One Christmas tradition that has brought us great joy is the annualBoulder Messiah Sing-Along. We discovered it in 2002, and with one exception, have participated every year since. This will be our 11th year of participation. This year's (2013) three events will be held on Saturday and Sunday, December 21st and 22nd. We will be there on Sunday evening, the 22nd. See the link for more information on this 31st annual event..
Mr. Robert Arentz has been conducting this wonderful event three times a year for the past 30 years (this wil be the 31st). Professional soloists and an orchestra are hired.
A festival choir that has been practicing since September leads the singing, and the congregation sings along on all of the choruses.
Here's a shot of the joyful participants in the annual Messiah Sing-Along in the beautiful sanctuary of St. John's Episcopal Church in Boulder.
Another shot of the enthusiastic singers (you can see my wife, our niece, and part of me on the righthand side of the picture).
Everyone is invited. Tickets are only $15, if purchased in advance at The West End Wine Shop (8th and Pearl in downtown Boulder), Page Two (in Gunbarrel), John's Cleaners at 28th and Iris, the Trattoria on Pearl Street (east end of the Mall), St. John's Episcopal Church (14th and Pine Street), or at the door for $20. If you would like to buy tickets beforehand, they can be purchased via credit card at their web site: www.messiahsingalong.org. You may also call 303-666-9016 to hold tickets in your name as will-calls, which you can pay for and pick up in the lobby.
Most of the participants in the congregation have sung Messiah many times over and have their own scores, but scores are also available at the door, on loan (free) or for purchase ($10). Don't allow the lack of a score to keep you from one of the most uplifting events of the Christmas season.
For more on Handel, check out an excellent article here.
For much more information about the Sing-Along (Singalong/Sing-a-long) and about G. F. Handel and his music, check out the Boulder Messiah Sing-Along sitehere.
Why do I have a blog? Quite simply, I have a blog to share my favorite things with others. The right side of the blog has a long list of links to some of the places on the Internet that I visit often. In addition to sharing those with others, I often come here myself to find a quick link to where I am going.
Bonnie, our eldest, led the way into blogging with her Simple Beauty Blog, and later with her extremely popular Beans Blog. I decided I would give blogging a try and thought "I have a blog" might be a clever name, but in English it sounded rather lame, so I did it in Hebrew, a language I love more and more the more I learn it.
What does Yesh Li Blog mean?
We would translate (i.e. interpret) yesh li blog to mean "I have a blog" in English, but the literal Hebrew means "There is for (or to) me a blog." You cannot literally say "I have" something or other in Hebrew. It is always "there is for me," or "there is for you," or "there is for us," etc. Hebrew, the language of the Bible, is showing us that we are really stewards of what has been provided for us and for our use. Rather than private ownership, perhaps a better term for what we "own" would be private stewardship.
Languages have been my passion since at least the fourth grade, when I studied Spanish from a library book called Fun with Spanish. In high school, I was the rara avis that became enamored of Latin. In later U.S. Navy tours of duty in Spain, Italy, and Japan, we did our best to learn the local languages. Along the way, I studied some Russian and picked up some Greek by studying etymologies and some Chinese by studying Japanese writing systems.
My first introduction to Hebrew was in the early 1980s, when I took a correspondence course, but it was not until the past decade that my primary focus has been on this wondrous language. It has been deeply rewarding, and especially in the past few years since we met Ori, an amazing Israeli woman, who has become not only my primary Hebrew mentor but also our good friend. Moreover, the small group of people who meet weekly to study Torah in Hebrew in Boulder have become dear to us and enriched our lives greatly. Further, reading Jewish commentaries on the Web of the weekly Torah portions has deepened my own faith and opened up new understandings of the scriptures we share and of Christian writings based on those scriptures.
The pursuit of words has been an essential part of my life for many years (since birth?). Many things have changed in my life, but I don't see that part of it changing any time soon (until death?). Lehitraot! Shalom, Chaverim!