Composer and Conductor, Alberto Grau

Maria Guinand rehearsing the Bach Christmas Oratorio.

 

Rehearsing Bach Chorales in Spanish with 500 singers was a first for me at the Teatro Teresa Carreño in Caracas. The esteemed conductor Maria Guinand invited me to join in an epic performance of Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, and I happily found my place amongst a group of super friendly altos –some of them professional choristers and others former El Sistema singers from days gone by.  It was a reunion of old friends through song and touching to witness how music can create and sustain community.