Community Chorus Festival – this Friday at UUCC!
There will be fun and FREE event this Friday, October 3rd for music-lovers of all ages! Participants will learn new vocal techniques, meet some amazing people, and sing great music together. Join us at 6:30 pm to participate as a singer, or at 8:15 pm to enjoy a mini-concert in the UUCC Sanctuary. Featured guests will include:
Good Company: A Vocal Ensemble (Mike Carney, director)
The Singers’ Club of Cleveland (Christopher Clark, director)
Windsong: Cleveland’s Feminist Chorus (Jessica Gallagher-Steuver, director)
Music Notes – Sunday, Oct 5th:
This Sunday’s musicians are The Chancel Choir and UUCC Music Director Mike Carney
Centering Music: Sunday Song – Oesten
Max Oesten (1843–1917) was a German composer and keyboardist who was well-known during his lifetime but is often overlooked today. Oesten wrote a few choral and string pieces, but his primary output as a composer was music for piano and organ, and he was a prolific performer on both instruments. “Sunday Song” was published in 1899 as part of a larger collection of Twelve Select voluntaries for Organ or Harmonium.
Song: Just as Long as I Have Breath – Ebeling/Carpenter
#6 in Singing the Living Tradition, “Just as Long as I Have Breath” is a song based on Johann Ebeling’s (1637-1676) traditional hymn tune “Nicht So Traurig” (“Not So Sad”), with words by UU songwriter and activist Alicia S. Carpenter (1930-2021). Carpenter authored no fewer than 10 of the songs in our ‘big’ hymnal, including “Here We Have Gathered” (#360), We Celebrate the Web of Life” (#175), and “With Heart and Mind” (#300).
Offertory Music: I’m Gonna Sing – African American Spiritual, arr. Van Ryckeghem
“When the Spirit Says Sing” (also known as “I’m Gonna Sing”) is among the best-known of traditional African American Spirituals. Its origins are unknown, but the song first began appearing in hymnals during the 1950s and became one of the rallying anthems of The Civil Rights Movement during the 1960s. It is included in our Singing the Journey hymnbook as #1024 under the title “When the Spirit Says Do”.
Song: Heart Wide Open – Morris
Postlude: Keep on Saying Yes –Morris
“Heart Wide Open” and “Keep on Saying Yes” are both songs by award-winning performer and composer Lea Morris (b. 1978), also known simply as LEA. Born in Baltimore to a father who toured the world playing trumpet in the funk band Black Heat and a mother who dreamed of opera while performing with her siblings in the Jones Family Gospel Singers, LEA was singing on the pulpit of the Baptist church where she grew up as soon she could speak. When she discovered the acoustic guitar as a teenager, she began teaching herself to play by writing songs. LEA’s final year in high school in Germany at a classical conservatory, where she sang with the jazz ensemble Black & White and co-wrote with the British pop trio Indigo Wild. Having shared the stage with luminaries including Odetta, Mavis Staples, Dar Williams and Anthony Hamilton, LEA performs at a far-ranging array of venues, including arts centers, universities, festivals, places of worship and beyond. She performs solo and with her band, The Moment. (includes material from thisislea.com)
-Mike Carney, UUCC Music Director