Warm summer greetings to you all!
I hope this message finds you basking in the glories of our wonderful Pacific Northwest summers. Many choirs are on break from their program year commitments, conferences and conventions are happening around the country, and gardens beckon tending. What ever your avenue for renewal, revel in it!
This month, we have the opportunity to gather in a community setting for our annual year-end picnic on Monday, July 21 from 5-7pm, hosted by David Dahl and Loi Le at their home near PLU. Additionally, we will use a part of this gathering to hold our Annual Meeting and Board elections. Please check respective the respective links for more details.
In flipping through my July issues of The American Organist, which you can receive in either print form or read online (this option is available when you have or renew a National membership), I came across an article entitled “Satire and Truth in Humorous Organ Poems from the 18th Century” by Markus Rathey. I had he privilege of studying under Prof. Rathey during my graduate program at Yale. He is an incredible scholar on an assortment of topics, but primarily centered on Bach, Lutheranism, and societal contexts related thereto. I encourage you all to read this article, along with his handful of books on Bach’s choral and vocal works!
There are a handful of events to attend this month according to our online calendar. I will take this opportunity to plug the return of the Tacoma Bach Festival, July 24-26, with concerts at Christ Church and Kilworth Chapel. It will feature three concerts ranging from chamber music, to the Goldberg Variations on organ and a final choral concert. Additionally, there is a midsummer Choral Evensong at St. Luke’s Memorial, which will feature a new organ work by composer and former Dean of TAGO, Sheila Bristow, based on the hymn “Lift your voice rejoicing, Mary.”
If you have events you would like to see included on the calendar this summer and beyond, you can add them by logging into your account on the Tacoma AGO website!
I hope to see many of you at our picnic on July 21!
In music,
Wyatt