Illuminare — Johnson County Chorus’s Fall 2023 Full Concert

This free concert was on Sunday, December 17, 2023, at Yardley Hall in the Midwest Trust Center on the Johnson County Community College Campus. Director: Dr. Sheri Cook-Cunningham Assistant Director: Dawn Lea Short Collaborative Pianist: Susan Adams Rehearsal Pianist: Kym Gibbs Instrumentalists: Eric Williams, 1st Violin Sarah Wenger, 2nd Violin Seth May-Patterson, Viola Ho Anthony Ahn, Cello Kassandra Ferrero, Bass Juha Silfverberg, Accordion UMKC Volker Brass Quintet From Director Dr. Sheri Cook-Cunningham: The fall of 2018 marked my first concert with the Johnson County Chorus, directing a concert entitled Illumine that featured the theme of darkness and light. I had no idea that 12 months later, we would experience true darkness with the onset of COVID-19, which led to too many lives lost. The global pandemic silenced our voices and isolated us from each other. Together, we discovered innovative ways to join in song, emerging from the pandemic stronger than before and finding the light in making music together. In my final concert with the Johnson County Chorus, I find it fitting that we return to that original theme of darkness and light with Illuminare. Darkness and Light, without one, we have not the other. We all have moments of darkness, times we feel lonely, insecure, and unloved. Through these times of hopelessness and despair, we know that light is always present. We see the faintest glimmer of light as the dawn breaks, bringing hope as it becomes the full sunshine of the day. We bask in the glow of the illumination of the fire and look heavenward to see the twinkling of the stars. We see light in a loved one’s eye and know that always the light will continue to shine on us from on high.