December is crammed with holiday concerts, with performances at practically every school, church, and cultural institution. Someone else might get bored with holiday music, but not me. My interest in music doesn’t diminish, even when the music being performed gets a bit repetitive.
I sang, as I do each year, at the Choral Society of the Hamptons concerts at the Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church on Sunday, Dec. 8, and after that I was all ears.
Chris, my husband, is a fine baritone, and he started the musical maelstrom with the North Fork Chorale, which performed with soprano and flute soloists at the Peconic Landing retirement community and then at a number of other North Fork venues. He had been in rehearsal for weeks, and his show schedule clashed with my own Choral Society performances, so — for the first time in eons, and to the amazement of family members — he missed the Choral Society’s Bridgehampton shows. Music drove husband and wife asunder, you might say.
By Friday, we were back together again in harmony when we traveled with a group of fellow singers to the Mattituck Presbyterian Church for a concert by the Peconic Bay Masterworks Choir, with accompaniment by a professional orchestra and electronic organ. It was conducted by the Rev. Ronald W. Wickey, a Peconic Landing resident.
Choral singing is rather a small world here on the East End, and some of the Choral Society’s best singers also sing with the Peconic Bay Masterworks Choir, notably Thomas Milton, a Shelter Island resident and bass/baritone soloist. At intermission in Mattituck, Mr. Milton said he accepts every opportunity that comes his way — be it a modest church program or a concert with a well-known and more professional group. Chris and I understand exactly what he means: Life is short, and opportunities for singing with a group are relatively few. We never get sated.
You can read in this edition of The Star about a choral piece that debuted during the Choral Society’s Dec. 8 concerts: the world premiere of “Dancing: Variations” by David M. Brandenburg, a longtime Amagansett resident who is a writer as well as a composer, with lyrics by the poet Kathryn Levy. Many will recall Mr. Brandenburg’s staging of outdoor Shakespeare performances on the hills in Montauk in years gone by; he is also the mastermind of Camp Shakespeare, a summer program for school students.
It is said that in dark times, art can elevate the mind — or, for those inclined to see it that way, the soul — and I know this to be true.
The new year fast approaching may be another rough one (for the environment, certainly, and for those around the world who treasure civil liberties). Singing will help us collect our thoughts and lift our mood. The big news in our musical world for 2020 is that the Choral Society will be skipping its usual spring concert, having decided to get to work on the Bach B Minor Mass, one of the great classical masterpieces of all time, as an early summer musical gift on June 27. Mark your calendars.