When Claudia Bolaño conducts a choir, it is as though her baton is not just a tool, but it becomes an extension of her very being. Her movements mirror the music’s depth, as she urges the vocalists to interpret and express the emotive nature of the piece.
Plant City Community Chorale has seen some ups and downs in recent years, but as its new artistic director, Bolaño has a vision to help the ensemble reach its full potential.
Prelude
Bolaño and her husband are from Bogotá, Colombia. Bolaño studied instrumental and choral conducting, as well as piano performance, at Pontific Javeriana University.
But her husband, Ernesto, was looking to advance in his engineering career, and the United States seemed to offer big opportunities in his field. After he was offered a position in central Florida, the couple moved to Lakeland in 1998 with their son, then just 8 months old.
The move was a big adjustment for Bolaño. It is common for families to be served by maids in Colombia, so she had to learn how to be a homemaker, while taking care of a baby and trying to learn a new language.
“I come from a very close family,” Bolaño said. “It was really hard for me to detach from them.”
After about a year, Ernesto worried that Bolaño was bored and lonely, and though she taught piano lessons, she was not engaged in her passion for vocal music. He did some research and found the Lakeland Choral Society, which Bolaño joined as a vocalist.
The choral society practiced at Florida Southern College, which helped Bolaño connect with students and faculty at the school. She enrolled as a music education student, with the dream of becoming a music teacher.
“It was hard, intimidating, taking all these classes in English with all these American people who knew the language really well,” Bolaño said.
But she excelled in her program and earned not only a bachelor’s degree, but also an honorable award for Student Teacher of the Year.
First Movement
Bolaño began teaching at Lakeland High School, where she worked for five years. She was valued for her success in building a choral program from scratch.
Mulberry High School soon invited Bolaño to develop a new choral program there, just as she had done at LHS.
“It was harder there. It took me longer. But I left that school when my women’s ensemble got superiors at state,” Bolaño said. “That’s when I said, ‘Ok, I’ve done what I needed to do. I’m ready to go back to school.’”
Bolaño again became a full-time student, this time at University of South Florida. After completing her master’s degree in conducting, she began working as a voice teacher at Harrison School for the Visual and Performing Arts, which her son and daughter both attend.
Modulation
While she was studying at USF, Bolaño met another master’s student, Joe Mendolia, who had founded Plant City Community Chorale and was its director at the time. Mendolia invited Bolaño to PCCC concerts and asked her to conduct a Christmas concert one year.
“I did not know that was going to mean anything later on,” Bolaño said. “I just went one day, conducted them, had a great time, left, and I forgot about it.”
In 2013, the executive board let Mendolia go from PCCC after he had been arrested on charges unrelated to the choir. PCCC’s next conductor, Ken Watts, was a mater of music with more than 40 years of experience. Watts served until January 2015, but then had to step down because of illness.
Soon after that, Bolaño got an unexpected letter from PCCC.
“The letter said, ‘Would you consider being our director, because we remember how you worked with us. We need a director. You are the person that we want,’” Bolaño said. “Very similarly to my schools that I had worked in, they were kind of in crisis.”
At Bolaño’s first rehearsal as director of PCCC, the choir had just 14 members. Its only tenor was a woman who usually sang in the alto section.
But the executive directors had an idea to bring life back to the choir, and with Bolaño’s help, the plan worked. The choir hosted an open rehearsal and invited anyone who had been involved with PCCC in the past.
At the open rehearsal, the choir more than doubled. And all 16 guests returned and signed up to join long-term.
“All these people gave me a chance,” Bolaño said. “I’ve been extremely lucky, and I’m very happy.”
Crescendo
Bolaño hopes that under her leadership, PCCC’s members will become more professional and skillful than ever.
“I just want to raise the bar, so eventually they can sing major works. Why not?” Bolaño said. “I would love to provide them with a better level of musicianship than they have right now.”
In the spring concert, PCCC will be singing a piece in Latin. And at this week’s rehearsal, for the first time ever, they began working on a piece in Spanish.
“They’re not scared. And they’ve told me, ‘Push us as hard as possible, because we want to do it well,’” Bolaño said.
“I’m very grateful for these people,” Bolaño said. “The fact that they have fought so much to not let their choir die, even with all the difficulties they have come through. They’re willing to do pretty much anything.”