CANTA BELLES RESUME ENDURING TRADITION WITH THEIR EASTER VIGIL PERFORMANCE

The choir is well-known for performing thematic pieces from a demanding musical repertoire. So, the need to present this performance outside on the steps leading up to rather than in the Blessed Rupert Mayer Chapel, with its amazing acoustics, was just another challenge for the ensemble to overcome. Current COVID safety precautions required singing through masks, six feet of distance between singers and a limited audience seated away from the choir in Foster Quad. Despite the limitations, the Canta Belles were more than ready to resume this tradition and present this miraculous story in song. 

Sauer dedicated this year’s performance to the seniors who were unable to present it last year due to the pandemic. “I think the adversity we have experienced throughout the pandemic has made this choir stronger and closer. Instead of just singing the music, we have been sharing our own stories about desolation and carrying our own cross, and doing so has made a deeper connection to the messages in the notes and the lyrics,” he shared.

Through the unconventional and tonally dissonant Come Sweet Death arrangement by Rhonda Sandberg, a sense of unease in clashing pitches gradually resolved into a peaceful harmony at the very end. In the face of all the unknowns and challenges of death, peaceful memories were embraced in Mark Patterson’s Things that Never Die. And, in reverence to the blessed Mother Mary who witnessed her son’s death and resurrection, the Canta Belles performed the beautiful and beloved J.S. Bach/Charles Gonoud arrangement of the Ave Maria. The concert prayer service also featured an original composition by Sauer entitled Sleep, Sleep, My Own, which tells the story of Christ's birth and foretells His Resurrection.

The choir’s dedication throughout the rehearsal process was remarkable. Every single note of these and the other songs included in this year’s performance was rehearsed outside in Colorado’s wintery weather with masks on. Every singer who was placed on a quarantine list joined her choir remotely to be a part of the rehearsal process. “No Canta Belles choir has been through this many obstacles more than this year’s,” Sauer noted. “I am so proud of not just all the work they’ve accomplished with all the restrictions but the bonding and support that came with it.”