My choral experience in Chautauqua

When I attended the first Morning Worship service at the Amphitheater, I heard the Chautauqua Choir perform and knew I wanted to participate at least once this summer.

The stars aligned last week and I knew it was my chance to sing with the 140-member group. The reason why I hadn't sung in the choir earlier in the season is, in part, because these people put in a large chunk of time into this group. Two out of three rehearsals are a requisite for singing on Sundays. Each rehearsal lasts from 6:00 to 7:45 p.m., every Thursday, Friday and Saturday. I work on Thursday nights and Sunday mornings so it can be hard to get away for rehearsal and performance.

I decided, with the approval of my editor, to sing the choir. I attended all three rehearsals so that I would, quite literally, never miss a note. I was the youngest in the choir — in fact one of the only people under 30. But that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy myself.

It brought me back to singing with the choir at St. Stephen's in Toledo, Ohio. The warm hearts, kind faces and mellifluous music-making brought me back to my childhood. Looking up at my grandparents sing in church, there was purpose and a community of singers. A choir with a purpose. Praising with God-given talent.

And that's what I did on Sunday. Under the direction of the incomparable Jared Jacobsen, director of the choir and organist, we sang "The Testament of Freedom" with words by Thomas Jefferson and "Come Let Us Sing a Song of Joy" by Giovanni Gabrieli. This was a light menu for breakfast.

In the evening, we sang more during the Sacred Song Service. My favorite was "Love Divine, All Loves Excelling," arranged by Mack Wilberg, music director of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. I also enjoyed singing a cappella "There Is a Balm in Gilead," linking arms and swaying with my neighbor.

It was a wonderful day of singing — and designing at the Daily. When I got home, suffice it to say I slept very well after four days of singing and interning.

Photos courtesy the Daily's Jordan Schnee

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

In Memoriam: Thank you for the journey, Roger Ebert

Image
Each week, my routine was the same. After watching the latest offering from Hollywood on the big screen, I composed my thoughts and analysis and wrote my review. Then, I read what Roger Ebert thought about the movie. This final step was important to me — week in and week out. If Ebert loved a movie I disliked, why was that? He always provided great commentary and gave me reasons to admire a certain film more or dislike it more. He has always been an important validator for me. It’s like we had a conversation about a movie each week. And now I’m on my own. I was devastated to hear about the loss of Ebert. He taught us all about movies and life. The New York Times called him “ A Critic for the Common Man .” He was the consummate writer, journalist, film critic and human being. Ebert just celebrated his 46th year as film critic for the Chicago Sun-Times . I always admired Ebert’s ability to draw on his life experiences when reviewing a film. The first line of his 2011 mem...
Read more

Recent Star cuts represent growing trend

Post details: • Kansas City Star announced job cuts • Graphic designer creates Google Map to track cuts On Tuesday’s front page (6/17), the Kansas City Star staffer Dan Margolies wrote the Missouri-based newspaper is cutting 120 jobs (about 10 percent of its work force) – about 20 to 22 positions are expected to be eliminated in the newsroom. “These cuts are part of the way we must respond as we strategically realign our company for success in this digital age,” said Star Publisher Mark Zieman, who also called the move “a painful but necessary step,” in a memo to employees Monday. Zieman cited reductions in revenue because of increased competition and the current economic downturn as reasons for the cut. The Star is “struggling to replace lost print advertising revenue quickly enough with new online revenue,” the article stated. (Having one of the worst designed newspaper Web sites in the country and one that is hard to navigate, I can see why the Star is having problems online.) Oth...
Read more

Week one in Chautauqua

Image
Looking out the window of the tour, I thought to myself, "Where am I? What is this place?" That was last Tuesday afternoon, June 16th. Today, I'm still asking that same question to myself - if only to a smaller extent. I am spending the summer as a design editor at the Chautauqua Institution's daily newspaper, the Chautauquan Daily . I'll be here at this utopia-like place until the end of August. That may answer the first question I asked myself, but there's still the second... Trying to describe the Institution is very hard. Over dinner Tuesday night, Institution president Tom Becker gave us a better idea of the place. It's like chocolate in that it's incomparable to anything else, he said. For me, Chautauqua is like many things: a resort, a summer home or lake house, a small college town, Disney World and, in a sense, Monaco. On Monday, resident archivist and historian Jon Schmitz stopped by the newsroom and helped describe the Institution anecdo...
Read more