A local holiday choir audience was left stunned today when the King County Community Chorus achieved the previously unthinkable milestone of including a record-breaking two whole Hanukkah songs in their December Holiday Concert.
“We heard ‘Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel’ earlier so I was absolutely floored when they sang a second song with Hebrew words,” said attendee Carol Huntington. “I had no idea what they were singing about but I am just happy to live in a place that values equity and diversity this much. I’ll bet Portland’s community choir only did one—do better, Oregon, do better.”
After the choir finished “Bashana Haba’ah,” the audience erupted into rapturous applause and afterwards was abuzz about the choir’s incredibly diverse choice of melodic repertoire.
“We want our winter concert to be inclusive of all people, so I always program one song in December that isn’t about Christmas,” said artistic director Scott O’Sullivan as he nearly pulled his triceps patting himself on the back. “But this year, when I realized our concert would be on the actual day of Hanukkah, I knew it was time to really take our commitment to cultural diversity to the next level. Plus, we didn’t sing ‘The 12 Days of Christmas’ this year, so that gave us 17 extra minutes to fill.”
When asked her opinion about the concert, attendee Rachel Bernstein said she thought it was nice, but isn’t sure why a Rosh Hashanah song was included.
