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In his program notes, Music Director Terry Shaw welcomed the 2400 guests who crowded the auditorium for three performances of the 10th Anniversary concert of the Society. He expressed a special note of gratitude to “those who have blessed us with their presence at previous concerts.” Twice blessed were all who attended this magnificent concert for which the words “brilliant” and “beautiful” are utterly inadequate.
A choral concert is a blend of two discrete but common elements - hope and expectation. Since it is impossible for those on the risers to hear the overall product, their hope is based on faith in their director and the receptiveness of the audience. The audience, on the other hand, arrives with knowledge of neither the program nor the mechanics of music, but with the expectation that what they hear will satisfy their inner desire for fulfillment. Add the charm of the Olympia Youth Chorus under the direction of Cynthia Dinsmore into the mix, and this 10th anniversary concert was the perfect merger of hope and expectation. It was the next thing to indescribably perfect in every way.
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On December 8, 1998, an indomitable group of sixteen singers gathered for the first concert of a fledgling organization that was the dream of Terry Shaw. They opened their performance with a lovely Christmas ballad entitled “Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming”. On December 14, 2007, a no less indomitable group of eighty-six singers opened the OCS Christmas Concert with “Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming,“ led by eight of those who brought their dream to fruition. The eight were Sopranos Carol Baumgartel, Sue Schultz and Jennifer Shaw, Alto Connie Newman, Tenors Larry Roediger and Tom Schultz, and Basses Alan Newman and Garn Turner, under the direction of the inimitable Terry Shaw. It was a magnificent opening that set the tone for an evening of joy, meditation, and the spirit of Christmas.
The program closed with Do You Hear What I Hear?, which was composed as a prayer for peace during the Cuban missile crises in 1962. In the words of Director Shaw, we hope our performance will be an honest echo of this fervent prayer 45 years later.
In the ten years of the Olympia Choral Society there have been a multitude of remarkable concerts. This concert demonstrated its maturity and, most especially, produced a synergetic union of hope and expectation that binds a chorus to its audience and produces an effect greater than the sum of its parts.
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THE ENTIRE PROGRAM
Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming
Arr: Michael Praetorius
Rejoice, O Virgin
Sergei Rachmaninoff
Lux Arumque
Eric Whitacre
Zum Gali
arr. Maurice Goldman
Sa qui turo zente pleta (Solo: Alan Newman)\
Matthew Oltman
Ave Maria
Franz Biebl
Winter
Z. Randall Stroope
In the Bleak Midwinter
Christina Rosetta; arr: Gustav Holst
Go Tell It on the Mountain
arr: Roland M. Carter
Jingle Bells
J. Pierpont; arr: David Blackwell
It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas
Meredith Wilson; arr: Mac Huff
What Child is This?
arr: Donald McCullough
Silent Night
Franz Gruber; arr: John Rutter
Beautiful Savior (Solo: Jane Crouch)
arr: F. M. Christensen
Do You Hear What I Hear?
Noel Regney and Gloria Shayne; arr: Emily Crocker
Proceeds to The Ibsen Adoption
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