Straight From The Heart- A Catharsis

One of the projects I most look forward to every season is the Valley of the Sun road tour the Phoenix Symphony embarks upon, bringing the complete Messiah or Highlights to area churches and venues. This December we will perform 10 concerts in 12 days from Litchfield Park in the West to Pinnacle Peak in the Northeast of the valley and everywhere in between.

I wouldn’t consider myself a particularly religious person, but the choral masterworks of composers like Bach, Handel and Mozart, among others, bring something out of me that I always find surprising.

That composers are able to infuse their music with a degree of religious symbolism and devotion is a breathtaking revelation I am confronted with every time one of these performances begins.

To read more, visit The Virginia G. Piper Music Director Michael Christie's online journal at http://michaelchristieonline.com/mc/journal.