May this Holiday Season bring you health and happiness! Enjoy your time with family and friends.

CONCERT NOTES FROM JULIETTE Attendance: We had approximately 800 people in attendance at our concert. Donations: Our free will offering total was $3404.47. Last year's fall concert total was $3,169.90; 2008 was $2,808.75; 2007 was $1,531 (bad weather); 2006 was $2.932.23; 2005 was $1,772.07. Concert CD: The recording went well and the CD is being produced. The program was long enough to require two discs. However we cut all the announcements and the sing-along and managed to get "just" the program onto one disc, thereby keeping the cost at the current price. Great job SDG membership!

A THANK YOU FROM WESTSIDE CARES: Dear Soli Deo Gloria, not only have you blessed our community with a fine Christmas concert but also, by encouraging donations of nonperishable food you have widened the expressions of care we can share with our neighbors in need. The donated food received by two of the Westside CARES pantries was approximately 450 pounds in weight. This translates to a value of approximately $675.00. It also translates, roughly, to about 144 meals that will be provided through the Sacred Heart Catholic church and Trinity United Methodist church pantries. You may also be confident that a number of those meals will be eaten only after giving thanks to God for these gifts. Westside CARES also gives thanks and glory to God for these gifts. In Christ, Stephen Brown Executive Director, Westside CARES

RAY'S NOTES Dear People, Let me begin by offering my heart-felt congratulations on a wonderful and music-filled concert. I could not have been more proud of you. The spontaneity, responsiveness and dedication to the spirit of the music all contributed to a remarkable afternoon. You will see written comments in other parts of the newsletter. The spoken comments from our friends still ring in my ears, and are equally as positive. But the true gauge was the audience’s reaction to the sets, and to the concert as a whole. I know you felt their love as did I. I have always enjoyed working with non-auditioned groups. It seems to me that choral music is the most democratic of the arts. And with the plethora of American choral singers (remembering a Chorus America survey done in the 1990’s), it also seems to me that we sometimes vie for the same audience and times as church choirs and other choral groups. But you have chosen to sing with THIS group, at this time, and during this tenure. For your contributions vocal and otherwise, I am very grateful. For in addition to providing singers from small churches to be able to perform larger works, there might also be an issue of quality involved. After 32 years in the praise business, I have watched trends come and go. I have seen people cover their ears during worship (imagine how they cover their souls) due to volume in the house— it is no longer a church to me when we have to raise the volume so God can hear---and I have watched people return time and again to timeless works of the choral art. This is also where Soli Deo Gloria Choir comes in. One of the compelling reasons for this group’s existence is that, surrounded by social and religious institutions whose tastes and standards are indistinguishable from those of the market-place, it is increasingly difficult to make a musical offering worthy of the Creator-of-All-Things-Good-and-Beautiful. On Sunday morning TV, we get a lot of performance and lighting cues, but little aspiration or intellectual distinction. Instead of the Creator of All Things, we get a notion that God Couldn’t-Care-less. When involved in a broadcast, an aesthetic suggestion was turned down because it wouldn’t help reach the broadest possible audience. Really? I find nothing of what we know of Jesus’ life to show that he was ever interested in developing the broadest appeal. His selection of the twelve, his temptations and his death are testimony to the opposite. But if God is also Spirit (as promised by Jesus when he departed), then it also seems to me that those of us in the religious arts (you and I) are responsible to see that worship ‘elevates’ the human spirit and intelligence and soul (love your God with all your…). I am uncomfortable with a religion which brings God down to the level of Madison Avenue, Nielsen ratings and Grammy awards. And it is apparent that our audience on Saturday agreed. So, during this season may you sing in your hearts! May peace, elusive these days, in the outside world, reign in your heart. And may we come together in January with fond memories and rejuvenated spirits. Our next concert, inspired by such observations, is entitled “God is Gone Up.” Let us reach together! With fondness and admiration~(and hoping for 20 guys to join us) Ray

FROM CHRIS BJORK, SOLI BOARD VICE PRESIDENT All, Congratulations to all Participants, Choir and Audience! My wife, an educated critic, thought the sound and blend was top notch, as good as any auditioned group. Feliz Navidad, Prospero Ano Chris W. Bjork & Marilyn Robbins

COMMENTS FROM FORD BURKHART My brother, who is a former conductor of opera, said the concert was "wonderful" in every aspect, voices and conducting. He said the conductor put his own stamp on the "Gloria," in a good way. Bill was inspired and enjoyed singing on the carols at the end. I will be sure to watch for future concerts by your group. If there's an email alert list, please put me on it. Happy holidays. Ford NOTE: Ford is from Tucson, AZ. His brother, Bill, was with a group from the Brain Injury Center here in Colorado Springs. Ford heard our announcement on a radio station.

A COMMENT SENT TO RAY Hi Ray, I hope all went well for the concert. I heard some great things about how the choir never sounded better. Way to go! Hope the orchestra worked great. Have a very merry and safe Christmas. Kay

COMMENTS FROM THE AUDIENCE These comments are from the surveys. I did not edit any of them. They are as written. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! ~ Juliette “I enjoy this each Christmas” “Beautiful work today! Thank you!” “BRAVO! Most Enjoyable!!” “Very enjoyable program-thank you!” “Your concerts are always so very well performed and a joy to attend-a true gift of God- Blessings to all of you” “PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE give us at least ½ concert w/o clapping or talking. The sacredness of the music gets very diluted. Maybe all could be done @ halftime.” “We are happy to listen to any music you choose to sing.” “Marvelous selection of pieces for Christmas season-very well done Bravo!” “I adore your concerts-voices and orchestra are so beautiful. I would fee it a privilege to join you someday! A capella especially impressive.” “We always enjoy and appreciate the musical experience your great choir gives us! Thanks.” “Sound and music beautiful, but not enough variety of mood-until the end-too somber-finally joyful @ end.” “I wish you would ask everyone to hold their applause until the intermission and then a second time at the end. It is jarring to have applause interrupt the beauty and sacredness of the music” “I like music sung in English so I know what is being sung” “Enjoy the concerts very much” “Always a very inspiring selection of music to begin this Holy Season, Thank you” “Thank you” “Mr. Killian is a beautiful compliment to Soli. The choir, instruments and conductor were a flawless flow of heart warming melody of comfort and peaceful (could not make out last word) Thank you” “I love Acapella music. I sing Tenor, I play the piano. I accompanied Irving M.S. From 1990 -2009. I’ve played piano for New Heart Community Church from 2002 till present.

PROPOSED MUSIC FOR THE SPRING 2011 CONCERT God is Gone Up Gerald Finzi Festival Te Deum Benjamin Britten Introit and Kyrie Maurice Duruflé (organ trumpets) Lo, the Full Final Sacrifice Gerald Finzi INTERMISSION Behold, I Build an House Lukas Foss In Paradisum Edwin Fissinger Lass dich nur nichts nicht dauren Johannes Brahms I Was Glad Hubert Parry Anthem of Dedication Warren Martin *Old 100th Ralph Vaughan Williams Benediction Peter Lutkin Using guest organists in the spirit of community (and to attract their churches to us).