Light in the Darkness Winter 2025 Recap
AJ Field, January 2026
This winter, the Occidental Community Choir invited West County to join us in creating Light in the Darkness: a concert series filled with music that carries hope through struggle; warmth through winter; and light through the longest night. With songs that uplift, inspire, and celebrate the resilience of the human spirit, this season’s program reminded us that even the smallest flame can guide us home.
“Meanwhile, flowers still bloom.
The moon rises, and the sun.
Babies smile and somewhere,
Against all the odds,
Two people are falling in love.
Strangers share cigarettes and jokes.
Light plays on the surface of water.
Grace occurs on unlikely streets
And we hold each other fast
Against entropy, the fires and the flood.
Life leans towards living
And, while death claims all things at the end,
There were such precious times between,
In which everything was radiant
And we loved, again, this world.”
Our music choices for this year had big shoes to live up to: Spring 2025’s Radical Love was our highest attended concerts since pre-Covid, and we’d recieved rave reviews for how thoughtful, touching, and empowering our songs had been. The Program Committee spent the summer tossing that challenge around in our heads, before landing on a song list almost unanimously. With a hearty mix of in-house music, local composers, classic folk songs, contemporary favorites, and choral masterpieces, this season’s Light in the Darkness program captured audiences and enamored our supporters. Below are the songs, in order of how we sang them in concert! Note that nearly a third of our pieces were written and/or arranged by members of our choir.
Original art by Lisa Baiter
This Night by Paul Kinnunen & Doug Bowes
A joyous cry of a song that our choir has loved for many years, This Night featured solos from Brittany Lobo and Maria Culberson. They opened the concert with a call to wonder - to look out into the night sky and see the tales told by our ancestors. Across time and space, we search the sky and seek that light to guide us home, in more meanings than one. This is a powerful anthem that brought an exhuberance to our season, we had a hard time slowing down to the speed our director, Gage, dictated when all we wanted to do was gallop ahead louder and louder!! Such a fun chorus to sing and quite the earworm as well, as well as one of few songs to use the word “firmament.”
Light Immemorial by Aaron Gage
This song, introduced with the tale of humanity’s spectacular James Webb Telescope, is a story from the perspective of a photon leaving its parent star from a galaxy billions of lightyears away. For me, this song was very reminiscent of a “Star Trek” theme - minor chords, glittering rises, and the delightfully discordant melody we Altos got to sing through the “endless void.” This captivating song built from a light and plaintive melody to a brash and striking belt, before fading blissfully back into a delicate plea: seek for me.
Red Gold Moon arr. Gordon Stubbe
Donal O'Siodhacháin (anglicized as Sheehan) wrote this poem, The Lake, about his home in Ireland. Our own Gordon Stubbe - who you might see on piano, bass, or any number of instruments through our concerts, felt called to arrange this poem many years ago. He was able to send a recording to Donal before he sadly passed away in 2012. This perennial favorite has graced program lists in years past, its haunting melody guiding us through a landscape of Ireland at night that stops us in our tracks, with nothing to do but look up at that red gold moon and pause in awe. Joined by violinist
Music Lifts Our Hearts by Frank Dono & Jim Gleaves
With a jazzy tune and a pep in our step, Linda Conner led us in her smooth, lilting solo for this brand-new, in-house composed song! Frank Dono and Jim Gleaves collaborated to bring this heart song into being, with Frank contributing the words and Jim finding the perfect melody. Our small group of singers bopped and snapped along as we entreated the audience to let our voices rise in harmony, together, to sooth our minds, lose control, and lift our hearts!
Bring Me Little Water, Silvey by Huddie Ledbetter, arr. Adam Podd
Popularized by blues musician Huddie Ledbetter, better known as Lead Belly, “Bring Me Little Water, Silvy” was described as the crooning of his uncle, working in the fields and calling to his wife, Silvy, to bring him water. Born on a plantation in Louisiana at the turn of the century, Ledbetter influenced many famous musicians such as Woodie Guthrie, Pete Seeger, the Beatles, Bob Dylan, and Kurt Cobain. From working his parent’s Texan farm to performing for Shreveport’s red-light district, escaping from a chain gang, pardoned for a song, to assisting folklorist John Lomax in his quest to collect the folk songs of the South during the Great Depression, to an Ivy League lecture tour, a stint at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, a year in Rikers, recording for industry giants RCA and Capitol Records, a regular radio show in New York, to a European tour, the “King of the Twelve String Guitar” lead a most adventurous life. Recorded for the first time in 1936, “Bring Me Little Water, Silvey” reflects the eager love of a caller and a giver, a farmer and his wife. This love and light is ever apparent in soloist Calvin Johnson, whose lustrous tenor tones accented this foot-tapping tune.
Dona Nobis Pacem arr. John Maas
Local composer John Maas, director of the Sebastopol Harmonia choir, arranged this ancient, secular hymn in a completely new way. Far from the droning rounds of hymnals and songbooks past, this driving, pulsing melody took us out of our own heads and into a rhythmic flow state as we sailed along note after note. “Grant us peace!” this song pleads, over and over until we settle down into some deep low notes for the final amens.
Blessing for the Longest Night arr. Julie Middleton
A poem by Jan L. Richardson, Blessing for the Longest Night is composed by Occidental Community Choir’s own Julie Middleton. Another oft-requested tune, this song takes you through a night’s journey - following a path of moonlight and memory, a blessing is coming. This solstice anthem tells you to trust in yourself, trust in the pull of the moon. That in this long night, any direction you go, you will be walking toward the dawn.
The Times They Are A-Changin’ by Bob Dylan, arr. Adam Podd
Bob Dylan’s 1963 anthem of change has long held sway over our hearts. The lyrics continue to resonate beyond its initial stage of political, economic, societal, and technological changes, as these times just can’t stop changing! Soloist Kate Fitt lent her resonant voice to call out the waters pushing higher and higher, a warning that you better start swimming or you’ll sink like a stone. This song was an obvious choice when deciding on the program for Light in the Darkness - when things just won’t stop changing, we must hold our heads high and keep steady in growth and improvement, or face being left behind as the world moves on.
How Can I Keep From Singing? arr. Gwyneth Walker
An 1800s hymn originally penned by a one ‘Pauline T’ with a tune from Baptist minister Robert Lowry, Pete Seeger popularized this song during the folk revival of the 1960s. His version includes an extremely poignant verse celebrating when tyrants tremble and friends hold courage in their hearts. This is another song that we had to mindfully slow and soften - our urge to belt this well-loved tune was strong!
And I Can Sing (The Gift to Sing) by Christopher Alexander
Our first winner of the OCC’s Composition Contest, And I Can Sing is a grand, swelling ballad of hope. With words by James Weldon Johnson, local composer Christopher Alexander created a four piece arrangement that gave us a soft and haunting beginning that built to a final, exhuberant statement that I. Can. Sing!
Sing for Myself by Voices in Your Head arr. Hanneke Hommes
With accompanyist Tim Imbach taking the stage for the powerful solo on this piece, Sing for Myself is a timely call to sing even when it feels like we’re losing everything. Soprano Ann lent her light to Tim’s tenor tones in a beginning duet. This was my favorite piece to listen to - the swelling crescendo into the harmonious yet discordant “cry!” on the final page, with the small group slowly pulling back until it’s just Tim’s clear voice… A showstopping tune that brought gasps and “wow"s from the audience each time we finished.
From My Heart To Yours by Maria Culberson
Maria is one of the founding members of the Threshold Choir, a non-profit organization whose volunteers sit and sing at the bedsides of those who are facing death, grief, or suffering. From humble beginnings in El Cerrito in 2000 to over 200 chapters worldwide today, Threshold Choir has brought thousands of souls peace on their journeys. From My Heart To Yours was created and composed by OCC’s own Maria in the course of one weekend, going from a tune hummed in the car to a completed piece sung by a circle of Threshold members. The song itself feels familiar, like a memory. Maria invited our audience to sing this comforting tune with us, and tears were not uncommon in our concerts at this point. This moving song-without-end wrapped round our hearts and bound us together in spirit. May you find all the love that you needed was here.
Crowded Table by The Highwomen, arr. Andrea Ramsey
The Highwomen, a supergroup composed of Brandi Carlile, Natalie Hemby, Maren Morris, Amanda Shires, and Lori McKenna, poured their hearts into this song, which released in 2019. This too feels like a memory, and our Soprano and Alto sections delivered a heartfelt performance that left our audience speechless. AJ Field (thats me!) belted out the solo, calling our listeners to sow the seed of happiness and plant the garden of love. We all agree - a crowded table is much more fun! You should see the groaning potluck table at our annual retreat.
I Am Light by India.Arie Simpson, arr. Darita Seth
An arrangement stirred by the wild world of 2020’s shelter in place mandates, I Am Light is a soft, meditative statement that no matter what, we are the goodness in this world. This soulful song was a very touching piece - a kind of affirmation that you can write your own story, find your own way in this world. The composer, Darita Seth, can be found at his post as Director of Choral and Vocal Studies at Santa Rosa Junior College.
Dig Down by Muse, arr Jonne Gabrielle
I took much pleasure in telling the tale of finding this version of one of my favorite Muse songs, which admittedly was short - after hunting down an arrangement online, I stumbled onto a YouTube video of Jonne Gabrielle leading a group of high school students in her own arrangement. One Instagram DM later and Gage had a copy of her composition in his inbox! This moving piece was written in 2016, with songwriter Matt Bellamy stating he was “looking to counteract the current negativity in the world to give inspiration, optimism, and hope to people to fight for the causes they believe in – that as individuals we can choose to change the world if we want to.” This song is one of my favorites to sing - in and out of choir. The pregnant pause before we launch into the refrain - “dig down! dig down!”; was enhanced by ensuing body percussion from some of the more coordinated members of our choir.
Light Transforms the Darkness by Kyle Pederson
Our finisher - a truly momentous song that echoed through our concert halls as a call to action. Shanelle Gabriel’s text doesn’t just encourage us to live our light and love into the world - it demands it. A building harmony of community, inclusivity, freedom, and justice brings this piece into focus ever more as time unfolds. There is no escaping from the awe-some power of the spoken word, as candles flash into existence and we, the choir, demand our audience to step into action.
and of course, our perennial encore:
Music from Home
For decades now, the choir has ended its performances with Music From Home, surrounding the audience for an intimate, stirring rendition from OCC’s Marcy Telles and Gordon Stubbe. Capturing our committment to home-grown music and using song to describe our beautiful home in West County, Music From Home is a very imagery-heavy song that transports us. Driving home through the redwoods after a long days work, enjoying the small miracles of our arrival, this song feels like a warm hug. And we love having many generations of choir members stand up and join us, singing whichever version they learned or their own semi-improvisational part, joining the harmony of many voices.
I’ve only been part of this choir for a few years now, but I feel very deeply that this is a Good Place To Be. Coming together as a community is something we humans have done for time immemorial, and now, more than ever it seems, this community is critical. To support each other, to lean on each other. To create beautiful sound together, to share good food together. We as a community get to deliver our months of hard work in a fleeting concert season, in the hopes that it will inspire, touch, encourage, embolden those who listen. We are ever grateful that our little choir continues to grow - we’re 55 strong now! - and that we will reach more and more people. This season we had absolutely record attendance, with 5 out of 6 of our concerts selling out! So be sure you get your tickets early for next season - Postcards!
