Yuletide with the Meridian Chorale and Steven Darsey
This new Meridian Herald program was held on December 17 at the Historic DeKalb Courthouse in downtown Decatur. The concert featured Russian pianist Ksenia Kurenysheva and tenor Timothy Miller. Steven Darsey conducted the Meridian Chorale.
Please enjoy listening to this excerpt of the Meridian Chorale
performing “Ye Shall Have A Song,” conducted by Steven Darsey.
Music: Randall Thompson (1899-1984). Text: Isaiah 30:29
Program Notes
Our concert title, “Hope Sees a Star,” is borrowed from the final sermon given by the legendary preacher Fred B. Craddock at Meridian Herald’s camp meeting on August 16, 2014. He used this phrase after reading Deuteronomy 16:13-15, which prophesies that everyone, regardless of station, race, or creed, will feast and celebrate together.
While this concert draws principally from the Christian story of the birth of Christ, it also includes works from Muslim and Hebrew sources in a gesture toward a belief that all religions ultimately point to a time when all of humanity will dwell in mutual respect and grace.
Winter, with its often biting cold, blustering wind, and daunting precipitation, provides timely occasion for seeking refuge in our homes by the hearth, whose fire brings warmth and stirs mystical reflection of providential enigmas.
Our music this evening, ranging from ancient to contemporary, conveys this haunting affect, invoking a spiritual realm where the universally longed for ideals of world peace, love, and joy may become manifest.
One of our works promises that we shall have such a song. May we so sing together toward this star of hope.
Steven Darsey
