Dealing with Passion

Dealing with passion

We are days away from our concert "Christmas, a Feast for the Senses", Sunday the 20th at 4 pm at the Westwood Methodist Church. The music is well written and beautifully performed. But there's more. The Wagner Ensemble has never settled for the superficial trappings that would satisfy the average concert-goer. Our supporters are an elite group of people who are fastidious fans seeking to have an experience that speaks to their lives in the most fundamental facet, the innate passion of the moment.

The expression of the soul leaves it with a degree of exposure, a sense that it is vulnerable to the ravages of an imperfect world bent on gratification with a voracious appetite at the expense of expression. Yet we step boldly into that position putting our doubts and fears aside and allowing the release of our feelings to flood into the music to give it the life and richness that sets it apart. It is the infusion of life-force that is the basis of passion. After a lifetime reconciling success and loss, rapture and regret, trust and doubt, Jeannine draws from a full panoply of passion and all their consequent motives. There is a richness arrived at by the ordination of ardor in music that makes it transcendent. With it communication goes beyond rhyme and reason, into the mystical realm of emotion.

All our concerts strive to bring excellence, erudition, and insight to our audience. More than entertainment, although there will be plenty of that, the Wagner Ensemble will showcase the legacy of its founder by the faithfulness to The Sound by his daughter, Jeannine.

Just the right ingredients

Within every artist is the seed of magic. That is our legacy, to aspire, to come to the realization and resolution, and of which to seek the comfort. We singers are little Johnny Appleseeds. Throughout the landscape of human interaction it is our duty to uplift, encourage, and amuse the inhabitants of this lonely world. We plant the seeds of wonder and nourish them with sensitivity in the hope that they will bear fruit ripe with excitement and novelty. And the subject is Christmas and we must rise to the telling.

Close to our consciousness is the law of love that binds us all. There is an inner voice that stirs our souls to reach out beyond our own circumstances to embrace our neighbors, our planet, our stars. The heart of the universe begins to beat with an earnestness that melds the intention together and we seem as one before the Lord of all creation. Christmas is our celebration of this feeling that there are no barriers between us, only the love of God that takes away the pain of loneliness and surrounds us with the warmth of acceptance.

Jeannine has reached into our traditions and compiled a sampling of the most enduring memories she hopes will instill within us the spirit of the season. Just the right ingredients are involved in the making of the best meal and this will be a feast for the soul. From Josquin to Bach to Mel Torme, all the components come together for a special afternoon designed to release the Christmas character in all of us. God bless us, everyone!