Let the Sunshine In
What a glorious Celebration of Life last night for Jean-Guy Comeau. Two choirs, an entire symphony orchestra, and two soloists took over Santa Cruz Church on Aguacate and played and sang tributes to one of the kindest, most joyful humans I have ever met.
How Jean-Guy would have loved this send-off. Right up his alley, loads of friends and musical colleagues and the remnants of the Vallarta Vocalistas Ensemble, a choral group that Jean-Guy had founded years ago, were huddled in front of the church earlier to rehearse their section of the program. That was the first thing I saw when I arrived at the church. Fond memories flooded back of all of them filling the stage at Incanto, wearing their sparkly matching tops and creating such beautiful music. While we all missed Jean-Guy, we were also keenly missing Incanto and having Tracy Parks in our midst. We remembered a lot of music and many of the people who played at the venue who have passed. I imagined Jean-Guy and John Kreitler thoroughly enjoying the engaging program put together by Aquiles Morales, the symphony’s conductor.
Earlier, standing out on the sidewalk, I chatted with Concert Master Mary MacLachlan while we waited for Mass to finish; she mentioned bringing lots of Kleenex. On a serious note, we discussed Vallarta’s need for a proper concert hall and agreed Teatro Vallarta was not it.
There were likely more people entertaining at Santa Cruz than in the audience, and it struck me how hard the string section works in an orchestra. And the over two dozen people in the Bucerias choir stood immediately in front of the altar for well over an hour.
A lovely collage of film clips and photographs of Jean-Guy in various stages of his life gave us a close look at his immense joy. A woman from Montréal spoke of the day she spent with him in the hospital close to the end of his life and remarked that even though he was in such desperate pain, the smile rarely left his face. Fernanda Hernandez sang in French, Jean-Guy’s native tongue, then Kim Kuzma barely managed to get through Annie Lennox’s ”Why,” with the choir adding their magnificent voices into the mix.
Fine artist Petru Voichescu, Jean-Guy’s husband, sat in the front row, absorbing the love and witnessing firsthand the immense support and respect our community showed ‘Jay Gee’ and himself. Everyone in the church, many from out of town, had worked all day at their real jobs and brought their instruments to the church to pay homage to a sweet Canadian whose zest for life and all the music in it touched every one of us.
The finale began with Aquiles at the piano, then the choir launched the 1960s medley, ”Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In” from the musical Hair. It was an infectious choice that had the choir dancing through the aisles, clapping their hands, and encouraging all of us to raise our voices loud and long in memory of our lovely friend and musician, Jean-Guy Comeau. And we did, From Here.
