No conductor. Few tuning forks. A sound all their own. Philly’s Variant 6 choir is breaking out.
By David Patrick Stearns
Variant 6, Philadelphia’s emerging, enterprising chamber choir, is best defined by what it doesn’t do — or have. No leader. No conductor saying what to sing. Or how to sing it. Or where: Traditional concert halls aren’t among their favorite things.
None of the six members in this ensemble of busy Philadelphia freelance singers has perfect pitch. Tuning forks are seldom used. Yet chords are so perfectly tuned that their blends almost sound electronic on the group’s first full-length album New Suns, which is being released in conjunction with its concert 8 p.m. May 21 at University Lutheran Church and shows what, amid so many “nots”, Variant 6 does do.