Making New Music Into an Old Friend

Founding Triad member Julian Bryson writes about our Sunday evening concert, and the experience of revisiting music sung on previous Triad programs:

[…] Triad presented a concert with the intent of resurfacing gems from our first four seasons (and like any historian, we didn’t have time to perform every piece we wanted to include).  Like Messiah to my mentor, each returning piece felt just like “seeing an old friend again”.  As in any mature relationship, familiarity revealed new dimensions of understanding and connection.

Since our first concert, I’ve improved my vocal technique and sense of pitch (a musician’s work is NEVER done).  I’m still far from the best singer in our ensemble, but I’m definitely better than I was four years ago.  Additionally, I remembered quite a bit from our earlier performances of these works.  As a result, [Sunday] night’s concert was so much more personally meaningful than any of our previous outings.

I was able to immerse myself beauty of Emerson’s transcendental world, brought to life through Thomas Stumpf’s sensitive and poignant setting [Each and All].  I found myself pleading for mercy in the dramatic climax of Karl Henning’s Agnus Dei.  My heart leapt for joy among all generations in Sarah Riskind’s Hariyu—even (perhaps especially) through the high G’s.  And I smiled for the hundredth time as “standing” and “running” give way to “falling” and “crying”, “sleeping” and “dreaming” in Charles Turner’s Sing Child.