Monday to rehearse at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul at Second and Lawrence. To prepare for “Peace in All the Earth,” they’ve had several extra rehearsals including a recent three-day-long weekend session. Van der Loo works the singers hard, she says, and holds them to the same standard that’s set for professional choruses.
For each concert, van der Loo prepares a study CD for each singer with her enunciation of the songs in different languages. For more difficult songs, she makes separate tracks for each voice part in rhythm. Singers can then listen to the CD in their car or at home, she says, and become familiar with the words and sound.
Deborah Berman, who’s been with the chorus since around 1980, enjoys rehearsing just as much as performing, she says, partly for the challenge that singing in different languages brings. This concert is special, she says, because the chorus is embracing even more cultures and passing them along to the audience.
“It is a way we have of expressing everyone’s desire that there be peace,” Berman says.
“It’s a lot of languages this time, but it’s a challenge for us and makes us feel like we’re reaching out to all of the world.”
Cynthia Oeck-Solomon, a voice professor at Millikin University who’s been with the chorus for a year, adds that the theme of the concert also complements the upcoming holiday season.
“We’re talking about a beautiful time when everyone gets together,” she says. “There’s unity in the thoughts that we have, and we want to bring that out to everyone in the community and to the servicemen here and abroad.”
As plans for “Peace in All the Earth” were set in motion, the Springfield Choral Society decided to incorporate a special dedication to men and women serving in the military.
At each performance, audience members will be given cards and asked to write short messages to troops serving overseas. These cards, along with CDs, programs and pictures from the concert, will be collected by Operation Support Our Troops-Illinois, an organization based in Naperville that sends care packages to deployed service members in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Deb Rickert, the president of Operation Support Our Troops-Illinois, says the organization annually sends 125,000 pounds of care packages, which include everything from beef jerky to shaving cream to thank-you cards. She constantly hears that troops appreciate the cards the most.
“To get a note that says, ‘During this holiday season, you are in my thoughts and prayers and I appreciate the sacrifice that you’re making,’ gives them that little extra,” Rickert says. “[They] can get through whatever this day brings because fellow citizens across the world are thinking about them. It has a huge impact.”
The Springfield Choral Society is also encouraging people to buy tickets for veterans or to bring family and friends who are veterans to the program.
“A woman in the chorus wrote to me that her brother died in Vietnam 40 years ago on one of the days of the concert,” van der Loo says. “She was so moved that we are doing this. That pretty much says it all.
“It’s going to speak to people from many different perspectives.”
The Springfield Choral Society presents “Peace in All the Earth” at 7 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 5, at Central Baptist Church, 501 S. Fourth St. in Springfield, and at 4 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 6, at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church, 700 E. Spruce St. in Chatham. Tickets are $10 at the door.
Contact Amanda Robert at [email protected].
