AVE Column “Small but Not Really” #1: should i leave my choir?

Interviews

14 Feb

Small but Not Really is a new column hosted by AVE, where we will try to help address your dilemmas about living as Asians in Europe. To kick things off, we’re sharing a query sent in by one of our own members. Do you have some helpful advice for them? Simply respond to this email and share your thoughts.

***

Dear all,

I have a dilemma that is small in size, but large in annoyance. I recently joined a choir where the instructor insists we sing with an English accent. While I can bring in all kinds of theories about decolonization, at the bottom of it, I just don’t feel comfortable faking an accent, and I don’t know how to tell her why this isn’t an inclusive practice the choir claims to uphold.

To set the scene, this is a somewhat diverse choir, with members from Europe and beyond. I am the only Asian member. Like most international choirs, most of the songs are in English, with some in other languages. The instructor (a classical singer from Southern Europe) will sometimes pause rehearsals to instruct us on how to sound in “Received Pronunciation" (also known as the “Queen’s English”).

When she did this the first time, I thought it was because the song was written by an English composer. It turns out, she wants us to do it for most “classic” pieces, including songs translated from Swedish, Native American, German, etc., into English.

***

This is also quite different from how non-European songs are treated. When we sing songs from Asia, she seems to spend little time trying to get the pronunciation right. I’ve noticed that the Japanese song, for example, has mispronunciations throughout. I also listened to the Hindi song’s original music video, and even as someone who doesn’t speak it at all, I can tell there are a few words that are pronounced incorrectly. I have already raised this English accent question a couple of times now, trying to understand where it’s coming from. The answer I got was that “she feels which accent is right for each song”. This is different from the mixed choir I used to be part of, where the instructor (British herself) specifically said nobody is expected to sing in an accent, even with English folk songs.

I want to make it clear to the new choir’s instructor that forcing people to adopt an accent isn’t an inclusive practice. It is already enough work to get the notes and tempo right, not to mention that most people’s first language here isn’t English. On the other hand, I joined a choir just to sing some cool music, not to become their unpaid Diversity and Inclusion Auditor.

Should I just give up on this accent endeavour, try to talk with the choir’s organizer/instructor, or simply leave? I know for certain I don’t want to sing in an English accent, just as much as I wouldn’t fake an “Indian” accent for the Hindi song.

***