What is your favourite holiday music?
For me, honestly, there are almost too many options! I love it all…from Sleigh Ride to All I Want for Christmas, music for Solstice and Hanukkah. But if I was forced to pick, it might be an easy choice as “Messiah Week” at the SSO is my favourite concert week of the year.
Regardless of how many times I experience Handel’s Messiah, whether as a pianist helping a singer practice this difficult music or as an audience member of a sing-along, it never fails to remind me that it is so magical.
This music, nearly 300 years old, is evergreen. It somehow magically always feels fresh and brand new. It never gets “easier” for the performers. It never fails to lift the audience up out of their seats and throw their spirit around the room in drama and unabashed joy.
And somehow, hundreds of years later Handel is still achieving what he always wanted to. Forget the drama, forget the spectacular music – it’s about community.
If you’ve never been to our Sing-Along Messiah performance – I want you to join us this weekend. You don’t have to sing along…but I’d love it if you gave it a try. It’s hard! It’s a bit scary (even for those of us who know it well). But it is among the most incredible prescription for joy that you can experience.
Sitting alongside friends and strangers, we all embark on this wild journey of music that is complex and challenging, and singing it together will fill you with joy. You’ll know things are going well, and you’ll know when things are not! You will find yourself deeply moved by being in harmony with the entire room around you, and you will likely find yourself laughing. Somehow, Handel is still binding us together.
As an orchestra and a charity, coming together is what we do best. We’re called to find ways of connecting everyone, from musicians to audience, in something great. And just like an incredible piece of music, everything is at its greatest when we work together.
In that goal of working together to great music, I’m asking you to make a donation to the SSO this holiday season. As a charity, these next few weeks are crucial to our continuing success.
We have a few more weeks to receive gifts ahead of the end of the calendar year. And with our matching support from the Frank and Ellen Remai Foundation, making a gift is a bit like joining in for Sing-Along Messiah. It feels incredible to be part of something bigger that brings so much joy to all of us when we make music together.
Thank you so much for your incredible support,
Mark Turner
