Just one year ago, on January 8, 2020, Chicago Chorale was poised to dive into our 2020-20121 season. In my January 8 blog entry, I wrote:
“Chicago Classical Review has honored Chorale’s March 2019 performance of Vigilia, by Einojuhani Rautavaara, with the #2 position on their Top Ten Performances of 2019 list. Fantastic, that a volunteer group, operating on a shoestring budget, should be recognized in this way. We all know that the CSO, Lyric Opera, Music of the Baroque, Chicago Opera Theater, Bella Voce, and other local, professional ensembles consistently produce world-class performances of great music; to appear on this list with them is something we will always treasure.”
We began rehearsals that very night on the Bach St. John Passion, and were in the midst of making final arrangements for a tour of Spain in July of the following summer. Right up until our final face-to-face rehearsal, on March 11, we were pedal to the metal, preparing to celebrate our twentieth anniversary in grand style.
So much has changed in a year.
But some things have not changed. Chorale continues to provide its singers with a platform on which they can meet and make good music together, keep their skills and disciplines fresh, and enjoy interacting with one another. And we continue to provide our listeners and supporters with new content, new virtual videos, and fresh information about the music we perform, and about the way we perform it.
Like musicians the world over, we await a return to good health and safe performances, and ache to be able to present our audiences with live, vibrant performances. But we aren't sitting still, mourning lost opportunities, and watching our ensemble erode and disappear. The season of Christmas and the Winter Solstice is both the darkest and the most hopeful time of year; with one eye we face the worst, and with the other we look to the future, with hope and joy in our hearts.
This little boy, my grandson, was born March 13, just as our world was shutting down, Chorale’s big plans with it. I can’t think of him without thinking of the pandemic— in his bright eyes and fearless gaze lies the hope of the future. Like Chorale, he runs with the big dogs.
We have good things ahead of us.
