Somewhere In My Memory

Since 2019 (with the exceptions of 2020 when it didn't happen and 2021 when we were still at home, though I did consult on that one from a distance) I've been heavily involved with organizing an interfaith Christmas concert. When our congregation boundaries were redrawn in June, one of the things I mourned was not being part of this concert. Then I remembered that our children's choir would likely sing at it, so I would at least be part of it in that way. It was a small consolation.

In September I talked with my Bishop and he agreed that our new ward should still participate. I was given the task of putting together a musical number to take to the concert from our new unit. Not too long after that I was asked to join a Zoom meeting with the fellow in charge of the concert. My kid choir co-director was on the call too, so we assumed he would be telling us how many songs to prepare. Nope. The meeting was short and consisted of him telling us he was too busy to do the concert (he was trying to finish his dissertation) and apologetically asking if we would take over. We both said yes.

Among the many (many many many) things I've needed to organize this season, this has probably been the biggest. The concert included members from a Lutheran congregation and a Messianic Jewish synagogue, two wards from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (that's us), a harpist and her tenor husband, and our children's choir. There were lots of texts and meetings and rehearsals and Marco Polos involved in the planning. 

Here's our early Saturday morning dress rehearsal with the kids.

The concert was scheduled for the evening of December 15. When our former Bishop passed away we were prepared to postpone if needed. We didn't have to, but the memorial on Saturday and the concert on Sunday made for a very long weekend. When Bryan and I went over the schedule for those two days he said, "So it's basically one long day." Yep.

After some eleventh hour drama, the concert came together beautifully. The songs were wonderful. If I'd thought about it I would have asked someone to record the song I directed from my ward, a triple quartet that sang Good Christian Men, but it didn't occur to me. It was lovely. The music the Rabbi brought from his synagogue was amazing and had us all standing and clapping. Both the Rabbi and the music leader from the Lutheran church told us afterward how wonderful the evening was and how much they enjoyed sharing our beliefs with each other.

Bryan did think to record the song I directed from our little choir. Actually, it's grown each season, so I guess it's not so little anymore. Cooper joined us for Christmas, along with two other young men, so we could add a baritone line. I think this is the best they've ever sung it.

It was a spiritually uplifting night of music and it was just what I hoped it would be.

Yesterday we took these kids to perform their Christmas songs, plus several group sing-alongs, at a retirement home. We thought it was an appropriate way to do service on the Sabbath. They did a wonderful job. 

And with that, our extremely full musical season is done.