A Glorious Season End

No one expected the Chorale’s annual February concert, which took take place February 23rd at New Haven’s Bethesda Lutheran Church, to be the last performance of the season. 2020, our seventieth anniversary, was supposed to go out with a bang–an epic performance of Berlioz’ Requiem, in collaboration with the Hartford Chorale and the Hartt School choirs and orchestra, at Yale’s Woolsey Hall. Like nearly every other cultural organization, we were brought up short by the coronavirus pandemic. Yet, while we mourn the premature cessation of our season, there were no regrets that Sunday afternoon in February. Gratified singers and audience members alike left Bethesda both moved and inspired following what was widely considered to be one of the best February concerts ever. Flush with new and returning members and bathed in afternoon sunlight, the Chorale performed an inspired and diverse all-American program that included soulful choral a cappella works by Howard Helvey, Andre Thomas, Michael Kaulkin, Frank Ticheli and Eric Whitacre, as well as choral folk song settings and lively, thought-provoking spirituals. And it wouldn’t be a February, family-friendly concert without a few audience sing-alongs! All in all, if it had to be the parting shot of this important year, it rang true.