Laurie de Leonne, Artistic Director, and all the RainShadow singers invite you to join us on a journey across wide-open landscapes in a program inspired by plains, prairies, and the paths that connect them. This evocative collection of choral works explores the beauty, mystery, and spirit of the land through music that is both intimate and expansive. Drawing on folk traditions, cultural memory, and lived experience, the program gives voice to those who have traveled, settled, and sung across these vast spaces. From moments of quiet reflection to surges of rhythmic energy, the concert traces a rich emotional arc shaped by horizon and movement.

The audience can expect a wide variety of songs – some familiar, some unfamiliar – but all inspire an emotional and physical connection to the land and cultures and traditions that have inspired the music. Singers have been challenged by the program because it pulls up emotion, memory, and meaning. In its depth and variety, the music celebrates part of our identity as Americans as it recognizes the geographic diversity of our country. "For me, this concert is mostly about poetry and the evocative imagery each song represents. I particularly love the three poems comprising Northwest Passage; I can barely get through the third movement without tears,” said Rebecca Nerison, board president.

“We are rarely singing only about what is on the page,” said de Leonne. “While these works describe geography – the tall grass, the Arctic passage, the Venezuelan night – they also explore the interior terrain of the human heart. To sing of “wide open spaces” is to sing of the room we make within ourselves for hope, grief, wonder, and the courage to face an unknown horizon.”

Please join us for a performance that celebrates the enduring connection between people, place, and song.

Admission to the concert is by suggested donation of $20/adult, $10/student. Information: 360-379-3458 or rainshadowchorale.org.