perform before the eyes of the country on Tuesday and Wednesday at the Democratic National Convention.

The Angel City Chorale is not your typical singing group. Emerging from McCabe's Guitar Shop on Pico Boulevard, where Fink still teaches voice lessons, the choir, which has no ties to any religious organization, originally held rehearsals in a Santa Monica church until it grew too large for the accommodations.

"We were taking up too many parking spaces in the neighborhood," Fink says of the choir which quickly mushroomed from the core group of 18 to over 100. "So they told us to move."

Such is the difficulty of a choir with no divine backing, but then again, such is the appeal. Angel City Chorale is filled with a diverse group of men and women, old and young, blacks and whites, Jews and Christians, all of whose voices merge seamlessly in the air. The songs they perform are equally eclectic, ranging from pop, folk, and jazz to gospel, classical and world music.

But more than anything, the choir fills a void for many, providing a steady anchor in their chaotic lives.

"L.A.'s so huge and crazy," says Julianne Arvizu, 36, who met her husband, Jamie, through the choir. "We're from the Midwest so this has become our safe place."

Sherry Woodroof, 46, the group's managing director and associate conductor, joined the choir with her husband, Robert, after witnessing a moving concert in December of 1995. It was Sherry who was moved most when the choir sang at a memorial service for Robert, who died of kidney cancer two years ago.

"The group has been like a family to me," says Woodroof, who teaches voice at Pepperdine University. "The kind of atmosphere is really a community. It sounds trite, but it's really, really true."

While the group performs concerts throughout the year at such venues as the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion and UCLA's Pauley Pavilion, the chorale's proudest moments come during the annual Tour of Hope when it visits learning centers and missions throughout the city on one day in December, singing carols and delivering goody bags to more than 1,000 people.

In 1999, Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan presented the Angel City Chorale with a certificate of commendation for the philanthropy event.

But with the convention performance days away, the choir is readying with earnest for its debut on the national stage when it will perform songs together with Mary Chapin Carpenter and Luther Vandross.

"It's a little intimidating," says Kendall Leeper, 38, who will be a featured soloist in "We're Not Through." "This is like nothing the choir has ever done before."

Fink, however, remains unfazed. The West Los Angeles songwriter, who once tried to make it as a rock star, now acknowledges that she is in her element conducting the chorale.

"The way I move my arms moves all these voices in the room," Fink explains. "When it works and it gels, it's really an electric feeling."

Of course, preparing for the DNC is no easy task, especially with schedules and songs changing on a daily basis. During a rehearsal Thursday, Fink pauses for a moment to leaf through some music before making a confession to the group.

"I've never seen this before," she says. "But we're gonna learn this in the next half hour." The hands rise to attention and a hush sweeps through the hot and sticky room, which the chorale just barely manages to squeeze into. Nothing but the fans make a sound. Then, the hands explode into action, and the voices erupt in unison.

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