Where singing builds belonging: A journey rooted in Scotland, blossoming in Europe
Image left to right: Freya, Vicki, Becky, Ruth and CJ backstage before NYCOS performed Mozart Requiem at the BBC Proms in 2014.
NYCOS Training Choir 2005
National Youth Choir of Scotland 2006-2013
Ruth has always cherished making connections with people from different walks of life. Having spent many years moving homes from country to country, she knows how to create a strong sense of belonging in new places and is energised by discovering the common ground that unite people across borders.
She grew up singing in the RSNO Junior Chorus, then on to NYCOS and university choirs. For Ruth, making friends and sharing laughs was always just as important as the singing itself. However her confident spirit was tested during her year abroad at university when she worked as a teaching assistant in rural France.
I’ve moved around a lot… I was at Aberdeen Uni 2007-2012 with a year in France in the middle of my degree. I was living in the middle of nowhere in France – quite literally the middle of nowhere. Back then, my knee-jerk reaction in a new place was to find a choir because it’s where I knew I would find my community. It didn’t matter that we didn’t speak the same language. I knew I could follow the choir rehearsals because I had music as a language. It sounds cheesy but that transcends everything. Just knowing how to count in French, I could understand bar numbers and be part of the rehearsals and connect with people in the simplest of ways, rooted in my Scottish traditions of just sharing a song and telling a story.
One of my favourite memories of the choir in rural France was when they sang Hallelujah – the Lenny Cohen one. The man who ran the choir played guitar, so when I came along he wanted to rehearse that song because it’s really famous and he knew I’d know it. It was so lovely, but I completely forgot that they would sing it in a French accent: “’allelujah, ‘allelujah”. And then what you don’t realise is that the verse is full of traps for French people: “I ‘eard ze woz a secret c’ord”. I was just thinking, ‘don’t laugh, don’t laugh’, I didn’t want to be disrespectful!
They were the kindest people. I worked in various schools in the town, and they’d all make sure I got home safely and check in on me as if they were doting aunts. They all had farms and they would bring in their jams and cheeses to choir – typical French love language. They were so kind and genuine at choosing me, actively choosing me, to come and be part of their little choir.
As a young traveller, it wasn’t always easy for Ruth to feel confident in such unfamiliar surroundings.
With that choir from the French countryside, we did a tour to their twin town in Germany. Some of those singers had never been on a plane before so they were asking me questions about that and it felt like a school trip – answering the children’s questions and reassuring them. So when we arrived in Germany I was the only one who could speak English and a tiny bit of German with our hosts.
I am so glad I did not give up on my year abroad because they are some of the best memories I have from my early twenties and have made me the resilient and confident communicator I am now – always trying to have a go even if I do not have the exact words in the language. You just have to get over the fear of making a mistake sometimes! Initially I thought about going home or asking to be moved to a city where it would be easier to fit in. I am so glad I didn’t. The choir and the community there ended up being one of the best parts of my year.
Image: Ruth singing with Polysons, a choir she joined while working in rural France.
Coming back to Scotland and being part of NYCOS remained valued touchpoints of home for Ruth throughout her early twenties, but she never stuck around for long. She had moved from Aberdeen to rural France and back again, then after her degree, went on to live in other parts of France and London. Today, she lives and works as a teacher in Spain’s capital city, Madrid. For Ruth, joining a choir has always given her a way to feel settled and at home in unfamiliar surroundings, even when it’s sometimes felt difficult and daunting. Her hard-earned resilience is one of the things that she is most keen to share with the young people that she teaches.
The kids at my school have a very strict choir conductor; she’s wonderful, but she’s very strict. The kids say things like ‘do we have to go to choir again today?”, or ‘we’ve got the concert coming up and I’m not sure’. The best advice I can give them is that it’s honestly worth it. I sometimes tell them that they’re maybe not going to enjoy every rehearsal and that there are times when the hard work has to happen to get the result. I want them to see that if they push through that feeling, they can really get something out of it. Getting them to make that commitment is a really magical thing to achieve. I have the greatest of respect for Christopher [Bell, NYCOS Artistic Director] and the whole team because to achieve a level where young people are inspired to want to be there and see them thrive is incredible.
That’s what I loved so much about singing with NYCOS, that it was so inclusive. Yes, it was auditioned, but I was singing with people who are now singing or directing in the Royal Opera House. I know I wasn’t at that level, but it was so inspiring to be part of. I find that same feeling with my choir here in Madrid. I sit next to people who make amazing sounds, and it feels like it’s not always the same level of noise that I’m making, but I am still valid enough to be part of it. That’s what a choir’s about; it’s not about me being a soloist, but about coming together as a team.
Ruth believes that a choir is a place where people can grow and develop together by doing something that they love. She currently sings with one of Spain’s leading amateur vocal ensembles, Coro Nox. As part of that choir, she has not only competed in some high-level competitions and concerts, but has also found friends for life and a community that reminds her why she chose to call Spain home.
Image: Ruth performing as part of one of Spain’s leading amateur vocal ensembles Coro Nox.
I’m a massive fan of Scottish folk music too and I’m going to see Elephant Sessions in Glasgow when I’m back in August. I really miss that kind of thing being here because obviously traditional Galician music is not the same. I listen to trad music a lot and I try to share it with my Spanish friends. I was with choir friends recently in a house in the countryside and ended up trying to teach people how to ceilidh dance; it was great craic. I realised I didn’t know how to say ‘…and spin your partner round’ in Spanish, it’s just not something we say every day.
Singing threads through my life just as much now in Spain as it did in my Scottish beginnings, helping me to stay balanced as a teacher and connected to a community wherever I’m living. NYCOS feels especially close to my heart in it’s 30th anniversary year; I’m hoping to return to the Kodály Summer School to reconnect with the inspiring leaders who first set me on my musical path, as well join in with the celebrations alongside fellow alumni later in the year.