A Message from Richard Coffey

[frame type=”left” width=”175″ height=”210″ src=”/wp-content/uploads/richard-coffey4-home-01.jpg” alt=”Richard Coffey, Music Director” title=”Richard Coffey, Music Director”] Some anthropologists and other human-behavior specialists tell us that the first sounds we make, post-womb, are musical. Other scientists and philosophers claim that vocal music, that is, singing, can be classified and described back to the earliest days of civilization as songs of lament (at the death of a child, for instance), songs of love (a mating cry), and songs of joy (an ecstatic outburst). What makes us sing so freely (often when we think no one is listening)? Why do some melodies make their nest in our brains such that we sometimes need to chase them out (to make room for new ones)? This is not a quiz, and there are no correct answers.

But singing, both primitive and modern, is at the heart of much of our human communication, within ourselves and with others, and choral singing is a radiant, timeless expression of that need to “commune.” The Hartford Chorale, as the region’s principal symphonic chorus, is at the heart of this large, southern New England “neighborhood.” Its 180 voices deliver to thousands of ears, minds, and hearts, the inexplicable and ineffable treasure and pleasure of text and tune, melody and harmony, antiphony and polyphony.

If you would like to “commune” with us, please do so, either by joining our song as a performing member, by visiting a rehearsal, or by attending a concert. You will be transformed by the power of the human voice and its capacity to move the soul. Your long-lost, perhaps “primitive” song will be unleashed, and everyone will rejoice at the new you! For enrichment, inspiration, and fulfillment, hitch your wagon to the Chorale “star” and become…stellar.

Richard Coffey, Music Director
The Hartford Chorale