Winter concerts and Epiphany Lessons and Carols

MUSIC

TO BRIGHTEN WINTER EVENINGS

Winter Solstice concert, Epiphany Lessons and Carols, and February Masterworks concert are on tap

Several opportunities to hear beautiful music made by our choirs and instrumentalists are coming this winter at St. Stephen’s.

The Winter Solstice Concert has become a wonderful tradition at St. Stephen’s Church, and this year, it will be held on the actual Solstice, Wednesday, December 21, at 7:00 p.m. Sanctuary, our Compline choir, will again offer this opportunity to pause during the busy holiday season and enjoy classic and modern a cappella music. The program will offer reflections on the themes of waning darkness and night, increasing light and day, and our preparation for the Nativity in our hearts and lives. Composers will include Eleanor Daley, Jake Runestad, Toby Hession, Kim André Arnesen, Dan Forrest, Annabel Rooney, Gabriel Jackson, Kerensa Briggs, and Peter Hallock. Sanctuary will also be joined by cellist Peter Greydanus and harpist Anastasia Jellison, performing both with the choir and on their own as a duo.

We look forward to beginning 2023 with a celebration of the Feast of the Epiphany, January 6, at 6:00 p.m., with Epiphany Lessons and Carols, a service similar to Christmas Lessons and Carols, made famous by King’s College, Cambridge. This service especially celebrates the revelation of Jesus as the son of God, and the sharing of the light of Christ throughout the world. This will be reflected by the lighting of candles and through choral music by Eric Whitacre, Kathleen Allen, Alison

By Brent te Velde

Willis, Philip Stopford, and Jonathan Dove. We plan to follow the service with a parish supper and chili cook-off! We’d love to have your enter your chili in the cook-off, but even if you don’t, we hope you will still come to the service and stay for supper. Details will be communicated in the Spirit and the eSpirit, our weekly newsletters, and at ststephensRVA.org/ epiphany.

This year our annual Masterworks Concert—to take place February 16, 2023, at 7:00 p.m.—will feature 20th century masterpieces. The program will begin with the only piece that American composer Charles Ives—known for revising his music throughout his life—was said to have been fully satisfied with: his setting of Psalm 90 for choir and organ. Ives vividly and powerfully explores the psalm’s text, using the capabilities of the choir and organ to their fullest extent. Sanctuary, our Compline choir, will sing, and Diana Chou will play the organ.

A piece by Benjamin Britten will follow, Canticle II: Abraham and Isaac. Britten, a friend of the American composter Aaron Copland, spent time traveling in the United States. This is the second of five canticles that Britten wrote at various points in his life, and three of them were dedicated as memorials. The text for the second canticle sets the text of the Abraham and Isaac story as told in the Chester Mystery Plays, and displays Britten’s operatic genius through the intimacy of the chamber trio of piano, countertenor, and tenor. Guest artists for this piece are artists John Bitsas, countertenor, Nathan Bick, tenor, and Ingrid Keller, pianist. Ingrid plays often at our Celtic service.

The program will close with Morten Lauridsen’s Lux aeterna, a requiem written and dedicated to his mother in the year that she died. Its five movements are based on various references to light in sacred Latin texts: perpetual light, light risen in the darkness, Redeemer-born light from light, light of the Holy Spirit, light of hearts, most blessed light, eternal light. Carol Talbeck described these as “all supporting an earthbound spirit seeking not only mercy, understanding, and consolation, but also renewal…in expressing a human journey to reclaim intimacy with the inner life, Lauridsen seamlessly integrates the musical essence of ancient modes, Renaissance polyphony, Romanticism, and modern dissonance. This timelessness can bring home to the listener the recognition of his or her own mortal journey.” St. Stephen’s Choir will perform this piece with a chamber orchestra, ,

Brent te Velde is director of music for St. Stephen’s Church.

UPCOMING CONCERTS

Additional details and tickets at ststephensRVA.org/concerts

Wednesday, December 21, at 7 p.m. Music for the Winter Solstice

Tickets: $20; $10 for students*

Friday, January 6, 2023 at 6 p.m. The Feast of the Epiphany

Epiphany Lessons and Carols service in the church Followed by supper with a chili cook-off No tickets or reservations required for the service (a sign-up will be available for supper)

Thursday, February 16, 2023 at 7:00 p.m. Annual Masterworks Concert

Choral works by Charles Ives, Benjamin Britten, and Morten Lauridsen, featuring Sanctuary, St. Stephen’s Choir, Diana Chou on organ, a chamber orchestra and guest soloists. Tickets: $25; $10 for students*

*Proceeds will help support a joint choir pilgrimage with River Road Church in 2024

Advent meditations offered by email

Are you receiving daily Advent mediations from St. Stephen’s Church? Since 2007, parishioners and staff of St. Stephen’s Church have written reflections which are emailed to subscribers (free) each day during Advent. Subscribers tell us that these emails are a welcome way to begin each day of this season of expectation and joy. If you do not already receive them, you can sign up from our website, ststephensRVA. org/email. Select the link for Advent meditations. Or text STSTEPHENSRVA to 22828 and follow the prompts.

Betsy Tyson returns to the classroom

St. Stephen’s rector is consulting with parents and others about future staffing in family ministry

Sarah Bartenstein

Betsy Tyson at her farewell reception with parishioners Bev Guy and JoAnn Pulliam. In August, Betsy Tyson, chaplain to Palmer Hall since 2019, left to return to the classroom. We miss Betsy but wish her well in her ministry at St. Michael’s School in Bon Air. The parish honored Betsy at a reception where we were able to thank her publicly for her imaginative and faithful work in Palmer Hall, Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, Vacation Bible School, and many other expressions of our ministry to children and their families. This was Betsy’s third time on our staff, and we are grateful for all her gifts to St. Stephen’s Church.

Since Betsy’s departure from the staff (she is still an active parishioner!), the Rev. John Rohrs has been consulting with parents and other parishioners and parish leaders to ensure that these ministries continue to thrive, and to consider what staffing model will best support them. We will keep you informed through the Spirit, the eSpirit, the family ministry newsletter, and through inperson conversations and announcements.

Sarah Bartenstein