And if you are from Chicago, you certainly have a number of city-specific complaints — constant construction, ornery traffic directors, heinously cold winters, and rampant gentrification — from which to choose. Wouldn’t you like to hear gifted vocalists sing about them?
The idea of the Complaints Choir formed only a few years ago in Helsinki, where two artists, Tellervo Kalleinen and Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen, wondered what could be done with all the wasted energy that people put into complaining. Recalling the Finnish expression Valituskuoro, the pair decided to take its meaning, “many people complaining at once,” or “complaints choir,” as literally as possible.
Borne out of that conversation was the first Complaints Choir, which took place in Birmingham, England. The choir consisted of eighteen people and for them, no complaint was too small or too large in scope, grumbling about anything from old bananas to tax money used for war. In two weeks, with the help of local composer Mike Hurley, the Birmingham Complaints Choir was already performing.
These initial performances garnered much attention for the project, and soon other cities were fighting for the opportunity to be the host of the next Complaints Choir.
Since then, the Kalleinens have organized their project in twelve different cities around the world, and some groups have taken it upon themselves to organize their own choirs, as citizens of Juneau, Alaska decided to do.
Chicago-based musician and conductor Jeremy Jacobsen has been chosen to lead the cathartic collaboration in a five-session workshop beginning October 16. Submissions are already being accepted for Chicago’s Complaints Choir and can be e-mailed to complaintschoir@yahoo.com. Chicagoans, spare your friends for once and save your complaints, whether they be location-specific (the CTA always smells like urine, for example) or general in nature (I can never find a tissue when I need one), for the choir.
The Chicago Complaints Choir will perform for an audience of commiserators at the Museum of Contemporary Art on November 3, 2007 at 1:00 pm and again at 3:00 pm. Several other performances are being planned and will be announced as soon as details are available.
Also in the works is a documentary from Smog Veil Records about the project and footage from the Chicago performance is sure to be included.
Chicago Complaints Choir
November 3, 1:00 pm & 3:00 pm
Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
220 E. Chicago Ave.
Chicago, IL 60611
(312) 280-2660
www.mcachicago.org