Dear friends,

 

Thank you so much for being here today! As we close out yet another season of exciting and meaningful choral music, I feel an urgent need in our community to take the time to consider how we might build bridges of hope and tenderness. Ideologies entrench us, empathy is seen as politically destructive, and the world has not felt this contentious in my lifetime. Today at Baltimore Choral Arts, we choose for our answer to conflict and friction to be gentleness and beauty.  Specifically, today we highlight the beauty and light found in the musical heritage of Great Britain and its influence on us, and the many courses this musical river took over the centuries of American musical innovation. Our selections highlight the many similarities and the wonderful differences our familial singing traditions exhibit on both sides of the Atlantic. Insights on the individual pieces of music will be given from the stage during today’s performance.

 

A couple of themes within the theme appear. One such theme is the evergreen desire for divine help by way of mystical connection to God and history’s most well-known people of faith. Hymns by Britten connect us to the past by joining our pleas of help to the Virgin Mary and St. Columba, while Vaughan Williams musically illuminates miraculous wonders of faith.

 

Another theme within the theme is the subject of celestial light. Jasmine Barnes in her “Every Great Dream”, inspired by the stargazer Harriet Tubman (and commissioned by Baltimore Choral Arts in 2022 - recordings can be purchased online or in the lobby), connects our dreams of changing the world to following the courses set by the stars. Sara Teasdale’s brilliant poetry comes to life in “Stars”, and Thompson’s quintessentially American musical language turns Frost’s poetry into an iridescent call for contemplation during life’s trials in “Choose Something Like a Star”.

 

I hope today’s performance is different than most - we begin with a participatory song that I understand to be a call to action in a unique time in our world. I hope that the more superficial theme of bridges across the Atlantic is just an entry point into today’s more urgent message; that universal truths can help us in eras of turbulence, and that “when at times the mob is swayed to carry blame or praise too far, we may choose something like a star to stay our minds on and be staid”, but that ultimately, individual and community peace is only possible through personal and corporate action - we are the ones we are waiting for, after all.

 

Many exciting musical moments await us after today; we continue with Beethoven’s 9th Symphony with the Maryland Symphony in late May, Mahler’s 2nd Symphony with Marin Alsop at the National Cathedral in June, and a European tour (Netherlands and Germany) this summer. We would be honored for you to join us at any of these performances - more information can be found at Baltimorechoralarts.org. Of course, please be on the lookout for our 2025-2026 concert information, as we have a line-up of unforgettable concerts you have come to expect of us as we celebrate our 60th season!

 

In harmony,

 

 

Anthony Blake Clark
Music Director