The mission of the World House Choir emboldens us to sing out our creed: “to perform music that motivates and inspires our communities toward justice, diversity, inclusion and equality as we strive for peace and build our web of mutuality.”
Programming concerts (that’s how we sing out our creed) is a creative and challenging endeavor. How can we know the mood of our attentive audience just before a very consequential election? What could we bring to our listeners? We decided to err on the side of uplift, of possibility, of love, joy, and hope.
The choir is excited to include two new choral arrangements that were created expressly for us: “Road to Freedom,” by Lenny Kravitz, arranged by Steve Milloy, and Jeremy Winston’s wonderful arrangement of the African-American spiritual “Hold On.”
We will sing a work written last year, seemingly just for us here in Ohio called “Disenfranchised.” Minneapolis-based composer Elizabeth Alexander had a lot of fun composing the lyrics that suit these times. Enjoy and vote yes on Issue 1.
We lean in to classical choral works with the inclusion of Mendelssohn and Bernstein. As always, the World House Choir will ask you to join us to sing along as we ”stand on the side of love, hands joined together, as hearts beat as one, emboldened by truth we dare to proclaim, we are standing on the side of love.”
Recently, the World House Choir sang for the Dayton Democracy Summit at Sinclair College. The keynote speaker, Reverend Dr. William Barber said, “I hope no one thinks we have never been here before.” He was referring, of course, to our current moment when our democracy hangs by a thread. I immediately sat upright because that’s what I ask: “how can this be happening? Has this ever happened before?” History matters and Rev. Barber spoke about two distinct visions for our country that have been fighting for the soul of our country for a very long time.
Those of us who vision a just and equitable community and a healthy and safe future for our children and our planet want to sow seeds of hope, seeds of health, seeds of inclusion……we want to widen the circle and get proximate to people with whom we haven’t gotten to know previously. We want to build our web of mutuality.
Join us for our 11th anniversary concert called Hold On/Hold Hope. Community matters and the World House Choir appreciates you, our supportive and engaged audience. Without you we could not flourish.