Thomas E. Lerew, DMA
Interim Music Director
As the Arizona Repertory Singers conclude their 2015-16 season of transition, we reflect on the life-giving connections between earth, water, and sky – life sources that connect us as human beings.
EARTH provides:
~ Sustenance
~ Recreational and personal enjoyment
~ Hope inspired by nature’s beauty
~ A mutual call to stewardship and respect
… and the ever-evolving cycle of life reflected in the seasons.
WATER brings:
~ Restoration as we sing “asleep in the arms of the slow-swinging seas” ~ Purification, healing and sanctification
~ The ‘spring’ of life
… and suggestions of our connection to the Divine.
SKY evokes:
~ The predictability of sunset followed by the inspiration of sunrise
~ The parallels of life’s struggles and triumphs to the fury of nature’s storms that
dissolve into bright sunshine
… and the awestruck wonder of the celestial through “a music of stillness.”
Together, each of these concepts forms the broad choral landscape, expressive texts and stirring musical settings of our program.
It has been my truest honor and pleasure to work with the singers and ARS leadership this year. In my holiday Conductor’s Corner I wrote, “we look up to the light reflecting on a past of which we can be proud and a future in which we can be confident.”
“But music and singing have been my refuge, and music and singing shall be my light.”