Letter from "Chorus of Communities" Director Billy More, written for this site.
Dear Natasha
and Crystal,
We were delighted to have you as guest performers for
the Chorus of Communities in our fifteenth Christmas Concert Sunday December 5,
2004. Your solos were outstanding and with the orchestra and Children's choir
we had a sold out audience. Many good wishes to a future of more successes like
this one.
Yours with
the Love of Christ,
Bill Moore
Director of the
Chorus of Communities
Review by "Chorus of Communities" President, Steven Olivo
I've been IMing Natasha and her sister
Crystal for ages, and we met during the summer at a couple of Hayley Westenra
events. I was duly impressed with their singing, and, upon the beginning of
rehearsals for my singing group, the Chorus of Communities, I passed their CD on
to our director, Bill Moore, to see if he was interested. Eventually he decided
he was, and after some wrangling and tangling we decided that they would be our
soloists in Ringwald's "Song of Christmas," and also do some recitatives from
Handel's "Messiah."
Well, yesterday dawned with nice weather, and I got myself over to St.
Valentine's Church at 10 of 2, where we were all busy setting up the risers and
warming up. Our two intrepid soloists showed up about a quarter after and, after
quick hellos, as things were a madhouse, I gave them their corsages and we
started practicing our starts and walking in and out. This would be an
interesting concert, as we also had a group called the Cantamus Children's
Chorus with us, from a local school, and the place was filled to the brim with
parents, friends, and well-wishers.
After the orchestra was in place (about 18 pieces, 19 if you count the organ)
and a quick invocation (we are an ecumenical Christian group)we proceeded on. We
got the audience's attention with the Lutkin's choral setting of the Aaronic
blessing "The Lord Bless You and Keep You," and began the Messiah excerpts. You
could tell from the first two notes of the overture that this orchestra knew its
work. A local tenor named Joe Cahill did the opening recitative and aria,
"Comfort Ye My People." The celebratory "For Unto Us a Child is Born" was next,
with thankfully no problems with the baroque runs and scales. After that it was
Natasha and Crystal's turn to begin the scene of the angel announcing the birth
of the Savior to the shepherds. Both sounded wonderfully clear and sweet as they
gave the lead-in to the angel chorus "Glory to God." We finished that part of
the program with the chorus "His Yoke is Easy and His Burthen is Light" and
moved on to the Song of Christmas.
This is a somewhat unusual contemporary piece in cantata form stringing many
carols together with narration (read by one of our basses this time). It began
with an almost Renaissance setting of the Adoramus te, hushed and reverent
against the stone walls, then moved into the story of the Annunciation. Here
Natasha had her first solo in the piece, asking "Believest thou the angel?" She
was wonderful, if slightly loud due to the microphone.
The story next moved into the journey to Jerusalem, and here there was a solo
quartet with Natasha singing soprano and myself singing the tenor part. Finally
we reached the actually birth of Christ, with Crystal singing a wonderfully
lyrical "While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks." After that was a setting of
"What Child is This" and the arrival of the Wise Men, with a somewhat unusual
trio arrangement of "We Three Kings," involving myself singing first tenor and
two other chorus members, Bill and Albert, singing second tenor and bass. I
think we did ok, though we muffed one of the entrances. After that came the
flight into Egypt, with Crystal and myself duetting on the lullaby "Joseph
Dearest, Joseph Mine," before the finale setting of "O Holy Night." There was
loud applause and many bows from our two singing sisters.
After a brief intermission we did a Christmas sing-along with the audience kind
of off-the-cuff to get their attention while the children got into place. They
did a fairly lively carol by John Rutter and a setting of the Hebrew A'Shlosa
D'Varim, in the evening's only nod to the Jewish feast of Channukah, then a
setting of "In the Bleak Midwinter" and a rousing (complete with clapping and
stomping) version of the gospel "Children Go Where I Send Thee." They got lots
of applause, indeed a standing ovation.
We then retook the stage and gave the audience a trip South of our own with the
spiritual "Mary Had a Baby." After that came one of our members' arrangement of
"O Come Emmanuel." I can't say I much cared for it, as the vocal lines were kind
of weird, but I could not arrange anything if I tried, so who am I to criticize?
Our last piece on the formal program was William Dawson's arrangement of "Ain'a
That Good News?" and we finished with our traditional Christmas finale: the
Hallelujah Chorus. We drew lots of applause and a standing ovation of our own.
Afterwards, at the reception, Natasha and Crystal were their own worst critics,
but I told them they had done fine. They both signed the program for me, and
that will go in an honored place with the signed CDs from Holly, Hayley, Bryn
Terfel, Daniel Rodriguez, John McDermott, Ben Heppner, Cecilia Bartoli, and all
the rest. Hopefully we can have these two back in the spring.