River

Program Notes:

Canadian singer/songwriter Joni Mitchell’s iconic River speaks to the melancholy that many people feel at Christmas time.  “I wish I had a river I could skate away on”.

Conductor Notes:

This beautiful arrangement for SSA choir (divisi) and piano features a major alto solo in folk style. Joel Tranquilla, the arranger, is a choral conductor and arranger, so he knows inside out what works.  The singers and I loved learning this and including something in our Christmas concert that showed this other side of the emotions of the season.  The soloist on our recording is Vanessa Borowicz and the pianist is Stephen Smith.

Text Source

Joni Mitchell