As the pandemic started another wave in the fall of 2020, we launched Those Who VCS on our social media, profiling members of the choir. One of them was Doug Colpitts, who began his 50th year singing in the choir earlier this year. In addition to what Evan mentioned about Doug and his family’s musical contributions, Doug tries to keep Paula and Trevor sane by managing our internal singers website, sending witty reminder emails to the choir, designing the layout for our programs, and being our librarian. Thank you Doug! Read what he wrote in 2021. —Trevor Mangion, VCS General Manager
Doug before joining VCS It was a rainy evening in mid-February, 1976. I was then two-thirds through a traumatic first year of teaching at an elementary school in east Vancouver (a school at which I remained and retired from 33 years later). My wife, Beth, was two-thirds through a pregnancy with our first son, James. The phone rang. It was James Fankhauser. I knew him because I had been enrolled in a Theory 400 course he taught in the fall of 1973, the year he arrived at UBC, and I had seen him conducting University Singers. He knew me because he had seen me singing with University Chamber Singers that year. Jim had called to invite me to join Vancouver Cantata Singers, a choir I had only vaguely heard of. When he said that the choir’s upcoming concert in March included the Bach Magnificat and Mozart’s Mass in C Minor, with Beth’s encouragement, I leapt at the opportunity.
The next Tuesday evening at the Ryerson Church hall, I nervously navigated my way to the bass section, sitting between Adrian Chantler and Ted Cragg. They were very welcoming and introduced me to the others in the section. One of them reached across to shake my hand saying, “Oh, you’re the ringer then!” My heart sank. I was a ringer? Just there for the one concert? Had I got the invitation wrong? I just smiled back as best I could and said nothing. I said nothing about it to anyone, not even Beth. After the concert I was told nothing about whether I should go back or not and I was too nervous to ask, so I just showed up at the next Tuesday rehearsal. Glory be, no one asked me to leave.
The 2019-2020 season was my 45th season as a member of Vancouver Cantata Singers. And I still haven’t been asked to leave. —Doug Colpitts, 2021
May, 2025 update: Fifty years is, indeed, the gold anniversary. I am pleased to report that Paula has assured me that having Nothing Gold Can Stay as part of this evening’s program does not imply what we might all be wondering. —Doug Colpitts