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I was honored recently with a commission from the overseers of the Greater Richmond Children’s Choir to create a painting to be given to founding artistic director Hope Armstrong Erb, who is stepping down at the completion of the organization’s first twenty seasons. The GRCC Board gave me total freedom in subject matter, design, and painting style. Quite a challenge.

Hope, and by extension the GRCC, is ALL about:

• Diversity and culture. The GRCC membership includes young choristers of varied ethnic and  cultural background from across the Richmond metropolitan area. They have sung in over 40 languages representing over 50 different ethnic and religious groups worldwide.
• Musical excellence. To give just one example out of dozens, the GRCC was named Best Choir and Hope named Best Conductor in the 13^th Concorso intrnazionale di Canto Corale in Verona, Italy.
• Character and Commitment. Hope has consistently and passionately worked to nurture the unique gift each child brings, to encourage all to reach for excellence, and, ultimately, to create responsible and compassionate citizens of the world. 

Not too shabby. Not, in fact, remotely shabby.

So the challenge was to configure a painting to somehow encapsulate the astoundingly diverse cultures of the hundreds of children who have participated over the decades, the widely varied repertoire they sing, their musical excellence, and the international scope and standing of the organization Hope has led for 20 seasons. Picture me as Winnie-the-Pooh, hunched over a sketch pad and desperately tapping my head with my paw while mumbling “think, think, think.”

I decided early-on against a portrait per se. The vantage point from which most people see Hope at work is from the audience, behind her, where they can observe her precisely directing the singers to achieve choral magnificence (a hand here, a finger there, a head movement half a beat later). I wanted the singers to surround her but not be identifiable as individuals, with enough variation to honor the diversity this group celebrates. Once I decided on this, the location became immediately obvious. During a 2016 tour of Germany, one of many highlights was a concert in St. Thomas Church, Leipzig, where Johann Sebastian Bach had been the musician for 27 years. His grave is inside the church. Hope and the children presented a flawless and beautiful concert with Bach literally right behind them.

Usually titles come easy to me, but not for this one.  At first I thought to call this “At Bach’s feet.”  This was wrong for a couple of reasons. First (with apologies for a gruesome technicality), even though Bach’s bones rest under that brass plate, I don’t really know whether the choir stood at his feet or at his head. More importantly, the painting is about Hope and the GRCC, not the late Mr. JSB. “Hope” would be a nice enough title, but to me it wasn’t enough to pay tribute to two decades of very hard work.

The title, therefore, is “Blessings, Astonishment, Children, and Hope.” (Johann Sebastian sneaks in anyway).  This title might be a tad wordy, but so be it.  There is a tremendous amount to celebrate in Hope‘s devotion to the GRCC and I for one won’t begrudge a few words along the way.