SOLARIA SINGERS featuring special guest artist MOIRA SMILEY
Andrew Minear, conductor

(scroll down for additional program information)

PARKING & VENUE INFORMATION

The concert venue is The Harriett Coleman Center for Performing Arts (901 Highland Ave, Orlando, FL 32803). Enter the campus of Lake Highland Preparatory School from Marks Street at Gate 2 (#8 on the map). Note that there are multiple road closures on Highland Ave, so please plan accordingly. Available parking is indicated by the yellow rectangles. The concert is in the Harriett Coleman Center for the Arts (#13 on the map).

A letter from the director…

Dear Solaria Fans and Friends of Orlando Sings,

For the fourth year, we gather to celebrate the winter solstice with song. Inspired by the turning of the seasons and the wonders of the universe, music connects the celestial and the personal—distilling cosmic rhythms into the pulse of our hearts and the energy of every atom in our bodies. Annual traditions and holidays become touchstones in this eternal cycle, bringing moments of joy, reflection, and, for some, difficulty. As New York Times “Cosmic Affairs Correspondent” Dennis Overbye reminds us, “you trust that the steady rise and fall of stars heralds order, only to be ambushed by surprise and confusion.”

This season, we remember—treasured times with loved ones and the enduring light they leave behind. My own memories drift to Thanksgiving at the kids’ table with my cousins, Christmas feasts at my grandparents’ magical home, and this year, the candle I will light for the late mother of my children. Even in loss, the light of love shines always.

In the darkest nights, we hold to the words of Martin Luther King Jr.: “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” Tonight’s program acknowledges the night and then shines a radiant light, ushering us from the year’s end into a new journey around the Sun and the promise of bright days ahead.

The timing of this season is no coincidence. Christmas aligns with ancient celebrations of the solstice—the Roman festival of Sol Invictus (“The Unconquered Sun”) and Saturnalia, rejoicing in the return of light. Early Christians chose this time to honor Jesus, the “Light of the World,” bringing hope into darkness. Hanukkah, the Jewish Festival of Lights, also celebrates light and resilience during the year’s darkest days.

As this tradition stretches back centuries, so does the art of choral music. Tonight’s program spans ancient melodies (“O Come, O Come Emmanuel”) and new creations, including Orlando Sings’ first-ever commissioned work: Northern Winter Songs by Moira Smiley. This interplay of ancient and modern, light and dark, joy and sorrow, indeed reflects the essence and fullness of life itself.

May tonight fill you with hope, resilience, and the courage to embrace new beginnings, knowing the best is yet to come. May your heartbeats reverberate the profound message: “This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine!”

Thank you for being part of the journey tonight.

With Gratitude,


Andrew Minear, D.M.A.
Artistic and Executive Director

PROGRAM

I. PROLOGUE: LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS

A Light Within by Sean Ivory

II. LIGHT OF THE WORLD

Sing Christmas! Philip Lasser
O Come, O Come Emmanuel/O Come All Ye Faithful* arr. Dragomir Page
Lux Aurumque Eric Whitacre
The Chanukah Song (We Are Lights) Stephen Schwartz/arr. Nowlin
Jingle Bells arr. Dragomir Page

III. DARKNESS

A Silence Haunts Me Jake Runestad

IV. PEACE AND LIGHT AFTER LOSS

Khutso Mokale Koapeng & Roderick Williams
Jeremy Fratti, saxophone
This Little Light of Mine arr. Robert T. Gibson

V. WINTER’S LIGHT

Northern Winter Songs* Moira Smiley
1. Will You Slow As I Slow?
2. High Cold Blow
3. Under The Winter Sun
4. Now Eternal
Samantha Barnes Daniel, soloist
5. Whose Woods

VI. MUSIC WITH MOIRA

Days of War Moira Smiley & Seamus Egan
Refugee Moira Smiley
Wiseman Moira Smiley
Oh Winter Moira Smiley

VII. A SOLARIA SOLSTICE FINALE

Rise, Shine! Traditional Spiritual/ arr. Marques L. A. Garrett and Tom Trenney
True Colors Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly/arr. Matthew Brown
Alex Pollard, soloist

*commissioned by ORLANDO SINGS, world premiere!

PROGRAM NOTES

Our program tonight begins with A Light Within, a piece that encapsulates the dichotomy (i.e. darkness and light) of the entire Solaria Solstice journey. “A light from within survives any shadow, And hope, like a seed, waits under the snow… Music can only emerge from the silence… and Lighter, the world will be glad of our song!” Lasser’s Sing Christmas is a delightful gem featuring Orlando Sings collaborative pianist Ledean Williams. Solaria member Dragomir Page is not only a singer, but an accomplished composer, and we are proud to be performing the world premiere of his mashup of traditional Christmas melodies “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” and “O Come All Ye Faithful”. Eric Whitacres’s stunning Lux Aurumque was made famous by his groundbreaking virtual choir, and the shimmering harmonies elucidate the Latin text, which translates: “Light warm and heavy as pure gold, and the angels sing softly to the newborn babe.” The Chanukah Song (We are Lights) is a beautiful piece by composer Stephen Schwartz, most famous as the creator of Broadway hits Wicked, Godspell, and Pippin as well as music for animated classics The Prince of Egypt and The Hunchback of Notre Dame. In this song, we are called to remember the ancient story, but not leave it in the past: we can carry on the miracle by shining our own light and joining it with the miraculous souls around us. “We are lights.” The final song of this set is the holiday favorite Jingle Bells! This setting, another by our very own Dragomir Page, is in the style of vocal jazz. Enjoy the tight harmonies and rhythmic spark of this delightful arrangement— a favorite of the singers on stage!

Here the program takes a turn, and we mourn the pain of loss. In this case, it is the loss of the sense most dear to all music lovers, our hearing. Jake Runestad’s A Silence Haunts Me sets an adaptation of the letter famed historic composer Ludwig von Beethoven wrote to his brothers confessing his distress around progressing hearing loss. When I heard this piece for the first time at its world premiere, I had never felt closer to a composer of the past as I did at the end as the sound faded away and all we could do is imagine the sound. The composer set the words with an intense emotional directness, and he incorporated Beethoven’s own music, including music from the Moonlight Sonata, the 3rd, 6th, and 9th Symphonies, and Creatures of Prometheus, but they are, in Runestad’s words, “filtered through a hazy, frustrated, and defeated state of being.”

Note that this piece does include Beethoven’s suicide ideation. If you are struggling, know that you are not alone—help is available; call or text the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 for free, confidential support 24/7.

From this pit of despair, we must pick ourselves up and carry on. What choice do we have? Beethoven himself went on to write some of the most revered works in the history of music after he lost his hearing. It was also in a moment of despair that South African composer Morale Koapeng wrote Khutšo after the death of his father. To his prayer (“Lord grant us peace, here, here in Africa; Let peace prevail in Africa.”) sung in Sepedi, one of the official languages of South Africa, the traditional Latin Agnus Dei text layers over the top with soprano and alto voices: “Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us, and grant us peace.” It is with this inner peace that This Little Light of Mine shines! In this new arrangement of the traditional spiritual, the composer layers voice upon voice in a rapturous expression of joy!

INTERMISSION

Orlando Sings is dedicated to moving the choral art form forward, and one important initiative is to commission composers to create new works. We are proud to present Orlando Sings’ FIRST ever commission tonight. Composer Moira Smiley created a stunning five-song choral suite entitled Northern Winter Songs to usher in the wild stillness of winter in the northern lands. The first song Will You Slow As I Slow? is a snow-dusted, plaintive call to winter slowness in the midst of this busy season. The 7/4 meter gives a spaciousness and the vocal “Hn na na’s” bring the listener into a world of snow dust, hush, rest, slowness, and child-like wonder. High Cold Blow is a wild, outdoor setting of 9th c. Irish Gaelic poem as translated by Flann O’Brien. The stag in Celtic mythology is a symbol of the forest – with antlers that resemble branches on a tree. In Christian Celtic myth, the wild goose represents the Holy Spirit. The vocal tone evokes wild, stark calls of geese, elk and the swish of icy wind and roaring sea. The 7/8 meter creates forward propulsion for the terse, harsh text. The harmony is inspired by folk polyphony from the country of Georgia. The third song Under The Winter Sun evokes a pond skate under winter sky. The 12/8 meter allows a ‘slow glide, touch, shift’ rhythm of skating while the vocalism is detached, steadily pulsing, and at times bright in the style of Eastern European folk singing. Now Eternal is a prayer for presence and patience. Plainly, quietly sung like a folk hymn, this strophic setting creates the perfect atmosphere to reflect the calm foundation of the poetry. Concluding the set, Whose Woods is a setting of the 1922 poem by Robert Frost, “Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening.” The composer has also added the occasional plaintive “hm” in moments to stop and ponder. Each stanza crescendos to a flourish of soprano and alto eighth notes, like snowflakes blowing around in the winter wind. The final chord repeatedly sung on the word “sleep” is an homage to composer Eric Whitacre and his signature harmonica language. His well-known choral piece “Sleep” was originally set to this same poem. We are honored and proud to present the world premiere of Northern Winter Songs.

In addition to being an accomplished composer, Moira Smiley is a brilliant song writer and gifted at adapting these songs for different performance settings; in this case, as choral pieces. Days of War, written by Moira Smiley & Seamus Egan, served as an artistic reaction the events leading up to and out of Charlottesville, VA in August, 2017. Moira shares, “I felt a paralyzing hopelessness and rage. I couldn’t imagine how to go on making pretty music in the face of all the hatred surrounding us. I’ve always been struck by the way angry, abusive actions are a cover up for ignorance and fear, and I was seeing more and more of those actions. Seamus made a mesmerizing two-chord guitar pattern that seemed a perfect place for these urgent words.” In Refugee, we are reminded that we are all much closer to being refugees than we want to imagine. This song is about feeling bereft and misunderstood, and inviting empathy. In the composer’s words: “My world was blown open in summer 2016 while volunteering at Calais Jungle refugee camp in France. I woke to culture and language completely beyond my understanding, and also the simple power of humans making beauty together – from nothing. It’s an honor to be with people when they have a life-or-death need for ‘perspective’ – that perspective mostly gotten through tenacity, openness and wit. Through these people who had become refugees, I understood how deeply connected we billions of humans are, and how little we may know of each other.” For the next song we will invite audience participation to join us in singing! Wiseman asks some important questions: What is wisdom? Is it knowing suffering, and surviving it? Is it grieving and finding your heart opened again? What does our wisdom come from – why do we call some ‘wise’ and others not? A bearded, wandering ‘wise man’ tells his own story. You are invited to ponder your own answers to these questions as you respond to each verse with a beautiful melody sung on “oo.” The final song of this set is Oh Winter, a song dedicated to Family, Forgiveness & Winter Gathering. Moira wrote this as a personal song about her family. It is a very specific story that means a lot to the writer, but feels deeply resonant for all of us as we ponder the relationships that gave shaped our lives.

When we performed our first Solaria Solstice concert in 2021, we closed with two uplifting and empowering pieces to send everyone out of the room felling uplifted and full of joy. Due to popular demand, we repeated them for 2022, again in 2023, and now I think we can call it a tradition! Rise, Shine is an exciting arrangement of a traditional negro spiritual, and a perfect reflection of “This Little Light…” that closed the first half of the program. The tenors serves as preachers and the other singer answer in “call and response” style typical of the genre. The warmth of the final chords lead us into a beautiful, contemplative, and inspiring arrangement of  True Colors. Made famous by Cyndi Lauper in 1986, reminds us of the beauty in each of us, and calls us to let it shine out into our troubled world. This is what we do as choral artists. We come together and create beauty to share out into a world that so desperately needs it. 

We hope you leave tonight full of hope, faith through life’s challenges, and the bravery to begin again in this new year knowing that the best is yet to come! May your heart always sing “This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine!”

PROGRAM OVERVIEW

Orlando Sings is proud to present the fourth annual A Solaria Solstice, a holiday concert tradition praised as “exquisite,” “transcendent,” and “the deepest expression of the cathartic power of music.” This year’s concert moves to a larger venue to welcome more attendees while preserving the intimate, transformative experience that has captivated Central Floridians.

A world premiere by acclaimed composer Moira Smiley headlines this year’s program. Smiley’s multi-movement, solstice-themed composition, commissioned exclusively for the event, delves into themes of winter, stillness, love, and timelessness. The composer will attend the premiere as a guest artist, performing live with the Solaria Singers.

The program also features music celebrating Christmas and Hanukkah, along with choral works and poetry reflecting universal experiences of loss, renewal, and light emerging from darkness. Under the direction of Dr. Andrew Minear, the Solaria Singers—a fully professional chamber choir—will perform in an enhanced theatrical setting designed to heighten the visual and emotional impact of the performance.

“A Solaria Solstice is more than a concert—it’s a shared moment of connection and reflection,” says Dr. Minear. “Moira Smiley’s new work adds profound depth to our exploration of the solstice, offering hope and peace as we prepare to step into the new year ahead.”

Sarah Purser, General Manager of Orlando Sings and member of the Solaria Singers, adds: “This concert transcends cultural and religious boundaries. It’s an invitation to reflect on this season—literal and figurative—of our lives through the lens of music and poetry.”

The Solaria Singers, recently named Best Chamber Music Group in the Orlando Weekly’s Reader’s Choice Awards, continue to deliver innovative and moving performances. Their repertoire spans centuries, from timeless choral masterpieces to groundbreaking works by contemporary composers. Composed of the finest vocalists in Central Florida, Solaria has been hailed as “mind-blowing… delightful, entertaining and thought provoking”, “moving and magnificent”, and named a 2024 national finalist for The American Prize Ernst Bacon Memorial Award for the Performance of American Music.