04/04/2020 – Learn about Alice Parker

“The sobering reality is that just when we need to work together, we can’t be together. Social distancing and quarantines mean that we can’t affirm our human ties by meeting together in groups large and small. From my point of view, there’s the incalculable loss of being able to SING together – that unique way of affirming each individual voice as we create not only community, but beauty.

So we must learn to think differently. What can I do, right here, today, to preserve this world? I can affirm that one day this will be over, and that there will be a world in which my great-grandchildren can live and love. I can show kindness to myself and to everyone I meet. I can try to get through this day with no angry words or acts. I can realize that others are facing far severer challenges than mine, and help them however I can. It seems so litte – but if each one of us lived this way, the world would be changed.

Where is the answer? It is where it always was, deep within us. Can we find the quiet place inside where we put our own souls in order? Can we remember that we are part of this same world in which Spring is returning to our Northern climes? Can we sing by ourselves, in our family groups, or on our balconies, to gladden our hearts and ‘keep the dark away’?

I think we can. After all, there are those babies being born all over the world. I think we must.”

Alice Parker, “Working Together While Living Apart”

(Excerpted and used with permission)

The Baltimore Choral Arts and Blake Clark have just been awarded the prestigious  Alice Parker Award by Chorus America. It is a huge honor and we are so proud.  Next season, we will be performing the Mozart Requiem under Blake’s direction.

Hugs …

Marty