During concert time, Cindy Paul gets very little sleep.
“I spend every waking hour and a lot of my sleeping hours focused on the performance. I probably get three hours of sleep a night.” Given that this choir director is rarely tired, she concludes, “This must be giving me a lot of energy. I’m driven to doing this.”
As director of the Lake Chapala Chorale, Paul’s first love is choral music. “I would rather sing in a choir than do anything else. I’ve always felt that way.”
Used to singing in choirs, Paul believes that “the voice is not just a technique, it’s one’s spirit. When we sing uplifting music and we’re all singing as one; when the voices blend in perfect harmony, it all just clicks.”
Paul’s passion for music started at the age of six when she started taking piano lessons. A year later she was singing in a church choir. “Music was a constant part of my life. Our house was filled with the sounds of jazz. My mother was determined that all three of us kids learn music. We would sit at the piano bench and sing for hours. That’s how I learned harmony. All of us played the piano and our poor little upright was so beat up because some kid was always banging on it!”
Paul went from performing in her high school choir in San Diego, California to a performing arts college, then to the University of Santa Barbara to study music composition. After that, she attended a local state college to study with a composer. She says, “I was very serious about composing until I found out that no one wants to pay composers.”
Paul and her husband, Lonny Riddle, moved to Lakeside 37 years ago. Riddle had a dream to build a martial arts temple. Says Paul, “We both wanted to live the creative life and realized that the only place we could afford to do this was in Mexico.” They built their martial arts temple east of Chapala Haciendas and Paul took to producing shows – mostly musicals. “My first musical was a full production of ‘My Fair Lady,’ performed at the Auditorio in Ajijic.” Along with producing, she acted in numerous plays.
In the mid-1990s, Bonnie Wolff, a choir director from the esteemed St. Olaf College, came to Lakeside and formed the Ecumenical Choir, a group of about 45 singers. Paul joined in, thrilled to be part of a choir once again. When Wolff died, the choir reassembled itself as Los Cantantes, under the direction of Tim Welch. Instead of remaining in the choir, Paul chose to sing with various professional groups around Lakeside.
Nine months ago, Paul acted on her lifelong dream of directing a choir, and the Lake Chapala Chorale was born. “We rehearse at the same location where Bonnie’s choir met: The Little Chapel by the Lake in Riberas del Pilar. I feel like I’ve come back home. I’m even using the same piano.”
The Chorale is made up of around 20 singers, or “stalwarts” as Paul puts it. “In order to survive a choral rehearsal, our singers need to be steadfast. People think it’s a fun thing to do, but that’s not exactly right. It’s actually a lot of hard work. But, when we get to the point of singing as one, there’s nothing like it and it’s worth all of that hard work.”
Last December, the choir put on a well-received holiday show. “We did six concerts and put it together in less than four months, which is quite an accomplishment for amateurish singers, many of whom had never sang in a choir before.
“Our choir members are such great people and have bonded as a group. I’ve been really lucky, not only with the quality of singers but with the quality of each’s character. Plus, they all really like one another.”
For three months, the choir has been rehearsing for their upcoming Songs of Longing & Inspiration (Part I). “The first half of the program,” says Paul, “consists of songs of a spiritual yearning. The second half consists of fulfilling those dreams. I created the program so that listeners could experience a universal sense of yearning and inspiration that feeds their dreams. I want to give them a real sense of inspiration. Hopefully, they will leave feeling uplifted.
“Our goal is to impart joy through the power of chorale music. For me, there is not a more powerful way of expressing oneself than through chorale music. And, we don’t charge for any of our performances, nor do we take payment from our singers. I want this choir to be all about free and uplifting music for the masses.”
Lake Chapala Chorale performs four free concerts at the start of next month: Saturday, April 1, 6-7 p.m. at the Little Chapel by the Lake; Sunday, April 2, 4-5 p.m. at the Ajijic Cultural Center; Monday, April 3, 7-8 p.m. at the Lakeside Presbyterian Church; Tuesday, April 4, 7-8 p.m. at the Centro Cultural Gonzalez Gallo (old Chapala Train Station). For more information, email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..">This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..