MARY LEE TALBOT
Staff Writer
When Lewis Miller and John Heyl Vincent decided to bring their Sunday School Assembly to a wooded place beside a lake, they fed the passion of Chautauquans to revel in the trees, birds and eventually gardens for the “school in the woods.” The Bird and Tree Club (1913–1944), Bird and Tree Garden Club (1944–1962) and The Bird, Tree & Garden Club (1962–present) had led the way in educating about and beautifying the Chautauqua grounds.
The Sacred Song Service at 8 p.m. Sunday in the Amphitheater is based on the theme “Birds, Trees and Gardens,” developed by Sonya Subbayya Sutton, interim director of Sacred Music. Ellie Nickeson and Susy Warren, members of the BTG, will serve as readers.
Sutton has chosen readings from a variety of sources that include a story about St. Francis speaking to birds, a story from the Babylonian Talmud, Ta’anit 23a, a story traditionally told on Tu BiShevat, the Jewish New Year of Trees, a poem by Robert Frost about the noise of trees and “The Gardener 85,” by Rabindranath Tagore, translated from the original Bengali by the author.
The Chautauqua Choir will perform several anthems, including “Christ Hath a Garden,” with music by Gerald Near and text by Robert Bridges, and “The Blue Bird,” with music by Charles Villiers Stanford, with a text by Mary Elizabeth Coleridge. The Rev. Rachel Erin Stuart will serve as soloist. Another anthem will be “Rise, my love, my fair one,” with music by Healey Willan and text from the Song of Songs 2:10–12.
The prelude will be “Chautauqua Soliloquy,” by Dan Locklair with Reva Youngstein, flutist. The piece was commissioned by David Levy for his wife, Kathy, incorporating the hymn tune “Chautauqua” by William Fisk Sherwin. The postlude will be “Largo,” from George Frederick Handel’s opera Xerxes.
The Rt. Rev. Eugene Taylor Sutton, senior pastor for Chautauqua, will preside. Sonya Subbayya Sutton, interim director of Sacred Music, will conduct the Chautauqua Choir. Owen Reyda, organ scholar, will provide accompaniment on the Massey Memorial Organ.
