Our History
Sharing A New Song (SANS) is a community chorus formed in 1983 to foster cultural understanding and citizen diplomacy between peoples of the United States and Soviet Union. Founder and high school teacher David Clapp was concerned with American attitudes toward Russia and other Soviet republics during the Cold War. For 13 years, SANS traveled to the Soviet Union, and later to the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), sharing music and building bridges across barriers to understanding.
Since then, SANS has taken its mission to many other countries. In Russia, Georgia, Czech Republic, Siberia, Armenia, Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia, China, South Africa, Cuba, Vietnam, Cambodia, Brazil, and the United States, thousands have shared experiences and created lasting friendships through music, travel, exchanges, and personal ties.
In 1993, SANS broadened its reach in the Boston area, singing and traveling with Praise, a gospel choir from Dorchester. Praise members traveled again with SANS on a journey to the complex and scenic land of South Africa in 1997. There, in workshops, meetings, churches, and concerts, we shared the beauty and power of choral music with people in urban and rural townships. SANS also made connections with the Boston Community Choir (BCC), a gospel choir known for its annual performances with the Boston Pops. As a result, BCC members have sung and traveled with SANS, and SANS members have sung with BCC.
In a song festival in Riga, Latvia in 1998, SANS joined 15,000 singers! In the fall, we hosted Minjona, a women’s choir from the University of Latvia, for 12 days in Boston.
In August 1999, SANS returned to South Africa, meeting with a mixed-race choir near Cape Town and a Xhosa choir in George. We sang again with Joy of Africa, a Xhosa choir from Port Elizabeth.
SANS traveled under a U.S. Government cultural license to Cuba in April of 2000. We were welcomed by choruses in Havana and Matanzas, and a children’s choir in Cienfuegos. We sang in schools, community centers, and at a block party organized by a neighborhood Committee for the Defense of the Revolution that ended with dancing in the streets! SANS returned to Cuba in April 2002, and participated in the Corhabana International Choral Festival in Havana. We reunited with friends in Entrevoces, the National Chorus of Cuba; and the University of Matanzas Chamber Choir. In Santiago and Guantanamo, we sang with new choruses. Singing, dancing, attending baseball games, hiking, swimming, and touring—all activities connected us with the warmth and generosity of spirit of the Cuban people.
In May 2003, SANS continued building bridges with a discovery tour in the United States. In its first domestic tour, SANS visited the Gullah community of South Carolina; the Houma Indian Nation in Louisiana; and ended the tour in New Orleans. Galina Evstifeeva of Russia, and Edward Du Pisane and Allan Langa of the George Adult Choir in South Africa joined the group. Edward and Allan taught us South African songs and movement, which we incorporated into our performances.
2004 marked SANS 20th anniversary tour with a return to Russia and Estonia. Nearly 60 SANS members journeyed to Moscow, Zelenograd, Zagorsk, Rostov, Yaroslavl, Tutayev, and St. Petersburg; to Saarema and Tallinn in Estonia; and to Helsinki, Finland. In Tallinn, SANS joined 29,000 singers at the Estonian Song Festival. This tour was packed with opportunities to spread our mission through song and spirit, full of love and regard for one another, a tribute to 20 years of sharing songs and friendship.
SANS traveled to South Africa in 2001 and in August 2005. After traveling to the Drakensberg Mountains, we met 12 members of the George Choir in Durban for a full schedule of performing, joining the Durban Men’s Chorus in concert, and members of the Sinikithemba Choir at McCord Hospital’s Center for HIV/AIDS outpatients. After visiting Kruger Park, the George Choir returned home. SANS continued to Pretoria, where we stayed with families from the Camerata, who visited Boston in December 2004. Music Director Johann van der Sandt organized a concert with his two choirs, the TUKS Camerata and the Singkronies Chamber Choir; and visits to two township schools.
SANS made its first trip to Vietnam in April 2006. Here the chorus was impressed with the friendliness of the Vietnamese people and the beauty of the land. We shared songs with Vietnamese choruses, including the Hanoi National Opera Ballet Chorus, the College of Arts Choir at the Citadel in Hue, and the Ho Chi Minh City Conservatory Choirs. Many traveled to Cambodia, where we shared with students at the Sharing Foundation in Roteang Village near Phnom Penh, and with Cambodian Living Arts students in Siem Reap. SANS travelers were charmed by guides in both countries and touched by the life stories shared while traveling through these distant lands.
In April 2007, SANS returned to Louisiana to renew friendships in Houma and New Orleans, and to attend the International Music Festival in Lafayette. Friends in the United Houma Nation welcomed us warmly. Sharing A New Song members spent several days in Houma and New Orleans, offering service to communities stricken by hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The chorus had many meaningful singing opportunities during its stay in Louisiana, and wonderful opportunities to connect with our southern neighbors. SANS Louisiana travelers agreed that adding a community service component to a wonderful singing experience contributed to making this trip a meaningful, mission-related experience.
Sharing A New Song’s first visit to Brazil in June 2008 was a combination of beautiful friendly people, gorgeous scenery, and varied meaningful experiences, while singing and socializing with Brazilian choruses. We sang at the Santa Clara House for children in Rio de Janeiro, and adult and children’s choruses in Petropolis and Ouro Preto. In Salvador de Bahia, we sang with the Liceu Chorus, and enjoyed a workshop and concert opportunity with the Cefet Chorus. SANS also performed at the Irma Dulce Hospital. We enjoyed singing and samba lessons with Mimulus, a dance company in Belo Horizonte. Before traveling to the Amazon, where we toured and sang in native villages, we were privileged to perform with the Joao Gomes Jr. Choir in the Manaus Opera House.
SANS returned to Cuba in for the third time in December 2009. In June and July of 2010, the chorus traveled to Russia, including Siberia. In Yaroslavl, a city about 200 miles northeast of Moscow, SANS participated in a song festival to celebrate that city’s millenium. Some SANS members continued on an extension trip to Mongolia’s Naadam Festival.
In May of 2011, SANS returned to Louisiana, reuniting with friends in the Houma Indian Nation and in New Orleans.
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