After successfully pulling off The Creation, the Commonwealth Chorale may now relax-until its next great undertaking.

There is, after all, quite a heavenly precedent for observing a day of rest.

Anyone who witnessed the Commonwealth Chorale's recent performances of Franz Joseph Hayden's masterwork will know what a gift the chorale is to this community and the region.

The more than 60 voices in the Commonwealth Chorale are able to lift any audience into the far reaches of the very firmament.

Astonishingly, these performances were free.

And the chorale's stunning performances, conducted by Norma Williams, are priceless.

The Commonwealth Chorale has been called “the cultural jewel of Southside Virginia” and it shines an artistic light that deserves moth-like generosity, donations drawn to the chorale's bright shining.

A fundraising campaign to help support the organization's costs would certainly be deserving.

As the program from The Creation

notes, the Commonwealth Chorale was born in the 1970s, the choir from Farmville Presbyterian Church joining with that of Hampden-

Sydney's College Church and an orchestra from Lynchburg to perform Messiah. Thirty years later, the Chorale again performed Messiah, this time with members of the Richmond Symphony Orchestra.

“With adult and youth singers, pianists, and music directors drawn from 14 counties of Southside Virginia, the Commonwealth Chorale boasts an enthusiastic membership corps, a dynamic board of directors, and an international advisory board. Our growing repertoire includes the great choral music from Bach through Poulenc.”

The Commonwealth Chorale demonstrates a compelling truth that all of us may embrace with our hearts and with our lives:

You can be small town without being small time.

You can be small town and be big time.

Small town is geography.

Small time is a state of mind.

The Commonwealth Chorale's state of mind is wide open to the limitless firmament.

-JKW-