Evening of Beautiful Music

Tonight we had a real treat.  My daughter, as some of you know, is in her high school's concert choir.  This year they had the opportunity to have a song commissioned especially for their choir.  The choir, along with the community, as well as some generous local businesses, were able to raise the money to have a wonderful composer named Ola Gjeilo (pronounced Yay- Lo) write them their very own song.

Ola Gjeilo was born in Norway, and moved to New York to study at Juilliard.  He is now a full time composer based in New York.  A quick search on YouTube and you can hear some of his music.  You can read more about him at olagjeilo.com.

Today Ola Gjeilo was able to spend a portion of the day working with the concert choir, and this evening the concert choir got to preform their song for the first time.  Ola Gjeilo also played an amazing improvised piano concert.  What a talented musician!  I was thrilled that Sarah and her choir have had this opportunity.  I really enjoyed the beautiful music this evening.

The song he wrote for them is called Sanctuary, and is lovely.  The song lyrics are from Psalm 33 in both English and Latin.  I believe the song was recorded, and hopefully will eventually be put on Youtube, I look forward to hearing it again, and sharing it with you.  Sarah's Choir will be preforming Santuary at their competitions, as well as spring tour.

After the event all the choir got to have their Sanctuary Music signed by Ola Gjeilo, which they all were very excited about.  My daughter, who is left-handed was even more pleased when she realized he was signing with his left hand!  Her smile says it all.

You can check out some of Ola Gjeilo's music at Amazon or itunes.

Here are my Amazon Affiliate links for some of his albums, if you would like to check them out.

I am downloading this one tonight. :)

Thanks to Ola Gjeilo for flying clear out here to our small town in Oregon clear from New York, and sharing your beautiful music.  Thanks to Mr. Friesen, Sarah's choir teacher, for putting this all together, and working so hard with the choir.  Thanks to the Molalla Concert Choir and all their beautiful voices!  What a wonderful evening!