Ashira (I Will Sing)

How good and pleasant it is for brothers and sisters to sit together.

The St. Peter Armenian Church Congregational Choir, the Valley Beth Shalom Congregational Choir, St. Mel's Parish and Handbell Choirs and the Mass Gospel Choir from the Central Bible Church will fill Valley Beth Shalom with music and brotherhood Friday March 13 at 8 p.m. Many voices as one.

Breathe

Anyone who has even a 1 min. exposure to yoga (even as an uninterested observer) understands the importance of breathing.  Breathing is life and it's easy to take it for granted, until shortness of breath or anxiety make us painfully aware that we are not getting enough air.  Breathe is a widely popular contemporary piece by M. Barnett that likens air to "His Holy presence, living in me".

The Parish and Handbell Choirs will perform Breathe at the Valley Beth Shalom Interfaith Service on March 13 at 8 p.m.   The music includes the hymn Breathe on Me, Breath of God and remains a Bell Choir favorite.   No tickets are required for this event.

Francesco's Notes: VBS Interfaith Service

Q.  For the Interfaith Service at Valley Beth Shalom, the Parish and Handbell Choirs will perform Mozart's Ave Verum and Marie Barnett's Breathe.  Why were these pieces chosen?   

Francesco:  I picked the AVE VERUM and BREATHE because they are accompanied by the handbell choir and also because Noreen wanted something in Latin that was somewhat traditional to the Catholic Church (i.e., Ave Verum) and Breathe represents a new style of music that is being sung in the Catholic Church today.

Interfaith Service

St. Mel will be joining choirs from Valley Beth Shalom, St. Peter Armenian Church and The Faithful Central Bible Church at an Interfaith Service at Valley Beth Shalom in Encino(http://www.vbs.org/) on March 13, 2009 at 8 pm.

This event is open to everyone (no tickets required) and is organized by Dr. Noreen Green.
In Noreen's words: "The service is about sharing our musical and religious traditions. The VBS choir and Cantor will lead a traditional Shabbat service, then our guest choirs will perform for each other and finally we will all sing together in the spirit of unity! The Community is invited to share in this uplifting service."

Guest choirs were asked to pick 2 songs from their traditional repertoire. St. Mel Parish Singers and Handbell Choir will be performing AVE VERUM by W.A. Mozart and BREATHE by M. Barnett.

Ensemble pieces are: WHEN YOU BELIEVE from Prince of Egypt, HALLELUYAH (Israeli), HODU AL ERETZ ( a gospel like number in unison) and HINEI MA TOV (round). A group rehearsal is scheduled at VBS on Wednesday, March 11 at 7:30 pm.