Author: Erin Haar

Renowned composer Reena Esmail works between the worlds of Indian and Western classical music. We can’t wait to premiere the three pieces she has created for Sonic Bloom on March 10th – learn more about her composition process in this interview with Erin Haar, our Creative Media & Marketing Manager!

Choral Music is such an important part of the holiday season. What is it about singing together that makes the holidays mean so much more? For the answer, we went to Liza W. Beth, who is the vice president of communications and membership of Chorus America.

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During the holidays, no matter how you celebrate, music is a central part of the season. And choral music and the holidays are particularly intertwined.

Why exactly is that? Tradition plays a role, of course. But, above all, I think we turn to choral music this time of year because the rich and beautiful sound of voices joined in song evokes the sense of togetherness that we yearn for during the holidays. When we want to feel close to our loved ones and our fellow humans, choral music offers us a means to celebrate, reflect, and connect.

The connection between choral music and being part of something larger than ourselves is something many of us instinctively feel. It’s also supported by research, including Chorus America’s own studies. The Intrinsic Impact Audience Project shows that audiences are deeply affected by choral performances, and that the experience is especially powerful when they feel like they have connected with others through the music. That could mean feeling closer to the family and friends that accompanied them to the performance, or it could mean learning about a different culture or tradition through intentional programming.

Chorus America’s series of Chorus Impact Studies also shine a light on the benefits that choral music and singing together bring to individuals and communities. Singing together connects people, builds stronger relationships, and fosters a sense of belonging. And the 54 million Americans who sing in choruses volunteer, donate, and give back to their communities in a big way. As creators of these shared experiences for audiences and singers alike, organizations like Cathedral Choral Society are a powerful force for good.

So at your next choral performance this holiday season, whether you find yourself in the audience or on the stage, I hope you’ll take an extra moment to pause. Think of the many people who have gathered, in one particular place and at one particular moment, to be part of a musical and artistic experience that nourishes belonging, and connection, and hope.

Those powerful feelings ripple outward from the concert hall or cathedral, throughout your community, and beyond – just as the joy and togetherness of the holiday season touches our lives all year long.

Liza W. Beth is the vice president of communications and membership at Chorus America, the advocacy, research, and professional development organization that advances the choral field. Learn more at chorusamerica.org.

In the October 2023 issue of our quarterly newsletter, Creative Media & Marketing Manager Erin Haar highlights how a shade of pink inspired many aspects of CCS’ upcoming concert.

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Weeks ago, I sat down for a Tuesday CCS staff meeting ready to brainstorm with my coworkers about our upcoming concert. Tickets for our season had just officially launched, and I was ready to plug back into my concert marketing routine. 

That’s exactly what I expected – routine – when I brought up our most immediate project, October’s Two Cathedrals concert, celebrating baroque music from the Metropolitan Cathedral in Mexico City. I had a checklist in my head that I was ready to fly through for our concert booklet: a welcome letter, text and translations, program notes, advertisements… and I asked for suggestions with a pen in my hand and my eyes in my notebook. 

“What about including Mexican Pink?” 

I looked up. Our Donor & Patron Manager, Gabriela Calderon, glanced inquisitively around the room at the rest of us shaking our heads. We had not heard of Mexican Pink, but we were certainly now intrigued. 

Gabriela began to describe Mexican Pink to us: a shade of pink, slightly warmer than fuchsia or magenta, made famous by artist Ramón Valdiosera as a symbol of the vivacity of Mexican culture. She showed us examples of Mexican Pink in architecture, textiles, and more. And she explained how the color represents the lively spirit woven into multitudes of aspects of Mexican heritage.  

Not only was Mexican Pink an amazing design inspiration for our booklets, but it was also a reminder of why we’re starting our 2023-24 season with this particular concert. Centuries ago in modern-day Mexico, artistic and religious influences brought by Spanish conquistadors collided with the musical traditions of indigenous populations. This created a vivacious and unique musical style that we know today as Mexican baroque, and it is exactly this vivacity that we plan to celebrate and honor through our October 22nd performance. 

Like Mexican Pink, or Rosa Mexicano, we’re aiming to highlight aspects of this musical culture that we don’t normally examine in this concert. And we invite you to join us! 

Wear a little piece of Mexican pink ‘flare’ (or a lot) and bring your own vivacity and spirit to Two Cathedrals. We could not be more excited to celebrate this music with you. 

– Erin Haar, Creative Media & Marketing Manager

Simon Morrison, Professor of Music at Princeton University, highlights the stories behind Sergei Rachmaninoff’s lesser known works and his greatest hits in our monthly newsletter.

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Sergei Rachmaninoff composed some of the greatest hits of the 20^th century by reaching back to the 19^th century for inspiration. Fitting him in the history books has proved challenging: Was he Romantic? Was he modern? Was he modern and hopelessly nostalgic? Or even anti-modern and (as Richard Taruskin put it) “loving it”? There are other questions related to his sound. What happened to him in the United States after the Russian Revolution? He lived in Moscow and in Europe and in the US from 1917 until his death in Beverly Hills in 1943.  During his last twenty-five years he composed relatively little – just six of his 46 major works – while continuing to concertize.

He liked the high life of the 20s and 30s and proved himself a savvy businessman, notably in numerous successful publishing ventures. Rachmaninoff’s music enriched Orthodox religious expression, rethought nationalism, and addressed trauma, exile, and estrangement. He had deep and long-lasting obsessions: chant, Dante, Edgar Allen Poe, bells. He knew he had a gift for melody, and understood that gift could at times be a curse, since what he considered to be his most significant works were overshadowed by the hits. That he emerged from a Russian musical context that championed accessibility, beauty, heart-on-sleeve erotic-exotic lyricism, and traditional forms made him immortal.

His most famous piece is his Prelude in C-sharp minor. He premiered it at the Moscow Electrical Exhibition of September 1892, his public debut as a pianist. It became instantly popular, and for the rest of his international life Rachmaninoff was asked to play it, all the while refuting that it was somehow about his homeland. “I wrote it – but it is not a ‘bells of Moscow thing.’ I never had any bells in mind while writing it, I assure you.” “I am very sorry,” he told a reporter in Minneapolis in 1921.

Still, the hits kept coming and he kept playing them, all to maintain his lifestyle. The hits also kept coming because he wanted to connect with listeners, eschewing the dissonance, experiment, formalism, and neurosis of his Modernist peers.

Sometimes he failed. The 1897 premiere of his First Symphony under the baton of a tipsy conductor was a fiasco that, according to legend, sank Rachmaninoff into depression and a creative paralysis that only a hypnotist could cure. It’s a great story but it isn’t true. Rachmaninoff didn’t stop composing, and there happened to be personal reasons for his funk. Sessions with the hypnotist, Nikolai Dahl, seem to have been less therapeutic than social. He and Rachmaninoff chit-chatted.

He recovered with his Second Piano Concerto of 1901. Most concert-goers know this piece owing to its permanent presence on the international piano competition circuit. It’s so technically dazzling and melodically affecting as to leave listeners begging for more (or for less), with the knuckle-busting finale often ending with the pianist throwing themselves backwards in ecstatic relief (Lang Lang does this bit of theater the best).

Eric Carmen’s pop classic “All By Myself” borrows from the Second Piano Concerto, and great theme of the adagio of Rachmaninoff’s Second Symphony became part of Carmen’s (and Frank Sinatra’s) single “Never Gonna Fall in Love Again.” The melody achieves its magic in the symphony thanks to the chords underneath: alternating major and minor seventh sonorities that build to a climax that suddenly goes from loud to soft. It’s a heavenly effect lost in the popular versions – and lost in much 20th-century modern music. Rachmaninoff believed music directly influences a person’s mind, body, and spirit, but only after first passing through the heart.

His most beloved vocal piece is setting of the Vespers, or “All Night Vigil” as it is known in the Russian Orthodox Context. Among the most beautiful of all works for unaccompanied chorus, it turns away from the horrors of the world to gaze into eternity, and its sincerity seems all the more remarkable when we remember that Rachmaninoff wrote it long after he had ceased to be a churchgoer. He wanted the section called “Now Let Thy Servant Depart” to be performed at his own funeral. After another gorgeous melody, the music quietly quits the world at the end.

A Birmingham, Alabama native, Anne Donaldson has been singing and playing violin ever since she was little. Currently living in Washington, D.C., Donaldson has been singing with CCS in the Alto 1 section since 2020!

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Can you tell us a little bit about your musical background and your involvement with both CCS and the BSO?

Anne Donaldson: I’ve been in the DC area for about 8 years. I sang in choirs a lot when I was a kid, so during the pandemic I decided that I wanted to audition for CCS. So that’s when I started singing with the Cathedral Choral Society, and I loved it! This year, I’m doing a one-year contract with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. I started playing the violin in a school music program, and I was 8 at the time. My parents are both orchestra musicians, so I’ve been around classical music my whole life.

What is the feeling you get or the experience you have when you perform with an orchestra as a singer in CCS?

AD: I just think the orchestra adds so much dimension to our performances. The experience of having that much sound in the room is really cool. I’ve actually played with an orchestra with CCS before, when we did I Have Something to Say last season… I remember telling people in the orchestra, “This is my choir that I’m in.” It made me feel proud that I was in the choir!

What are you looking forward to about performing with CCS in Washington National Cathedral again on the orchestra side?

AD: I think it’ll be interesting to perform with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. And playing at the Cathedral can be super weird sometimes. The amount of reverberation that there is is kind of wild. I remember during the I Have Something to Say concert we were playing a piece by Fanny Mendelssohn, and it sounded like there was a musical echo, but it was just the literal echo from the back of the church.

I think it’s a challenge to play in there, but I also think it’ll be cool because you don’t usually have people that cross over, who are in the orchestra and who know people in the choir. It will be nice to see people who I know from the choir, so I’m looking forward to the social experience of this concert! And I’m looking forward to playing Rachmaninoff, of course.

The Cathedral Choral Society is honored to be included in this year’s Songs of the Season presented by WETA Arts! This is the third year of Songs of the Season, a spirited holiday music special featuring choral groups from all around the D.C. area.

Conceived in 2020 to celebrate choral music during the pandemic, Songs of the Season has become a WETA holiday tradition. This year’s special showcases 15 talented choral groups from D.C., Maryland, and Virginia.

The special will premiere on December 19 at 9 p.m. on WETA PBS and 8 p.m. on WETA Metro. Additional airings are scheduled as well at the following times!

• 12/20 at 3 p.m. on WETA PBS
• 12/22 at 9 p.m. on WETA Metro
• 12/24 at 7 p.m. on WETA PBS and WETA Metro
• 12/25 at 5 p.m. on WETA PBS and WETA Metro

Songs of the Season will also be available to stream for free on the PBS App. Thanks you so much for WETA Arts for including us in the wonderful holiday program!

At the west end of Washington National Cathedral is a 26-foot-tall rose window made up of more than 10,000 small and large pieces of glass, each individually colored. Together, these pieces create a stunning image that casts its kaleidoscope of light on the Cathedral’s walls. This light is ever-changing, with new perspectives offered each moment of the day.

You are part of the light that shines at the Cathedral Choral Society. Your contribution adds to our color palette and provides us with the resources we need to create transcendent musical moments in a space of beauty and community.

I am writing to ask you for your support of our Annual Fund campaign today. We have set an ambitious goal: we aim to raise $320,000 by June 30, 2023, and it is only possible with your support. Your gift enables us to collaborate with world-class guest artists like the Atlanta Ballet and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and to continue important initiatives like our multi-year I, Too, Sing America program with the Heritage Signature Chorale.

Sometimes it is the smallest piece of glass that sparkles the most. Whether large or small, each and every donation provides us the inspiration we need to keep creating, to keep singing with voices and hearts full.

Thank you for your support and for being a member of our community.

With gratitude,

Christopher Eanes
Executive Director

The whole family is invited to our Joy of Christmas concerts!

From free coloring books at our merch table to the Christmas decor all around the Cathedral, we’ve got everyone covered at our holiday performances. We’ve even got a family discount –– children 12 and under can sit anywhere in the Cathedral for $10!

Here’s how to access this discount:

• Click the “Get Tickets” link below, then choose which Joy of Christmas concert you’d like to attend.
• Select where you’d like to sit and how many tickets you’re purchasing.
• Click the green “Choose Your Seats” button.
• Then, in the price selection box in the upper right hand corner select “Joy of Christmas 12 and Under $10.”
• Select your tickets and add them to your cart!

If you’d like to continue shopping to purchase your adult tickets at this time, we recommend writing down the section, row, and seat number of the children’s ticket you just added to your cart. That way, when you click the “Continue Shopping” button, you can find seats in the same spot of the Cathedral.

If you have any questions, please reach out to the Cathedral box office at tickets@cathedral.org or by phone at (202) 537-2228. We can’t wait to see everyone there!

In our November 2022 issue of our monthly newsletter, we discuss the trajectory of choral groups throughout the pandemic and beyond.

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The pandemic hit choirs and musical groups hard. Not only were in-person audiences completely absent for over a year, but in-person rehearsals were cancelled too. Missing out on these weekly meetings struck at the heart of why so many people in America join choral groups — friendship, personal enjoyment, and community. 

According to Chorus America’s most recent Chorus Impact Study, 17% of Americans were singing in choirs as of 2019. Choral singing offers a variety of benefits, including improved social skills, increased mindfulness and resilience, and stronger connections within communities. 

With these benefits all but decimated, the return to singing in 2021 couldn’t come soon enough. However, these first gatherings weren’t quite the same. While masks and social distancing kept many singers safe, they also meant “reconsidering what togetherness means,” according to an August 2021 article from the Chicago Tribune on the topic. Reexamining rehearsal spaces, repertoire, and even the logistics of virtual performances eventually gave way to an increased emphasis on the feelings of fellowship and connection. 

At CCS, we’ve experienced similar sentiments — new friends and long-time singers joined us with great enthusiasm for our SummerSings series and the start of rehearsals in 2021, but precautions like mask-wearing, providing proof of vaccination, and social distancing are still being practiced today and likely will be for the foreseeable future. 

With all the obstacles we have overcome, where are we now? In 2022, we’ve seen an abundance of interest in reconnecting with choral groups or joining one for the first time. At CCS, we had a record number of new singers join us for our first performance of the season, and more are on their way. 

Nationwide, however, audiences have been slower to return. While understandable, it is a shame, because many arts organizations are releasing a burst of pent-up creative energy that is meaningful, innovative, and immersive. CCS’s recent performance of Berlioz’s Roméo et Juliette  had Capulet and Montague motifs displayed throughout the Cathedral alongside stunning new choreography performed by Atlanta Ballet. The immersive experience is becoming the new normal, and we are ready to embrace it.   

 When we think about where our chorus is today, we can tell that returning to in-person events has only strengthened the passion that we feel towards music. All the benefits we felt in 2019 — enthusiasm, mindfulness, artistic fulfillment, friendship — have only grown. And that’s certainly something to be thankful for. 

As rehearsals at Atlanta Ballet continue for our upcoming performance, dancers Emily Carrico and Erik Kim sit down with CCS to talk about their creative approach to telling this classic love story. Keep reading for these dancers’ insights on our most immersive concert experience to date!

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What have rehearsals been like so far with Claudia Schreier and with your other fellow dancers?

Emily Carrico: Being a part of the creative process for Claudia Schreier’s new work for the Cathedral Choral Society has been an invaluable experience. She has pushed us all to explore movement in new and challenging ways, while also embodying the iconic roles of Romeo and Juliet.

Erik Kim: It has been an interesting process. Rehearsals have been tedious at times due to the very nature of the narrative we are presenting; Claudia gives intricate steps and thoughtful tips on its execution. But at the end of the day, dancing the new choreography that we just created that day for the first time is one of the most rewarding feelings.

How do you embody the story of Romeo & Juliet in your dancing?

Emily Carrico: I have the privilege of dancing Juliet in the balcony scene. I try to bring innocence and joy to each step, but for this particular pas de deux I aim to show an evolution. The pas begins with hesitation and excitement and concludes with total abandonment as she knows she has truly found the love of her life.

What is a part of this new choreography that you find interesting or that audiences should look out for in the performance?

Erik Kim: Look out for the ballroom scene –– throughout this intricate scene, Romeo and Juliet’s attraction builds and builds in this more public setting. First, it begins with subtle glances, then, physical reaching –– a yearning. Finally, after minutes of court dancing, Romeo abandons his partner and rushes to Juliet, grasping her in a slow and intimate spin.

When you think about performing this piece in a space like Washington National Cathedral, what excites you the most?

Emily Carrico: I am thrilled to be performing inside such a beautiful and spiritual place. For me, I think it will bring the character of Juliet to another level!