Drumroll please...

by Jean-Marie Kent, Music Director

​Can’t wait to get back together and sing, sing, sing. I spent my summer listening to winter music (and you wondered why July was so cold!). Then together with the board and our trusty librarian, Celeste, we worked to figure out all of the details. We are ready for you!
 
We have a wonderful season planned. It’s a little more serious than last spring, but it will still be filled with joyous singing. It comes from a suggestion by Nancy. December 7 is the Pearl Harbor 75th Commemoration. This tragic event means a lot to some of our Chorale members and a lot to many of our audience members. Our concert, Peace in a Time of War, seeks to find peace at a time when we must continue to make sense of a world that can be troubled and violent.
 
The concert will open with Silent Night, sung in English, German and Hawaiian. It was the carol that was sung by the troups, first in German and then in English, on the night of the Christmas Truce in 1914. Mendelssohn’s Verleih’ uns Frieden (Grant Us Peace) is also poignantly appropriate as it was written by a Jewish composer whose family gave up their familial heritage in the hopes of being accepted as Germans named Bartholdy. When you hear Craig Carnahan’s Armistice 1918 (Everyone Sang), I hope that you will feel awed by it. In his introduction, the composer says about the poem: “There is joy that the war has ended, but sadness at the tremendous loss.”
 
All of the heartbreak of the first half will be transformed in the second half when we sing Christmas favorites written during World War II. I’ll Be Home for Christmas, Let it Snow! and Baby, It’s Cold Outside are three featured selections.
 
We will also be launching our Magnolia Chorale Chamber Singers. This will be a small, auditioned group made up of members who want additional singing opportunities. They will perform at our concert and provide outreach to our community.
 
The practice schedule and Youtube links are posted on the website. I hope that you have a chance to listen and get excited about our upcoming season. See you soon.

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