A Heritage of Singing

This past week I listened to a concert of lessons and carols from my alma mater, Calvin College. It made me nostalgic for the days when I was singing in choirs. I have "retired" from our Nassau Church choir.  It was a joy to sing with them for a few months before Covid changed everything for choirs.  The choir is rehearsing again but I think a weekly negative Covid test is required.  Plus I was feeling quite strongly that I wanted to worship with Jim, singing with him next to me for the time that we have left on this earth to go to church together.  However, we haven't gone to church for a year and a half or is it almost two years now?  On Sunday morning we sit on the couch and livestream the services from Nassau Street on our laptops.

Two hour choir rehearsals were demanding and it probably was best that I retired before someone suggested that I do so!   I could still keep up--even on Christmas Eve with Bach's Christmas Oratorio two years ago --but my stamina was weakening--and maybe so was my balance on choir risers.  

But I miss the joy of blending my voice with others and following the conductor's leading.  If the Grace Notes Choir starts up again, I will join them for their twice a month rehearsals.  Grace Notes is a group of singers of a certain age like mine.  The director  Noel Warner is excellent and the music was worth singing.   I hope they can end Zoom meetings and go back to regular rehearsals soon.

I was feeling a bit melancholy about giving up choral singing even though I had made a conscious decision to do so.  However I took great comfort in realizing that our daughter Laura is enjoying singing in her excellent church choir at Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church.  And then last Thursday we watched a livestream concert of our grandson Jasper's high school concert in which he sang with the concert choir and the more select acapella choir.  And today we watched our grandson James' concert from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in which he was one of only six basses singing in their excellent and challenging choir.  (His grandfather on his mother's side is a cantor in his church in North Carolina.)  So my joy in singing is carried out in my daughter's life and in our grandsons' lives.  And that gives me joy too!