“I like the opportunity of making music together and the opportunity to experience different arrangements of songs, the aspect of working toward the goal of performing, polishing music, playing around, bringing different insights to what we want to convey through our singing and the opportunity to share with an audience,” Pineda said.
Pineda is an associate instructor in the Jacobs School of Music and is studying to earn a doctorate in music education.
She is also the newly appointed director of the Bloomington Peace Choir.
“I was surprised because I didn’t know they were looking for someone,” she said. “I felt honored in just being considered.”
Pineda has been involved with choirs since she was 5 years old and sang with the children’s choir in her church.
“I believe in choirs because there is something about bringing voices together and making music together that is encouraging and fulfilling,” Pineda said. “It is about sharing and understanding.”
The stated goal of the Bloomington Peace Choir is to promote peace in the community.
It is a member of the Ubuntu Choirs Network, which requires its members to be inclusive, non-auditioned, community-focused and socially engaged.
The network believes singing is an essential human birthright and a potent tool for the community, according to its website.
There are no auditions to join, and any skill level is welcomed into the group, though there is a member fee of $60 per year.
The autumn season began Aug. 26, and the Peace Choir meets Wednesday of each week from 7 to 9 p.m.
The choir chooses a topic they want to address every semester. For fall 2015, that topic is peace and justice.
The topic is chosen by the repertoire committee, which contains people from every voice part.
One song the choir is performing this semester is “Singin’ In the Rain.”
“It reaches out to a very particular community, the Bell Trace Center,” Pineda said.
The Bell Trace Center is a senior citizens’ center and is also where most of the choir members reside, though people who work there are part of the choir as well.
Pineda hadn’t been involved with the Peace Choir until she was selected as its director, though she had heard of it two years ago.
In her role as director, Pineda said she wants the choir members to be more involved in the choir’s song selection and other processes.
“I like to get them involved, I like to not be the person that dictates but just get their feedback and interact with the choir, give them a sense of agency in their choice of repertoire, the opportunity to meet people and understand their feelings, their preferences,” Pineda said.
She said it was important to involve members in her decisions because it makes their performance more meaningful.
“The director is not the authority in the choir,” she said. “There are lots of things the choir members bring to the table in order to have a meaningful performance. Directors need to involve members more and more in the decisions regarding performance, repertoire, ways to shape the music, the arrangement of the voices, the people that are accepted. We need to make it meaningful to them.”
