vienna choral society | Vienna Choral Society

Reflections On A VCS Internship

February 28, 2018

Emma Mehigan – VCS Intern 2017-18 – at work

As a teaching choir determined to support and nurture the next generation of arts and artists, VCS is proud to host an arts management internship. But what does the intern actually do? A lot of really important things to help make the show happen. Amid helping to run rehearsals and prepare for a concert, Emma Mehigan, VCS intern for the 2017-18 season was kind enough to share what she learned on the job.

My internship with Vienna Choral Society began last summer. Since then, I have been exposed to much more of the choral world than before. I have been in choirs for the last nine years of my life, but I have never been so greatly involved in the management of a choir. One of the major things I have been exposed to is the people that management has the privilege to work with. It is overwhelming to me how much everyone has welcomed me into their choir life. Every week I’m asked how school is going, how colleges are looking, and how life is in general. It has struck me how much of a community resides within this choir and it will be difficult for me to leave at the end of this year. [Read more…]

The Sounds, And Musical Riches, Of The Season

December 14, 2017

We are blessed with a wealth of music to pick at any time. But during the holidays we have an embarrassment of riches from many traditions. Some, like The Dream Isaiah Saw, are reflective of deeply held spirituality. Others like I Wish You Christmas reflect the warmth and community human beings have always built in face of season or circumstance. And on Tuesday it was particularly striking to hear the choir sing Hanerot Halalu as our rehearsal coincided with the first night of Hanukkah and the first real cold snap of the season. Throughout the evening, the room came alive with sound. Sometimes in unison, sometimes in overtone, always beautiful.

And that was just us.

This weekend the room is going to positively ring with amazing, joyful music when we will be joined by talented voices from the Oakton Singers — directed by Tiffany Powell, and an orchestra of some of the best youth musicians in the state. Our director, Mike Horanski is especially excited to welcome Andrew Hitz, who used to play with the Boston Brass, and is “one of the best tuba players on the planet.”

Do you have tickets?

We sing Sounds of the Season: Rutter’s Gloria! on December 16, 2017 at 4:30 pm in the beautiful sanctuary of Annandale United Methodist Church (6935 Columbia Pike, Annandale, VA 22003).

Tickets are $25/adults, $20/seniors(65+) and students (15-18). Youth aged 14 and younger always attend for free when accompanied by a ticket holding patron. And we absolutely encourage kids to attend.

Tickets are available online until 11:30 pm on Friday, December 15, 2017.
After that they will be available at the door. The box office opens at 3:30 pm.

Do join us! We’d love to sing for you!

Save The Date!

October 21, 2017

Thank you so much for coming to our concert this evening! What a great start to the season, and what a joyous sound with three choirs and an orchestra in the mix! We hope you’ll join us again in December — because we’re really looking forward to singing the Rutter Gloria for you.

Tickets will be available starting November 1. Check back soon!

The Universe, In Surround Sound

October 10, 2017

We sing SURROUND SOUND, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2017 – 7:30 PM at Vienna Baptist Church (541 Marshall Rd SW, Vienna VA 22180).

Tickets are available now through your friends in the choir, or online.

And what a repertoire we have in store for you!

The name of our concert may suggest the modern movie soundtrack, but no – we’re saving that for later in the season. Rather, this concert is about the music that surrounds us. Every day. You don’t have to be Julie Andrews on a mountain top, but the world around us is alive with music and art.

How do you find it amid the din of the Metro or the clatter of the cafeteria? Where and when do you look up at the sky and hear the sounds the universe holds in its ancient rhythms?

It helps to have a harmony of voices to hear the immensity of a vast eternal sky, or the clarity of an unclouded day. It definitely helps to have the right voices to hear the loud silences of deserts or capture our fragility against Mother Nature’s great unknown. Which is why we are delighted to sing this concert alongside our guests from James Madison High School – the Madison Chorus directed by Claire Rowan, and the Madison Chamber Orchestra directed by Erin Eberly.

In fact, thanks to your generosity in the 2017-18 Friends of VCS campaign, every concert this season will feature guests – youth and emerging musicians. It is in keeping with our place in this community as a teaching choir, where the next generation of music lovers and music professionals will find their place and polish their craft.

Help us to give them a stage, and let us surround you with great music, evocative of a world much bigger than the concert stage.

Do join us!

TICKETS ARE ON SALE NOW
Get them through friends in the choir or online.
$25 for adults, $20 for seniors (60+) and students (15 – 18).
Youth 14 and younger attend for FREE when accompanied by a paying ticket holder.
Online sales end 11:30 pm, Friday, October 20, 2017.
Tickets will be available at the door starting 6:45pm

Requiem, A Concert For A Cause – A Soft Place To Land

February 15, 2017

This concert is about carving out a soft place to land. Whether it’s the part-time second job, a friend’s couch, or a moment of music on our iPhones, it’s what we need to keep going. Often, that’s what keeps us from falling harder and getting back up.

In the DC Metro area, and especially in Fairfax County, where VCS started, we are blessed with resources that allow us many places of “rest.” And because of that, most of us get back up.

Can you imagine having to face the daily fight without the things that allow us to cope?

Two years ago, through his work with Sydney Guillaume — whose Musique we sang in October 2016 — Mike got to know about BLUME Haiti. The US-based nonprofit uses music as a tool to create an opportunity to transform the life trajectory of children in Haiti, awakening potential and developing leadership skills. But in a place that has the temerity to continue existing despite immense odds, the kids lacked basics. As Mike puts it, “The music stands meant taping sheet music to the back of the kid in front of you.”

Haiti has a rich cultural history and heritage that gets completely overshadowed. And just as the country was getting back up on its feet after the 2010 earthquake, Hurricane Matthew plowed through. We can think of no better partnership in this season’s concert for a cause than to partner with BLUME Haiti.

Please join us!

We sing REQUIEM FOR THE LIVING at 7:30 pm, Saturday, March 11, 2017 at Vienna Baptist Church (541 Marshall Road SW, Vienna, VA 22180).

Adults $25
Seniors/Students $20
Youth (14 and younger) FREE when accompanying a ticket payer

Tickets are now available online and through the choir.

The Balance Of Joy And Sorrow

January 26, 2017

Say the word “requiem” and we tend to think of a beautiful but sombre event, funereal even. But that is not always the case. The word requiem comes from the Latin for “rest.” Our next concert, REQUIEM FOR THE LIVING starts and builds from that place of repose.

As our artistic director, Mike Horanski puts it, this concert is “the experience of life that exists in a balance of joy and sorrow.” For that moment when everything is pregnant with what has been and what can be. Of all that we have gone through, but all that sustains us before we get back up. [Read more…]

Sounds Of The Season: The Instilled Hopefulness Of Music

November 16, 2016

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.

Tickets are now available online and via choir members.

Adults – general admission – $25
Seniors(65+)/Students(15 – 18) – $20
Youth (14 and younger) – FREE, if accompanied by a ticket holder

See you in a few weeks,

Sohini Baliga
Executive Director, VCS

And The Season Begins!

September 7, 2016

I trust your summer was good? Ours was incredibly eventful! In the last month especially, we’ve done what usually takes a leisurely few months, years even: Getting to know our new artistic director, Mike Horanski and accompanist, Melvin Goodwyn, and helping them get to know (some 90 of) us. Most important, we rolled up our collective sleeves to support Mike as he hit the ground running to plan the season.

Planning the VCS season is something that usually happens between March and June over a multitude of coffees, email conversations, and random texts. It takes talking and dreaming and time and perspective. But for Mike, and for us, there was no doubt that the 2016-17 season would be about joyous community through music.

It’s safe to say that we are all ready for an antidote to the unsettling and polarizing times in which we find ourselves. Every last one of us can benefit from more places where we put aside differences to share more experiences that bring us closer. Everyone today could use more joy in their community.

At VCS, we know for a fact that few things accomplish that goal like an inspiring, shared music experience. We see that every Tuesday when our singers leave rehearsals energized to tackle the week. We hear it after every concert when you tell us that you were inspired by what you heard, and are reassured that there is a community that shares your experience.

Which is why we begin this season with The Call Of Music and end with It’s A Grand Night For Singing. In December, it will be our pleasure to sing Sounds Of The Season. And our spring concert, which has developed into a moment of quiet but rich music, will feature challenging, classical, and contemplative repertoire in a Requiem For The Living.

It is going to be a wonderful, inclusive, uniting, joyous, uniquely VCS experience once again. Please join us!

The best way to be part of the VCS experience is to become a Friend of VCS. We run this annual fundraising campaign each September to raise funds from individuals who love the arts and wish to support us. As a sign of our appreciation for your support, every Friend, at any level of donation, receives:

Early notice of special events and pre-concert talks.
Discounts at participating retailers. This year we are delighted to tell you that in addition to Caffe Amouri and Donatos Pizza, Cocoa Vienna has joined us as a participating retailer!
NEW! We’re also very excited to tell you that this year, we are introducing a special benefit. Become a Friend of VCS, and we’ll give you a Companion Certificate – one free ticket to bring a friend or companion to see and experience any one VCS concert.

Friends who give over $100 are treated to a complimentary season ticket and reserved seating.

Additionally, all Friends are thanked on our website and in our concert programs.

Becoming a Friend of VCS is very easy. Talk to friends in the choir, give online, or send us a check made out to Vienna Choral Society with “Friends of VCS” in the memo line. Our address is PO Box 310, Vienna, VA 22183.

No matter the level at which you become a Friend or join us on show night –THANK YOU. We very much hope to see you this season. You are who we sing for, and who we can’t do without.

Here’s to another season of music, joy, and community!

Thank You For Coming Out To Carmina Burana!

May 22, 2016

What a night, what a show, what a season! That was a full house with so much energy to go with a big show. And what a show! Now you know what that big round thing behind the baritone was in some of our dress rehearsal photos. Speaking of which….

We have pictures galore of show night, dress rehearsal, and behind-the-stage scenes! Unfortunately, Day X of rains is throwing off our ability to upload a thing to the website. Pictures are up on our Facebook page, though – and publicly available. (In other words, you don’t have to be on the book of faces to see them.) Do enjoy!

Thank you for coming to Carmina Burana, for seeing us one more time, and one last time under the direction of Jennifer Rodgers. Last but not least, thank you for your support. You make it possible for us to do something like Carmina – starting with your participation with Friends of VCS each fall, and ending with your coming back every single concert. We are honored to have sung for you. We hope you’ll let us do it again next season.

Want to get word early of season tickets and Friends of VCS benefits? Email us! We’re at info@viennachoralsociety.org We’ll make sure you get first dibs. Until then, have a great summer!

Carmina Burana, Our Last Concert With Jennifer Rodgers

May 18, 2016

Photo by Jim King

We’ve told you all about Carmina Burana, and our prep for it. We’ve told you about how people showed up out of the woodwork to sing just this one concert with us. And we’ve told you about how it’s the biggest show we’ve done, ever. (Yes, we checked. We’ve done large works in the past, but never anything with this many people or large moving parts, from the music to the props.)

It’s been amazing and exciting. But we’ve been holding out on you. We haven’t shared how bittersweet these last few rehearsals have been. Because this is Maestra Jennifer Rodgers’ last concert with us.

After six and a half years with us, Ms. Rodgers is moving west. In the fall, she begins a new professional chapter in the DMA program of the University of Washington, Seattle. Needless to say, sad as we are to see her go, we are happy for the future Dr. Rodgers and wish her the very best.

The choir has enjoyed this time with her. Under her artistic leadership and vision, we have gone from a choir that nearly closed doors in 2009, to a thriving organization whose wall of sound has encouraged singers to dream big. And boy, are we ending this season, and our time with her, on a big bang! To paraphrase her a bit from program notes that you’ll see on show night, this is a “Cecille B. DeRodgers!” show.

We can’t tell you more about that. You’ll just have to see for yourself. Let’s just say this concert will be a feast for eyes and ears. And for those of you who want to learn a bit more about Carmina before we sing it, Ms. Rodgers will do a rare pre-concert talk.

Between all the players—especially the kids from Mosby Woods Elementary School’s choir—and their friends and family, we expect a very full house. We’ll have tickets at the door, but we encourage you to buy yours well ahead of time.

Tickets are available online until 11:30 pm, Friday, May 20, 2016. Tickets are $25/adults, $20/Seniors(65+) and Students (15-18). Youth aged 14 and younger attend for free if accompanied by a paying audience member. Tickets are also available through VCS singers.

The box office will open at 6:15 pm. Doors open for the pre-concert talk at 7:10 pm. We sing Carmina Burana at 7:30 pm, Saturday, May 21, 2016, Vienna Baptist Church (541 Marshall Road SW, Vienna, VA 22180).

Please come! You don’t want to miss this. And you don’t want to miss the energy in the room when we are directed by Ms. Rodgers one last time.