Ever since True Concord Voices & Orchestra made the decision last month to postpone its season finale, Music Director Eric Holtan has been thinking of ways to keep music on the minds of the ensemble’s fans.
Last week, he launched the first of what he says will be regular weekly playlists, curated from some of the best classical choral recordings and programmed in a thematic way to feel like you are hearing an hourlong concert.
Holtan will upload a new “concert†every Friday and will keep the playlist on Spotfiy and YouTube throughout the week. Each week’s offerings relate to our current homebound condition, the result of stay-at-home orders from state and local officials issued last month in reaction to the coronavirus pandemic.
The first “program,†released April 10, focuses on “Music For Shelter†and speaks of “hope in the midst of turmoil, despair and loneliness,†according to a description on True Concord’s website. The playlist includes Bach cantatas, Brahms “Geistliches Lied†(Sacred Song), works by Mendelssohn and John Rutter, and several gospels and spirituals including the Josiah K. Alwood soul-lifter “Unclouded Day.â€
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The second playlist, “Light For A Weary World,†went live on Friday, April 17. Holtan said he is combing through some of the best classical and choral recordings available at no cost through Spotify to create the lists. And at some point, “we will probably work a True Concord cut from our (Stephen) Paulus album.â€
True Concord recorded several works by the late Minnesota composer on its 2015 Grammy-nominated CD “Far in the Heavens: Choral Music of Stephen Paulus,†which also included Paulus’s “Prayers and Remembrances,†a choral work True Concord commissioned in 2011 to mark the 10th anniversary of 9/11.
You can tune in to Holtan’s playlists on Spotify or YouTube through . There is no fee for either option.