Hannah Horobin – 8 year member of Boston City Singers
Hannah graduated from the University of Michigan in 2017. She lives in Brookline, MA, and is a software engineer at Akoya, a fintech startup.
What is your favorite Boston City Singers memory?
Going on tour to Cape Town, South Africa and to Australia and New Zealand. Unlike most travel experiences I had, we got the opportunity to stay with host families, which offered up moments for cultural exchange and allowed me to gain context and history for the music we were performing.
What is your favorite song performed with Boston City Singers, and why?
My favorite piece we sang was a South African song, Thuma Mina. Musically, I loved the stirring harmonies that supported a really beautiful solo. Thuma Mina, which means “send me” also has a lot of meaning and significance in South Africa, so it felt very special to sing it both in its home country and to also be able to share it in the US with stateside audiences.
My favorite place we sang was our rehearsal space in Auckland, New Zealand. The room was right near the edge of a rocky coastline and the walls were all glass. Watching the waves hit the shore and the light change as we sang was really special.
How has Boston City Singers impacted your life after high school?Boston City Singers instilled in me a love and appreciation for learning about other cultures. Boston City Singers took care to teach us about the places and people that made the music we sang, and I always felt like it was a privilege to get to imbibe a small part of a place’s culture by singing their music. I think Boston City Singers was one of the first places that opened my eyes to the beauty that comes from the diversity of the world.
What advice would you give to current singers? My advice would be to cherish the friendships and mentorship that Boston City Singers offers. The people you sing alongside are just as wonderful as the music you’re singing, and it’s such a gift to get to know such a wide swath of people, both in Boston and through the national and international exchanges.