The picture above was taken at the Fordham "Festival of Lessons and Carols" (the Christmas concert), put on every year at the beginning of December to inaugurate the Christmas season for the Fordham community. A tremendous amount of work goes into the concert, and the payoff is priceless: the audience always fills the church to overflowing, and we sing absolutely beautiful music.

When I was in Buenos Aires last semester, I had the privilege of singing with the choir at the Metropolitan Cathedral, but I didn't get to sing with a concert choir. (The concert choir at my host university was, I think, taking the semester off.) Now I'm back at Fordham and back in the University Choir's schedule of performances: a fall concert, the Festival of Lessons and Carols, a domestic or international tour, the spring concert, and the seniors' Baccalaureate Mass and Commencement ceremony. It feels very nice to be back in the swing of things; and, in my case, all this is nicely complemented by singing in Fordham's Schola Cantorum (formal church choir).

Music is (as any real musician would probably tell you), is a sort of condensed, intense joy, but it won't go anywhere if you don't do anything: you need to practice, to work. I remember an episode of "I Love Lucy" in which Lucy gets into an act at Ricky's club and complains about how much work rehearsal is. Of course, that won't do in choral music, or in any serious artistic enterprise.

This coming Sunday is our fall concert, and I'm excited. Like I said in an article about my thoughts upon starting my senior year, there's a nice symmetry in the experience of going through the four years of college. We all need some kind of aesthetic outlet to be fully realized human beings, and for me singing in choir has been a wonderful, indelible part of my Fordham experience.