September is always an exciting time at Edwards Church. We get to reconnect with everyone after a relaxing and rejuvenating summer, and we look forward to the beginning of a new program year. It’s a special time for me because get to work with our wonderful chancel choir again. Here are some highlights of the upcoming choir season.
As most of you know, due to the loss of lights in the sanctuary, the choir was not able to sing from the choir loft or do their traditional processional and recessional for much of the first half of 2016. It will be so nice to have them back in their normal routines again! To celebrate the new lights, the choir’s responses for the month of September will be “The Lord is My Light” and “The People Who Walked in Darkness.” Or am I being too subtle?
On September 18, the choir will sing a beautiful arrangement of “Blessed Assurance.” This beloved tune is the most frequently requested hymn at our monthly old-fashioned hymn sings.
To mark the Feast of St. Francis on October 2, the choir will sing my own setting of “Canticle of the Creatures.” This anthem was commissioned in 2011 by Tom Derr and Linda Vincent to mark the retirement of Rev. Dr. Peter Kakos.
On October 23, we will be joined by composer Gwyneth Walker. Gwyneth and I have been friends and colleagues for over 20 years, and she will be in town for the premiere of a piece she wrote for the Holyoke Civic Symphony’s 50th anniversary season. I figured, why not bring her to church as well! The choir will sing Gwyneth’s “Deep Peace” and her setting of the Anne Sexton poem “Look to Your Heart.”
For Thanksgiving Sunday on November 20, we’re planning an exciting arrangement of “Now Thank We All Our God” for choir, organ, handbells, and congregation. Might as well get everyone involved!
The first Sunday of Advent is November 27, and the choir will be practicing its German with two selections from Johann Sebastian Bach’s cantata “Wachet Auf (Sleepers Wake).”
The Festival of Lessons and Carols on December 11 will feature many traditional British carols, as well as a short anthem of my own entitled “This Day.” And the Christmas Eve service will include the incredibly beautiful “In the Bleak Midwinter,” which we have not sung for many years.
And those are just the highlights! There will be plenty more choral music in between which is just as beautiful and meaningful. If you’d like to actually participate in the choir this year, September is the perfect time to start. The first rehearsal is Thursday, September 8 at 7:00 pm. You don’t have to get worked up about an audition; just come and see how you like it. Click here for more information about joining the choir, or contact me directly using the form below.
