Hello, Glen Ellyn-Wheaton Chorale friends! I am absolutely thrilled to be joining the Chorale as their new Music Director and look forward to a wonderful year of music ahead!
It was such a great pleasure to hear each of the members sing for auditions and vocal visits. I've said that getting to know a choir is like sitting down to a pipe organ for the first time. You have to play each stop separately to get to know the instrument—and what a wonderful instrument we have! Our musical gifts combine into a mighty chorus, and it's exciting to think of the music that lies ahead.
When I conducted voice visits, I asked the members why they enjoyed singing with GEWC. We found repeated themes of love for music and singing, emotional well-being, mental challenge, artistic fulfillment, vocal fitness, friendships, and community. Members outlined why we do what we do!
One member noted, "The art of joining 60 voices into one beautiful work of art is a piece of heaven." Another simply stated, "Music gives life." One of my favorite remarks summed it up for us all: "Singing with a choir makes the world seem right."
Tuesday evening with the Glen Ellyn-Wheaton Chorale is my favorite time of the week. Making music together—even outdoors and masked—lifts my spirits and "reorganizes my molecules" (as my friend likes to quip).
Over the past 18 months of separation, we have learned anew how precious it is to inhabit a space together and set the air in motion with our voices. We change the atmosphere around us into an invisible work of art, and somehow this changes us, too.
Alice Parker says, "It's like the sound that fills a room, fills our hearts. One of the most human and one of the most rewarding and one of the most civilizing things that we can do, is to sing together."
No matter how our singers feel when they enter rehearsal on a Tuesday evening, my goal is that by the time they leave, they will feel better, happier, more connected to others and to themselves.
This is the power of choral singing, and this is the joy that we can't wait to share with you in December!
Wintersong 2021: Merry and Bright includes Wachner's sparkling arrangement of "Angels We Have Heard on High," Langford's jazzy "Feliz Navidad," and Darby's nostalgic "'Twas the Night Before Christmas." The Chorale will also inspire you with works by Donald McCullough, Rosephanye Powell, and Craig Hella Johnson.
Concerts take place on Friday, December 3 at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday, December 4 at 3:00 p.m. at College Church, 335 E. Seminary Avenue, Wheaton, IL. You'll find ticket information right here on our website.
I am thrilled to take the stage for the first time with the Glen Ellyn-Wheaton Chorale, and we hope you will join us for some holiday cheer!
Jennifer Whiting
Music Director, Glen Ellyn-Wheaton Chorale