A Thousand Beautiful Things

Inspired by the very act of life itself: fun, humor, love, faith, nature, hope. We rely on beautiful things to keep us grounded and safe.
About this Event

The word “beautiful” can mean something that delights or gives pleasure to the senses and the mind, stirring deep emotion.  The repertoire in our opening season concert is inspired by everything and everyone we consider beautiful:  family, friends, love, faith, humor, nature, even the very essence of the music we make, among so many others.  The medieval text “Ubi Caritas” says “Where charity and love are, God is there…”, while Emily Dickenson writes in her poem “Hope is the Thing with Feathers”: “I’ve heard it in the chillest land….and on the strangest Sea…Yet - never - in Extremity…It asked a crumb - of me”.

A featured piece in this program is Jake Runestad’s Please Stay, a ground-breaking composition that addresses humanity’s inherent mental health struggles in the present day.   Its shocking opening - “NO!  DON’T GO!” is followed by an encouraging message meant for us to come to ourselves: “Hope is real, help is real, you are breath…life…beauty….light.”, until it concludes with, “Please, stay”.  It is the above attributes, the thousands of beautiful things, that keep us grounded and present when tragedy and hardship arise.