by Ryan Phillips, M.M., Music Director and Conductor
Each summer, I find some time (uninterrupted time is a hot commodity in our household!) to think about what concert theme I’d like to present with ARS each fall and spring. I’ll be the first to admit that I struggled to solidify a theme for the performance you’re about to hear. Each topic I explored seemed not interesting enough, too cheesy, or only encouraged one style of music.
Let’s rewind a few years, to when my wife and I were expecting twins and were setting up our nursery. She decided to go with a nighttime theme featuring stars and moons on the curtains, mobiles, etc. One of my jobs was to adhere three padded pieces of décor that depicted a cartoonish sun, moon, and star to the wall. For a few years now, every day when our three-year-old twins go to sleep, they ask us to “snuggle the chair,” which adorably translates to “sit in the room with us until we fall asleep.” While snuggling the chair and enjoying well-needed quiet time one afternoon, I glanced up at the padded sun, moon, and star. I thought, “That’s it – each piece we perform will have some representation of these three celestial bodies.” The only trick was having a program that wasn’t completely lullabies…
I do not overexaggerate when I say that I love each and every piece on this program, Sun, Moon, and Stars! Two have stuck with me for two decades after performing them in a high school allstate choir – Sleep and Nocturne; two I sang in graduate school – O Schöne Nacht and Ecco mormorar l’onde; two were performed as virtual choirs by ARS but not in a live performance – Light of a Clear Blue Morning and Ballade to the Moon; two that our audiences loved from our performances a few years ago – Sudraba Meness and For the Beauty of the Earth; and a few I’ve always wanted to perform – Abendlied and The Seal Lullaby. We hope you enjoy this very special program as we lift our voices to the Sun, Moon, and Stars!