Photo: Mark Smith
“If I cannot fly, let me sing,” wrote the recently departed Stephen Sondheim. With our 2024-25 season, the Springfield Choral Society will do both, filling every corner of the Springfield community with song, before taking flight for an exciting concert tour of Austria.
Our new season contains three large-scale productions, all centered on caretaking for the people and places around us. December will bring the beloved community tradition of Handel’s Messiah, which tells the story of an individual who practiced radical caretaking for those in need. The vividness of Handel’s music brings this ancient story directly into our modern world, imploring us to follow the same example, to love and help our neighbor. “But who shall stand when he appeareth?” asks the alto soloist in Part One. With their gaze fixed on the viewer, the Madonna and Child from Raphael’s famous Sistine Chapel fresco ask the same question: and looking out from our concert flyers, they will be asking you: “Will you join us for this great night of music?”
On March 21-23, the Choral Society will honor Women’s History Month by presenting Songs for the Unsung, a festival celebrating the music and stories of women. The festival’s opening concert, “Springfield Heroines,” will interweave music by female composers with the life stories of significant Springfield women, narrated in the first person by actors from the Sangamon Historical Society. The following night will see a performance of the splendid Dixit Dominus by Marianna Martines, a contemporary and friend of Mozart’s. This work was premiered exactly 250 years ago, but is only now being rediscovered and heralded as the masterwork it is. The festival will include additional chances to delve into the remarkable history of women in our community, including themed tours of the newly restored Ursuline Academy.
Finally, our season will culminate with Malcolm Dalglish’s Hymnody of Earth, a hugely inspiring journey through the natural world and humanity’s place in it. Malcolm doesn’t just compose: he is a world-renowned hammer dulcimer performer, and we are thrilled and honored that he will be joining us in Springfield for these performances. In addition to a full concert performance in the beautiful acoustic of First Presbyterian Church, there will be opportunities to experience Malcolm’s Hymnody in its natural element: on the morning & afternoon of Saturday, May 31st, Malcolm will present a dulcimer recital and “singing hike” through the Adams Wildlife Sanctuary of the Illinois Audubon Society. And on the following afternoon, the choir will present a condensed version of Hymnody on the beautiful new terrace of the Lincoln Memorial Gardens Nature Center, followed by various nature activities.
With Hymnody fresh in our hearts and minds, we will then take off for Austria, where a week-long trip will include performances at Salzburg Cathedral, Melk Abbey, and the St. Peter’s Church in Vienna.
We are so proud to not just be any Choral Society, but the Springfield Choral Society. We love this community, and our aim is to fill every corner of it with singing. Our community partnerships are so important to us, weaving us into the fabric of our city: after partnering last season with The Matthew Project, the African-American History Museum, the Vachel Lindsay Home, and the SIU Alzheimer’s Center, we are thrilled to be working together this year with the Sangamon Historical Society, the Illinois Audubon Society, and the Lincoln Memorial Gardens.
And we are honored to be part of our city’s vibrant musical scene, partnering with the Illinois Symphony Orchestra and UIS Music for performances, and being amidst a remarkable ecosystem of church choirs, show choirs, theater productions, and more. Springfield sings!
“Community through harmony” is our motto, and we want you to be part of our community this year, whether by attending our performances, by making a financial contribution to our work, or by helping to spread the word. Thank you for helping us to make this a singing town!
--Jacobsen Woollen