VCS is a pretty mixed lot. High school freshmen and octogenarians, homebodies and world travelers, newcomers and long timers who remember life before Tysons Corner, tea drinkers and coffee mainliners. We come from all walks and persuasions of life. And we rehearse on Tuesday nights. Which means we rehearsed on election night.

Presciently, our AD, Mike Horanski – who has, from Day 1, envisioned joyous community through music – took a few minutes before warm-up to talk to us. “Think of how you feel when you sing, and when you hear music. There is joy. But there is also an instilled hopefulness and beauty in singing, and unless you experience it, you don’t know it. I can’t help thinking how different things would be if we could all have more of that.”

I thought of his words as I sat in a concert last last weekend. It began with a piece I sang years ago with VCS, and another choir. As the singers’ voices rang out in an old church with high ceilings and great acoustics, there was joy at beloved notes never forgotten. There was peace between canons. There was rest when all the voices and chords finally resolved.

Music doesn’t just express what we can’t put in words. It brings us together like few other things can, and leaves us lighter.

Next month, we sing SOUNDS OF THE SEASON, 4:30 pm, Saturday, December 17, 2016 at Vienna Baptist Church. We will sing the sacred and the secular, beloved favorites and new classics, and of an old story and a season where life and community are fragile – only if we allow it.

We hope you will join us. And find your own moments of joy, peace, and rest.