We Did It! And We Sang It Phenomenally Well!

    Yes, Sunday afternoon you missed it!  In Greenway Auditorium under full lights and in competition with that sunny weather, Itasca Community Chorus sang to a small, but appreciative audience.  Never have the strings, piano and chorus meshed so beautifully as when they sang "Word over all:  beautiful as the sky that WAR MUST IN TIME BE UTTERLY LOST."  Taken from Walt Whitman's poetry as well as biblical scripture and set to music but Ralph Vaughen Williams,  audience members could hear the "beat, beat drums; blow bugles blow" approaching.  The chorus agonized back, "Is there no balm in Gilead?  Is there no physician there?" 
    Baritone Loren Squires and soprano Susan Loeffler held chorus and audience alike in their thrall as they projected their grief over the loss of life and their petition for peace Dona Nobis Pacem. Complemented by a four-string orchestra and a pianist par excellence, chorus members left the concert asking if we might do this again in three or four years.  As one newer member said, "So many in the audience have never heard anything like this." 
    The power point of the Carnegie Tour to New York City at intermission was almost anti-climactic, and though the chorus sang the Broadway tunes with heart and energy, I for one was still singing from the Pacem "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good-will toward men."
    That's it for Itasca Community Chorus until the Tuesday after Labor Day.  Chorus members, their friends, and family are invited to Zorbaz tomorrow evening for a time to socialize and celebrate.