On April 7, 2023 a small choir of 28 singers performed Christ Lives: An Oratorio in the Temple of Light at Ananda Village, for our traditional Good Friday presentation.
There were several things that set this year’s performance apart.
We had performed the Oratorio without a director in 2022, an experience which was so powerful and inspiring that we decided to repeat it. Therefore, there was no conductor in front of the choir, only Ramesha Nani giving minimal cueing from the side.
Because we were recording and wanted to keep extraneous noise to an absolute minimum, we asked audience members to arrive fifteen minutes early. We didn’t anticipate that attendees would arrive between fifteen and thirty minutes early, then meditate — along with the choir — until it was time for the program to begin. At which point, the stillness was so deep and palpable, that it almost felt wrong to break the silence for the welcome and opening prayer.
Thanks to the generous grant from the Ananda Janaka Foundation, we were able to capture the live performance in a professionally produced recording. Crystal Clarity Publishers will be promoting and distributing this new Oratorio product, which will restore the eight selections that were missing from the previous Oratorio CD (recorded in 1999).
All of these factors combined to create an exceptionally deep and profound Oratorio experience, which we hope comes through in the finished recording when it is released on December 1, 2023.
