The sources of Barb Chamberlin's musical inspiration
Whitehorse choir director Barb Chamberlin shares some of her favourite songs
This story is part of a web series called Music that Matters with CBC Yukon's Airplay host Dave White. Dave sits down with Yukoners to talk about five pieces of music that inspire them.
Barb Chamberlin has been surrounded by music her whole life. She's studied music, worked as a professional musician, and for the past several years has run the Whitehorse Community Choir.
But her sources of musical inspiration haven't always come from the places you may expect.
"There are certain songs I'm just really attracted to and I play them over and over, rather than listening to a variety sometimes," she said.
"I really love artistic songs that are just slightly not normal."
Her first choice was one you may not expect from the director of a choir: Led Zeppelin's Kashmir.
"I love Kashmir, I love the rhythms," she said. "The words are important, too, but I just love how it's put together. And I've always loved Led Zeppelin, they're probably my favourite act of all time."
Chamberlin's second choice was Walking On Broken Glass by Annie Lennox.
"I love her interpretations, I never think she's sleeping through her songs," Chamberlin said. "I think she's actively engaged and really into it."
For her third choice, Chamberlin selected Kate Bush's cover of Elton John's Rocket Man.
"She really expresses the song in an amazing way," Chamberlin said.
"Even though she's a woman, I believed she's a rocket man. All the pain, she's so good at that ... she's so expressive and such a great arrangement [of the song]. I'm never bored with it."
Chamberlin moved into more expected territory with her fourth choice, the second movement of Beethoven's Seventh Symphony.
"It is just the most amazing song in terms of building. It starts out so simple and then things just come in and it builds and builds and builds to a certain point."
Mozart's Requiem in D Minor was Chamberlin's fifth and final choice.
"It's like the opposite of the piece by Beethoven," she said. "It's this active piece about mortality and angst and it's brilliant...it's so perfect, there's nothing you would ever change about it...and it's in Latin."