On Tuesday evenings in Portsmouth, four dozen people — teachers, financial and healthcare professionals, artists, students — gather to sing. With sheet music in hand, they stand semi-circled around conductor Priscilla French. She motions, their voices lift, and an ethereal sound fills the space. This is the magic French has been creating in Portsmouth for 40 years.
French's musical life started very young. She explains, "I discovered I could play the piano by ear as I picked out hymns and carols at family Christmas gatherings." In the 4th grade, she began piano lessons and remembers her sisters' "making fun of [her] for focusing on the harmonies of 60s folk ballads, rock bands, and Broadway tunes." Rather than listening for the words, French was imagining how to play those songs on the piano. Later, she would go on to study the organ and take voice lessons, further nurturing her musical gift.
During a year abroad at Manchester College in Oxford, England, French experienced "an epiphany" while performing Mozart's Requiem in a 15th-century chapel. She recalls, "I had never had such an emotional experience as I did when singing this work," which compelled her to pursue choral music more deeply. After graduating, she sang with the New England Conservatory Chorus and Boston Symphony Orchestra, where she had the "thrilling" opportunity to perform Mahler's Resurrection and Berlioz's Romeo and Juliet at Symphony Hall.
But French was not destined to remain on the risers. While rehearsing A Ceremony of Carols with the Back Bay Chorale, she recalls watching "the conductor work with the alto section on how to shape a phrase or use legato or staccato articulation, and thinking, 'I can do that!'" That moment — of seeing herself as a conductor — motivated her to earn a Master of Music in Choral Conducting from the New England Conservatory.
As she settled into Portsmouth life in the mid-80s, French became aware that the Seacoast had many mixed choruses but no dedicated women's chorus, which presented a creative opportunity. With 19 members at the start, the Portsmouth Women's Chorus grew to 35 by 1998, when they embarked on a 10-day overseas journey that took French back to Oxford, where she had sung Mozart years before. Alto and board member Diane Day was on that trip and has continued to sing with French ever since, feeling "so blessed to be a part of [it]."
By 2006, French was ready to form a mixed chorus that could sing an expanded repertoire of "masterworks" for voice and orchestra. Folks told her she would never find the men — how wrong they were! Portsmouth Pro Musica was born and has been moving audiences and enriching lives for almost two decades. Bass and board president Fred Calcinari describes it as "a source of beauty, camaraderie, and satisfaction" in his life, and original member John Rice reflects, "It's almost like being with a special family every Tuesday night."
French articulates eloquently the complexity of connection in a singing community: "There is a bond during the rehearsal process," she explains, "unifying the vowels and the consonants, listening to each other, and singing in tune. It comes from me, yes, but on the other side the singers are trying to sing as one body, 46 disparate voices and personalities. There is something shared in the breathing together." The dedication of these singers is what motivates her to continue. In turn, her dedication is a gift to them and to all who have the privilege of hearing Portsmouth Pro Musica.
To honor the chorus's 40th anniversary, from its beginnings to today, Portsmouth Pro Musica will kick off this season with their winter concert, "A December Day," featuring a commissioned piece, Where the Owl Lives, by Gregory W. Brown, and lyrics by Seacoast poet Mimi White. With the collaboration of the PMAC Sandpipers Youth Chorus, the concert will truly be a community celebration.