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Call to Singers!
Dear Singer,
Where should I begin in counting the reasons you should sing this Fall Term?
I'll start with an analogy: you know how you've talked to people when you've returned from a trip or had a mountaintop experience? Invariably you end by saying "It was truly beyond description. These pictures can't do it justice!" You could be talking about a sunset, Notre Dame Cathedral, the Grand Canyon, a newborn baby, the Mona Lisa, or a chance encounter with Marilyn Monroe. Fill in the blank yourself.
Well, it's not a stretch to include what we are about to experience: personally studying and performing the Brahms Requiem, as a member of the chorus. This composition is so deeply fulfilling on so many levels that the experience literally defies description. Even orchestral musicians agree about the satisfying depth of this masterwork, and yet there's no way they can feel what we feel as singers, with the way it feels to sing these phrases set to words that are so very important! What's more, every section of the choir feels that Brahms must have loved our section best -- even (or especially) the altos! In common with the orchestral players, it's physically rewarding to perform these choruses, but then combining that feeling with the emotional encounters of the text, it's almost too much. We are the ones proclaiming the personal truth of the words.
So that's reason No. 1. Reason No. 2 is much shorter and easier to explain: This is a major work, i.e. requiring large forces. It calls for a big orchestra, which must be balanced by a large choir. Of course we will have our hanging microphones at the Elsinore, and that will help with balance, but this amazing composition is shared at its best when the choral forces are large: the more the merrier!
Reason No. 3 is absolutely personal: This will be my final season as Founder and Artistic Director of Festival Chorale, and I have especially requested that this piece be my final major choral/orchestral work. The founding principal of this ensemble is that membership be entirely self-auditioning. 47 years ago, when asked to form a community choir, I decided that as many people as possible should have the opportunity to have the indescribable experience of studying and performing the masterworks of the repertoire. Over the years we've done just that, hardly missing a single one. (Check our website for the list!) I have loved all the works that we've performed, but the Brahms Requiem tops the list. I absolutely love singing it, but love conducting it even more!
For my final term in this role, in the new year we will prepare a number of selected short compositions about singing, and will have the amazing joy and challenge of premiering a composition commissioned for the occasion! More details on that will follow. We will also reprise the very first choral/instrumental work that our choir ever presented, the "Gloria" by Antonio Vivaldi. That whole Spring term will be a treat.
Fall term will be an acknowledgement of the indescribable musical gift we have shared: a community of friends dedicated to outstanding music. Please be a part of it!
Musically yours,
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