12 Mar Telluride Choral Society: SpringSing, 3/21 & 3/23, “Reflect. Restore. Renew!”
Performances of the Telluride Choral Society’s Springing 2025 take place Friday, March 21, 7 p.m. and Sunday, March 23, 4 p.m. at Christ Church. Tickets are $20 for adults; $10 for children at the door.
Go here for more about the Telluride Choral Society.
Spring in Telluride. When the snow isn’t flying and the wind isn’t blowing like stink. Mud may be under foot – but love is in the air.
Reflect, Restore. Renew. – Rosemerry. All that alliteration rolls up into a night of uplifting, heart-warming sounds when the Telluride Choral Society (TCS) celebrates the season of love with its annual SpringSing.
In these challenging times when love seems to have gotten lost in the fog of warring words, what’s love got to do with it? Everything per Hal Adler, TCS adult director, and Word Woman Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer whose poem, “Rings of Your Heart” inspired a composition that is the grand finale of what promises to be a night to remember.
Rosemerry,. credit Joanne Schwartz.
“Rings of Your Heart”
I want to trace the rings of your heart
the way I would trace tree rings—
not to count them
but to honor each season of you.
I want to touch my fingertips
to your scars, want to learn
your heart’s stories, find clues
of how you became who you are.
I want to press my palms
to your heart and praise
how it is we grow,
even in disaster, even in drought,
want to praise the dark center,
the time-thick bark, the record
of the ordinary days. I want
to chart the thin slivers of your wounds
and let my hands speak love,
want to tell you in a language
of quiet touch, I see you.
“One of the great joys in my life has been having poems transformed into choral music,” explains Rosemerry. “The piece the Telluride Choral Society will be singing was a part of the SHARED VISIONS program hosted by the incredible Ars Nova Singers, led by Tom Morgan.
“It’s THRILLING to hear a poem sung by a choir. When it goes from being 2-D to 3-D event it enters the body in a whole different way and, as a writer, I get to experience the poem with nuances and layers added by the composer, the conductor and the singers themselves. It’s so humbling, so heart-opening, so collaboratively glorious…
“The poem itself (‘Rings of the Heart’) is a love poem, a longing to connect intimately with another, to know another’s stories. It draws on the image of tree rings, and imagines we might read each other’s hearts the way we read the rings of a tree. What stories might the heart tell if we could read them and touch them this way?
“I am so grateful to Hal for including this song in the repertoire this year and grateful to all the singers and musicians for making this work again come to life! And in my hometown! It feels too good to be true!”
Hal explains “Reflect, Restore. Renew.” and other concerts further.
“Our intention with this program was and remains to share love, light and connection, We hope our audiences experience a sense of reflection, restoration and renewal. Different songs encourage different expressions:
◦Reflect- ‘We Shall Be Known’ and ‘This Little Light of Mine,’ ‘The Road Home’
◦Restore- ‘Simple Gifts’ and ‘Wana Baraka’
◦Renew- ‘Muusika’
“‘Camp Rosemerry’ is a build from last season’s Biebl Camp (Hal’s riff on Bible Camp). This segment features, as we said above, Rosemerry’s “Rings of your Heart” with music by Raul Dominguez.
The way Biebl Camp works is that Hal’s “campers” join the rest of the singers for one three-hour intensive toward the end of rehearsal cycle, then sing with the ensemble. Forty+ voices will perform “Rings.”
“Rosemerry herself will perform with us and speak for a bit about her poem,” added Hal.
People often ask Hal how he picks music for SpringSings and other concerts. Below is his answer:
“Reflecting on that question a bit. I think of music as a doorway. I free an admission pathway to an altered experience, an immersion or an adventure. When I pick music, I start with what moves me. What brings me to tears. What changes my mood or my inner state. What do I want to hear again and again and again. I think about the choir and ask the same questions. We can’t move an audience unless we ourselves are moved. Lastly I consider our audience. Only when all three – choir, audience and I– are likely to have a real experience, do I confirm a piece.
“Then of course, I need to think programmatically. Not only does each song need to have importance and meaning, the seven or eight pieces we plan to sing need to weave together to tell a story.
“It takes about a year to pick a program. Right now I’m listening to potential songs for Winter and Spring 2026.”
Reflect on that.
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