Nestled under the venerable Bushwick United Methodist Church, home to a local performance rental space called Gymnopedie, Kenter Davies addresses the assembled choir of over two hundred people with a sentiment that strikes a chord in the crowded basement: “We want people to feel as free as they can while we sing this music together.”

Kenter is a conductor with the Gaia Music Collective, a group started by a musician named Matt Goldstein who told Business Insider last year that “the concept emerged out of the isolation of the pandemic” with a group of six close friends harmonizing in a Brooklyn home that slowly doubled in size until it became these now-professionally hosted basement choirs, where the ticketed, open-to-anybody performances now regularly sell out.  

On a rainy Sunday last month, attendees were gathering for the latest of these three-hour “One-Day Choirs,” drawn in by Goldstein’s promise of a sanctuary where they can immerse themselves in the pure and unrestrained art of singing without the burden of auditions, critiques, or the quest for flawlessness. Today, Kenter was getting them to focus on Fleetwood Mac’s iconic 1975 record “Landslide.”