https://youtu.be/WTUQrLPPkTA
Wishing everyone around the world a safe and happy New Year!
This spring as the pandemic spread around the world, all public gatherings were cancelled, including choirs and mindfulness retreats. We have missed singing together! So I started an ambitious project of trying to put together a world-wide virtual singing group to perform the song "When I Rise".
This is a song inspired by the writing and teaching of Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh and writer/farmer Wendell Berry. I have arranged the music into a choral work, which I recorded parts for everyone to sing along with. The response was amazing! Many, many people from around the world sent in videos of themselves singing one of the parts, or playing an instrument. Once I had downloaded them all, I had the task of editing it all together. Turns out, my computer was not up for the task, as it proved spectacularly by dying...
Now, many months later, I have set up a new computer system, and gathered my courage to make another attempt, this time with much more success :-) I hope you enjoy the results! From here on Vashon Island, we are wishing you a safe and peaceful year ahead. Thanks for all you do, friends. Thanks for making this world so full of color and music.
-Shane, December 2020
