Thank you for making today such a blessed day for me and for many. Your reading of a challenging and mature work today was expressive, passionate, communicative, and meaningful. Astonishingly, you accomplished all of that in less than a month's time...thanks to your vigilance, practice, and commitment. I hope you rest now in the realization that every effort was worthwhile for the opportunity to be involved in and engaged with such an astonishingly beautiful creation. Thank you for helping me and others to fully experience this great work of art, this great testament of faith, this great treasure of our history and heritage.
Though I try not to share too much personal history with you (pretty boring!), I hope you will indulge me this once...
This was my third time to conduct DONA NOBIS PACEM. The first time was 1999, and it was my first ever experience with conducting a major work-- it was a tremendous gift from my college professor to allow me that opportunity at the end of my senior year (ironically, my teacher was performing at First-Plymouth earlier in that weekend of our performance in Cleveland!). The second time was 2005, my third year in Michigan. That performance was a true turning point for our choir there-- and, ironically, it nearly followed the choir's first visit with Anton Armstrong (sound familiar?). Those two experiences inspired the rest of our music-making and ministry there in an undeniable way. This third time--another six years later-- is extra special for me, personally, because it brought together two choirs that I dearly and truly love...I even find myself with some tears in my eyes as I write this, picturing you all side by side in the choir loft... With every part of my being, I can say with conviction that there is nowhere else on earth I would have rather been at 4:00 this afternoon than to be with each of you within the sanctuary of the choirs I love. I can only hope that that might be true for you, too.
Thank you, each and all, for the gift you are in my life. Thank you for welcoming me, accepting me, caring for me, encouraging me, challenging me, teaching me, and enabling me to grow. Know that I am grateful each and every day to have two jobs, two choirs, and two communities that really are home for my soul. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Grace and peace,
TT
