CWU Chamber Choir by Candlelight: Horizons

Dr. Nicole Lamartine will lead the CWU Chamber Choir on in a concert experience exploring transformation from the known to the unknown, “Horizons.” The concert is ticketed and takes place on Friday, December 1 at 7pm at the Ellensburg United Methodist Church.

This concert experience explores themes of the season, but is not a traditional holiday concert. Contemporary choral works, as well as music from a diversity of cultures and spiritual traditions, will highlight themes of sharing, giving, healing, peace, and strengthening community.

“Even in our depth, we can find the hope that we will see what is obscured beyond the horizon and find curiosity in what lies at the edge of what we perceive. It is through the ever-cyclic renewal of dawn at the horizon that we can depend on the peace and hope in our world,” says Lamartine.

The choirs create the audience experience through a continuous collage program interwoven with prose, improvisation, chamber groups, and solos. The program features a premiere commissioned work from Kansas composer Forrest Pierce, “Near as Never,” as well as the uplifting “Bogoroditse Devo” by Arvo Pårt. Interwoven throughout the experience are moments of familiar music that surprise and connect. The concert concludes with candlelight illuminating the church as everyone sings “Silent Night.”

Connecting each part of the concert are poems and prose largely written by members of the choir, and the choir will premiere the poem “Swimming in Silence” written for the experience by Ellensburg Poet Laureate Marie Marchand. Collaborator Tim Ribner for Portland, Oregon is the featured collaborator, bringing to life the journey on piano. Special Guest Jeff Selden will perform with the choir on guitar.

Come early to enjoy pre-concert music by Valley Voices, led by Jan Jaffee and Vox Humana, directed by Lee Bates.