Raise Your Voice With Us!!
Dear FBC Family,
I am SO excited to invite you to join us in the FBC Choir for this year’s Easter Cantata,
Testimony of Life by Joseph Martin!
(TL;DR —i.e. the short version—See the attached rehearsal schedules and join us in the choir for this year’s Easter Cantata, Testimony of Life by Joseph Martin!)
⬇️Scroll down for more details⬇️
Now for the long version…let me tell you about the piece we will be preparing!
The Music:
Opening with a child solo on the classic “Tell me the Story of Jesus”, Testimony of Life picks up where our Christmas cantata left off. It follows Jesus from his early life and ministry through the Triumphal Entry to the upper room (“Banquet of Mercy” - probably my favorite in the whole cantata) and then to Garden of Gethsemane (“Into the Garden”). Finally we “Survey the Wondrous Cross” and rejoice in the resurrection!
In Testimony of Life, Joseph Martin, one of the great American choral composers of the last 40 years, mixes familiar hymn tunes (often with different text) with forgotten hymns that should be remembered, along with a couple of new original anthems. These arrangements are both lyrically profound and harmonically interesting without being overly complicated, and with a few exceptions, the overall vocal range is slightly lower (to which the tenors and sopranos breathe a sigh of relief!😆)..
You are likely already well-acquainted with many of these tunes and may have grown up singing them in church, so you've got a head start!:
Combine these familiar hymn tunes with a delightful orchestration (with our whole brass section from Christmas returning along with an expanded woodwind section!) and you have a powerful and impactful piece that will stir your own soul along with all those who hear it.
You do not want to miss this!!!
CLICK HERE to listen to the full mix of Testimony of Life!
The Rehearsal Schedule:
Thank you to all who responded to the survey to help us understand your interest and availability for the Easter cantata. We learned a lot—at very least just what a challenge it is to organize and involve 40+ musicians (between the choir and orchestra) and their schedules and preferences!
Based on the responses we received and other feedback we got after the Christmas cantata, we are going to experiment with something new, and we will need your help and cooperation to make it happen. Here is what we have decided to do for this cantata season:
The responses were split right down the middle on this one, with half preferring Sunday and the other half preferring another evening during the week, with Wednesday being the most preferred evening. So we’ve decided to alternate between Sunday and Wednesday rehearsals to accommodate as many people as possible. While there are a few who are unable to attend one or the other, most of you expressed that you are available for either Sunday or Wednesday.
So what we have here is a chance to put Philippians 2:4 into practice—“Let each of you look not only
to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.” 😁
Our hope is that you will plan to attend all the rehearsals that you possibly can, and listen to the practice tracks* faithfully in between rehearsals!
This will allow us to get a “status update” for where we are at with the cantata before everyone leaves for Spring Break and know what kind of work we have left to do after the break. We hope you will make this a priority so that we can get the whole choir in the room together at least once before our combined rehearsals with the orchestra later in March.
There will be 2 combined rehearsals the week leading up to Palm Sunday, and then another combined dress rehearsal prior to Good Friday. These are very important so please put them on your calendar and plan to be there!
Many of you expressed how much you would have liked to be able to perform the Christmas cantata a second time (and many who heard it said they wished they could hear it again and bring a friend!). So this time around, we will be performing the cantata twice. The first will be in the morning service on Palm Sunday, and the second will be the evening of Good Friday. We will be doing more advertising than we have in the past, and really want to help as many people as possible experience this work and it’s message!
We have attached the rehearsal and performance schedule below in both list and calendar format, and we hope that you will prayerfully consider being a part of this wonderful musical presentation.
Whether you sing with us regularly, have sung with us in the past and are coming back, or are brand new with us, we have a seat saved for you and we invite you to come raise your voice with us as we celebrate all our Lord has done for us in his life, death and resurrection!
Fill out the form below TODAY and JOIN US!
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*Part-Dominant Rehearsal Tracks
You can download all the practice tracks for your part to load onto your phone or computer, and we will also have physical CDs available if you prefer them.
Testimony of Life Cantata Rehearsal Schedule
Choir Rehearsals
Orchestra Rehearsals
Combined Choir/Orchestra Rehearsals
Testimony of Life Cantata Performances
