Notes from the 9th Floor - January 2023
An extended museum schedule in 2022 kept The Sembrich opened through Columbus Day weekend, affording leaf peepers the chance to enjoy both the studio and the grounds during peak foliage season. Click to enlarge
Greetings from the ninth floor of the Professional Arts Building in Scranton, PA, and the three small rooms that serve as my composing and work studio for the months of the year when I’m not on Lake George.
In years past, I was usually well-situated in this off-season workspace by the end of September. This year, an extended museum schedule made possible by the recent studio renovation project and an updated HVAC system, kept me in residence on the Sembrich grounds well into October.
One of the first tasks awaiting me on my return to Scranton was the assembly of the instrumental parts for my Christmas cantata, VOICES IN THE MIST. The work was commissioned and premiered by the Bucks County Choral Society in 1988. Thomas Lloyd, the choir’s artistic director, phoned in late July, during the throes of our busy summer festival, to let me know that the group planned to program the work on a pair of concerts in December as a part of the chorus’s 50th anniversary season.
Though I was able to locate most of the sheet music in storage on my return to Scranton, several sections of the woodwind part needed to be recopied by hand. This task, along with the printing of a new set of parts for the work’s revival, occupied most of my time in November.
I also took advantage of the generous invitation extended to me by conductor Lloyd to attend a pair of rehearsals. One of the great pleasures working as a composer is the opportunity to meet a group of talented musicians like these: the conductor, singers and instrumentalists of the Bucks County Choral Society.
Soprano Margaret Kellis, flanked by violinist Mariusz Monczak and tenor Adam Michalak. Click to enlarge
In early November, I took a day away from the choral preparations to attend a momentous concert program at Carnegie Hall. Entitled “United for Peace,” this sold-out benefit of Polish and Ukrainian solidarity raised funds for orphans and wounded children affected by the war in Ukraine. Among the dozen-and-a-half musical participants in the program was Margaret Kellis, a glorious soprano and a great friend and supporter of The Sembrich. Margaret gave the world premiere performance of an intense, driving setting of the Ave Maria by composer Norbert Palej.
The new work and the entire concert served as a stark reminder of the dark clouds of war that have shadowed the year 2022. Our thoughts, in particular, go out to our friends and colleagues at “Discovering Paderewski” in Lviv, Ukraine, with whom we’ve collaborated since 2014.
I was able to visit with Marianna Humetska and Adam Bala, directors of “Discovering Paderewski,” while in Warsaw last June in attendance at the Moniuszko International Vocal Competition. Though now situated in Poland due to the war, the pair remain as resilient as ever, raising scholarship funds for fellow musicians, presenting exciting concert programs all over Poland and making ambitious plans for the future.
Marianna Humetska and Adam Bala, directors of “Discovering Paderewski” in Warsaw, Poland, June 2022.
As we close out one year and to look ahead to a new one, with the uncertainty of war prevailing and with that mix of emotions so typical when reminded of the passage of time---nostalgia, regret and hope---we turn to the words of Alfred Lord Tennyson as our fervent prayer for the year 2023:
The Christmas bells from hill to hill
Answer each other in the mist.
Four voices of four hamlets round…
That now dilate, and now decrease,
Peace and goodwill, goodwill and peace,
Peace and goodwill, to all mankind.
Here now, the finale of my Christmas cantata, VOICES IN THE MIST with the Bucks County Choral Society, Thomas Lloyd, conductor, recorded live at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in Doylestown, PA, 12-11-22, produced by Joe Hannigan with cinematography by Andrew Gormley:
Happy New Year!
On behalf of the Sembrich Board and Staff, we extend heartfelt good wishes to you and yours for a Happy New Year! We look forward to meeting once again to share in the joy of music along the shores of Lake George!
Until then,
Richard Wargo
Artistic Director