benhider.com/blog

A good friend of my Dad’s daughter just graduated from the NYU Journalism program, and had a private screening of her thesis project “A Fine Whine” a documentary about the Philadelphia Complaint Choir. I missed the trip out to their home, but was impressed by the concept of the documentary as well as the whole idea of the choir. Anyone who knows me, knows I believe that there’s nothing like a good whinge!

The choir is open to anyone looking to have a good bellyache with like-minded moaners, the choirs canvas the streets for complaints, form them into verse, and set them to music they then perform in public places. Helsinki artists Tellervo Kalleinen and Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen founded the project in 2005, after pondering the Finnish word valituskuro, which refers to people complaining in packs. Their idea took off and complaint choirs have since formed in St. Petersburg, Copenhagen, Warsaw, Florence, Jerusalem, Singapore, Birmingham and other cities. Active U.S. choirs include groups in Chicago and Juneau, Alaska; a group is also reportedly forming one in New York City. Philadelphia produced a choir in November 2008 with Shelley Spector, an artist and former gallery owner, and Evan Solot, chair of the composition department at the music school of Philadelphia’s University of the Arts, launched the chapter together.