In the world of finance, it is called an IPO. In the world of opera and theater, it is called a Premier. The debut of the OCS took place during the Christmas season of 1998 with a concert entitled A Tribute Of Carols, and represented the first faltering step in bringing Terry Shaw’s dream to fruition. Faltering? Not so! Eighteen ground-breaking voices and their youthful director (who would not graduate from college for another year) made OCS a living, breathing, dynamic organization whose mission it was and always will be to provide free concerts for the benefit of community charities. The audience for this seminal performance consisted of fewer than 100 intrepid souls who had no idea what to expect. OCS has now grown to 70+ quality singers, with attendance averaging more than 700 patrons, at or near capacity of our performance venues.
From its inception in 1998 through 2004, OCS has presented three concerts annually at Christmas , Spring and Summer. What follows is a sampler of the infinite variety of music that pervades our concerts. There is, in short, something for everyone! You can also click on the links to access programs from each concert.
As illustrated by some of the concert titles, the diversity of music presented over the years is nothing less than astonishing. For instance, one Christmas concert was This Peaceful Night, with the theme music arranged by our own director. Another was the Ceremony of Carols, Benjamin Britten’s matchless welding of Old English text and modern harmonics. Christmas of 2003 saw Twas in the Moon of Winter, in which we discerned the joy of Christmas in the native-North American culture.
The Spring concerts have been no less eclectic. Two of the most stunning were Broadway - On with the Show and European Traditions, from Bach to the Beatles and Beyond, which took the chorus and our audience from the heights of human emotion to the depths of human despair. Spring of 2004 saw Feel the Spirit which combined the musical genius of our director and the creativity of black composer Moses Hogan coupled with the amazing energy of a visiting choir from the New Life Baptist Church. An Evening with John Rutter featured his magnificent Requiem and inspired a number of chorus members to join in a performance of this masterpiece at Carnegie Hall. That in turn inspired A Night in New York, with visits to the Met, Carnegie Hall, the gin joints and dives of the Village, and, of course, a return to Broadway.
Diversity has always been the focal point of summer. 2003 featured MEN (making enthusiastic noise), a resoundingly successful new format for OCS concerts. The ladies followed with And Nature Smiled, a memorable combination of poise, pulchritude, and precision. Summer was always somewhat difficult because of vacations and venues, but produced ensembles that revealed the beauty of such things as evensongs and spirituals, madrigals and motets. Starting in 2005 the summer concerts were displaced by Olympia Sings, yet another of product of Terry’s creativity. But that’s another story!