“This is a time for joy!”  Our unchanging, Christmas-concert closer “Peace, Peace” includes this line, and joy is an important emotion during the holiday season.  We experience joy as we gather with family and friends for parties, when we sing carols with hundreds of others, or when we see the faces of children glowing in the colored lights of a Christmas tree. The Christmas angels joyfully exclaim “Glory to God in the highest!” as we remember the Christ child, whose significant arrival and redemptive power brought JOY TO THE WORLD.

Featuring GCA Alumni Singers

It is human nature to work hard towards a goal that one believes will result in a joyful arrival.  Keeping this joy at arm’s length as a someday-goal helps us to remain motivated and driven to progress and succeed.  But, how much better to have a mindset that embraces the delights of the learning process, the intermediate wins, and the friendships made along the way?  As we celebrate 20 years of Joyful Song with Griffin Choral Arts and mark our success over the years, we can truly say that there was JOY IN THE JOURNEY.

Beethoven was undoubtedly one of the most gifted composers of all time, but his life was not an easy one.  Plagued with difficulties and challenges: family troubles, a frustrating love life, anger issues, and most debilitating of all, significant hearing loss—it is a wonder that he would be inspired to write any music at all.  Yet, from the core of this tortured artist came some of the most beautiful and emotionally charged music ever written.  Who could have anticipated that this man’s most recognized and influential major composition, his 9^th Symphony, would embody the spirit of Schiller’s ODE TO JOY?

Featuring the Carroll Symphony Orchestra (Terry Lowry, Artistic Director) and Guest Choirs.

Celebrations, worship services, ceremonies, and significant cultural and historic events are almost always accompanied by singing voices.  Choral music elevates our spirits in a uniquely human way, as we unite, coordinate, and collaborate.  We breathe together, prepare together, focus together, move together, and the sound of many voices emerges as if one voice.  We begin our 20^th Season with a program that raises our awareness of the magic that happens when we SING FOR JOY.