Dear Chicago a cappella family;
It is a pleasure and a privilege to gather together once again to celebrate the season, and the joy of music making in its midst. I continually marvel at how music can bridge gaps between persons. Choral music, in particular, connects us to those around us, and even to those who have gone before.
As the days grow shorter, the nights longer, and the air colder, do you ever think of those who lived through winters before central heating, before cars, before artificial light available at the touch of a button? I do, regularly.
The theme of this year’s Holidays a cappella program is Ancient Resonance, Modern Gifts. So many of the musical materials and deeply memorable texts that connect us to this season are gifts of those who have gone before. They were written, copied, rehearsed, and performed by daylight, or by candlelight. Transportation was by foot, or for the fortunate few, by horse.
Music can be a time machine. On this concert, many of these materials are re-imagined through a contemporary prism. The stories they tell live on, striking us in new ways, inspiring new ideas while reconnecting us with the old. As I hear these works afresh, I receive all this and more, as though through a kaleidoscopic time travel tunnel.
I wish you, and those you love, every good thing this holiday season.
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