special-bonus-holiday-episode

The Santosa Voice Group, led by Heather Petro, presents a bonus holiday gratitude episode on the Power of Singing Podcast. They share original holiday songs and a classic opera piece. Joseph Garape introduces his song "Day of the Dead," reflecting on a challenging time in his life. The group discusses opera singing, expressing gratitude for the ability to sing and the power of music in uplifting spirits. Rich McKinney's song "New Christmas" showcases his piano skills, with Joseph as the vocalist. They emphasize the joy of singing and the purity of youth, urging listeners to embrace happiness. Welcome to the Power of Singing Podcast. I'm Heather Petro, and I'm joined for today's podcast by my friends and colleagues, Susan Mohini-Kain, Joseph Garape, and Rich McKinney. We are the Santosa Voice Group, and we are excited to bring you this bonus holiday gratitude episode. We have three original holiday-themed songs to share with you today and one classic from the operatic tradition to brighten your holiday spirit. I believe I speak for this entire group when I say how grateful we are to you, our listeners, and communities who support our work with music. We're grateful for the gift of music, the ability to share it with you again today and during the holiday season. We hope the songs in this episode uplift you or put a smile on your face or give you a tune to hum as you do the dishes. I always need that. And the power of singing is truly unique, and we explore its potential and purpose here again today. So each artist will briefly introduce his or her song before it's played. We're going to start with the Halloween theme, the Halloween season, and I found this song immediately haunting when I heard it last week. So, Joseph, this is your song, Joseph Garape. Would you like to tell us a little bit about the song before we hear it? Sure. This is a little acoustic version of my song, Day of the Dead. It's really like a lot of my songs, it's just a lot of snapshots, things that I sort of imagined and that did kind of collage together when I was really thinking about it, about what it meant, especially when I was kind of thinking about this episode, that it was kind of a portrait of a hard time in my life, a much harder time in my life than the one that I'm thankfully experiencing now. And I thought, well, it doesn't really have anything to do with Day of the Dead. It's really just kind of, you know, it's set against the backdrop of Day of the Dead. That's it. But then I sort of thought more about it and thought, you know, actually I realize in this song I think I'm kind of, I don't know, I don't want to say eulogizing, but I'm kind of celebrating and looking back fondly, but ultimately laying to rest a kind of version of myself, a younger version of myself, a less wise version of myself, another time in my life. And I'm happy that it's gone and I'm grateful that I'm past it. And so it's the Day of the Dead. Day of the Dead On the day of the dead I will stay in my bed I will care for my children I will sleep in my clothes Watch the dogs from my house Put all I'm looking for on a balcony All I've ever needed in my life I don't know what it looks like But I'll see it all arise And soon There will come a day I must walk away And shed a word I'll be sad But with a smile on my face I'll lift this heavy weight From all of my chest To little sisters and brothers My name shall I tell To all of my brothers To all sisters I was a beautiful girl I was always a way girl I was always a way girl On the day of the dead I will lie on my bed I will sleep in my clothes Watch the dogs from my house Put all I'm looking for on a balcony All I've ever needed in my life I don't know what it looks like But I'll see it all arise And soon There will come a day I must walk away And shed a word I'll be sad But with a smile on my face I'll lift this heavy weight From all of my chest All I've ever needed in my life I don't know what it looks like But I'll see it all arise And soon There will come a day I must walk away I was a beautiful girl I was always a way girl I was always a way girl I was always a way girl All I've ever needed in my life I don't know what it looks like But I'll see it all arise And soon There will come a day I must walk away And shed a word I'll be sad But with a smile on my face I'll lift this heavy weight From all of my chest All I've ever needed in my life I don't know what it looks like But I'll see it all arise And soon There will come a day I must walk away I was always a way girl I was always a way girl All I've ever needed in my life I don't know what it looks like But I'll see it all arise And soon There will come a day I must walk away And shed a word I'll be sad But with a smile on my face I'll lift this heavy weight From all of my chest All I've ever needed in my life I don't know what it looks like But I'll see it all arise And soon There will come a day I must walk away I was always a way girl I was always a way girl All I've ever needed in my life I don't know what it looks like But I'll see it all arise And soon There will come a day I must walk away And shed a word I don't know what it looks like But I'll see it all arise And soon There will come a day I must walk away And soon There will come a day I must walk away And soon There will come a day I must walk away And soon There will come a day I must walk away And soon There will come a day I must walk away And soon There will come a day I must walk away And soon There will come a day I must walk away And soon There will come a day I must walk away And soon There will come a day I must walk away And soon There will come a day I must walk away And soon There will come a day I must walk away And soon There will come a day I must walk away And soon There will come a day I must walk away And soon There will come a day Heather, brava! That was amazing, amazing. Thank you. I love it, and I love it just past what we heard from Joseph because Joseph, in his past life, the one he was saying goodbye to would have been a perfect Verter. Do you guys know the story? Oh, yeah. Yeah, the story of Verter. Yeah, I mean, not only does he have the voice that could sing Verter now but the Verter is very moody and very kind of a difficult person, not that you were, Joseph but just a very big, dark character and I love that in your song you went past and this one, that's kind of perfect. I love that. That was a beautiful performance. Yeah. Right. Thank you. Yeah, you can't plan these things. They just kind of happen like this, right? It's kind of cool how it works out. Thank you. And opera singers as the athletes of music I mean, it's so demanding and every note is demanding and every word is demanding and, you know, we try to relate to the composer and to the story of the opera and to you know, we can't help but relate to our own lives and there's so much wrapped up in it and so I think, and besides that to sing opera you really have to be physically pretty tough I mean, you just can't do that day after day after day without amazing training so I don't think people realize and that's why I like the term athletic because they are you just can't do type of strong you know, you have to be strong to it and so they may not all opera singers may not look physically fit to be more but believe me, underneath those people there is a powerful, powerful mechanism and that's singing they are the champions of singing and I've learned so much about the voice I'm still very partial to uneducated singing I love it when people just sing that's my joy but I'm also really impressed by people that can take an aria like that it's so much fun to hear that thank you Rich and yeah, just the operatic way of living life there's some really exciting things about that take away and there's some problematic things too so it's always where the drama is in one's life and how to kind of make the most of it or make the best of it that's kind of similar to our idea of gratitude we just are grateful that we can sing and that we have these opportunities to sing I'm certainly grateful for anyone that sings and the understanding that being able to sing that and make it sound easy it takes a lot I've been singing an aria for maybe three, four years now and it's so short and it goes by so quickly but it's that mountain of stuff underneath and I think that's true for all of the music that we share here today too it's just really there's mountains of experience in this conversation and in every song that you hear so it's a great reminder thanks Rich for that thinking of little Sophia I think that's her name, isn't it? Sophia Sophia, yeah I played her back at one point in my life I played and sang this aria and I felt kind of like the ditz of the opera like she's just but you're not really ditzy she's really just young and pure and happy and if you have somebody like that in your life that is just happy and running around and picking flowers and usually they're, you know at this point they're usually like three, four, five, six year old kiddos you know, that's something to be very, very grateful for the purity of youth the happiness of youth and maybe there's an adult in your life that's just happy and offering you flowers like Sophia does in this I urge all of us to remember to not be cynical about those people in our lives but to embrace them and let some of their happiness come in breathe it in and accept the flowers that they're offering so, thank you I totally accepted that from you, Heather it was really I felt like it was such a gift for me thank you, thank you thanks for sharing your history with it too yeah, thanks Joseph, you were going to say? have you done that whole role? no, no, I'd love to I have Susan, Susan has, yeah I love watching it, yeah and it reminds me of my niece is about three and she has that kind of bubbly energy too so, thank you for giving me that that reminder well, we are going to move on now to a beautiful new song two beautiful new songs actually as we close off our episode today this first beautiful new song is by Rich McKinney and it's called New Christmas and it highlights his musical skills on the piano which are tremendous and we're going to hear from Joseph again as the amazing vocalist on this recording of New Christmas so, take it away, Joseph and Rich here we are this song is called New Christmas and as you can tell we have now we have avoided approaching the religions and the rhythms and all of that that's not what we're really so about singing and we hope that you choose your own religion or the way you worship is what's right for you we don't have anything to do with that we're very happy that you're here so, this song I wrote many years ago I do not remember why or form or anything like that but I ran several of my former students that helped me in looking to reorganize my library of music that I've written and it turns out to be gigantic mess because I've written an awful lot of music and so I'm really at a point where I'm kind of frozen when I go in and look at my library there's so much there I don't know exactly what to do but this song is about Christmas because it's called New Christmas but you've heard I had a student once a little boy and he wrote a song called Christmas in the Spring he wrote that after his parents that were both killed in a car wreck I believe it was Susan, do you remember that song at all? I'll send it to you anyway this song is about it's about song and so it shouldn't be stupid it shouldn't be presented like an opera it should be presented like and Joseph will tell you the words of humming little groups of don't like it, they'll die like nuts they don't end they're open-ended and you don't know where they're going and instead, Joseph the singer is actually making up the words and it's a I think that's a good technique because we don't always have the right words and sometimes it takes a little while between words to figure out where we're going so that's my story of the song and I've overdone it with sentences and sorry I didn't okay and Joseph, do you have anything to say? No, it's just it's beautiful and I'm looking forward to I'm happy to be a part of it Thank you, I appreciate it I appreciate it, as I did you once again, say my admiration to you all You're a lovely way to begin a beautiful day but at this time you must know I'm leaving you each moment soon as all my dreams come true let me walk with only you you're the gift I've waited for I'm at home in love with you you're the gift I've waited for I could never want no more stay with me forevermore I'll love you more each day seasons come and go I want you to know that my love is not just for Christmas but always waiting at your door you're beginning each day and at this time you must know I'm leaving you each moment soon as all my dreams come true let me be with only you you're the gift I've waited for I'm at home in love with you you're the gift I've waited for I could never want no more stay with me forevermore I'll love you more each day Bravo! Bravo Joseph, you sound beautiful on this! It's amazing! Yeah, really with this song born the lyrics are really terribly important and I think with the lyrics of this song will become a little bit more endearing probably because the words and the music fit together well and there's a warmth to the song and I think Joseph's voice is perfect for it I would say this song is more of a love song than a Christmas song, isn't it? I agree, it's very much a love song and it's just relating love and being in love to the thrill of Christmas and the fancy and the glitter and the beauty and so I think it's a good metaphor in a way but it doesn't go into the religious part of Christmas it's just basically the commercial and then there we are but yeah, I did love that kind of song and I kind of like it I don't know why I wrote it nobody's ever done it before so Joseph, you got our word in there I really like your introduction to it so much too, Rich and I really like that you talked about warmth in the song because I really picked that up again, when it gets cold outside, right? we all need warmth and that's what we crave and so if we can't have it physically outside we can have it orally which kind of brings some of the same feelings which I love I was wondering what key it's in, actually do you know what key you wrote it in? the flat key? it feels like a flat key to me that warmth I always think flat keys feel warmer somehow so that kind of tracks yes again, apologies if this goes over people's heads but the relationship of keys to emotion that's really, really interesting to me so thank you for letting me you know, warble about that a little bit on this podcast too so we have a final song for you really good transition into this last song this is peppered with some delightful holiday carols that you may recognize alongside the beautiful original music by Susan Levine Kane which makes it a truly contemporary 21st century arrangement I always think of Susan's book, The 21st Century Singer I think her music reflects that too a little plug in there for Susan too and her book so it's a great 21st century arrangement for the holidays and it brought this huge smile to my face as I listened to it I hear so much of what Susan is in this song so thanks for this song, Susan I'll introduce it to us oh Heather, that's so awesome really, really awesome introduction I feel honored and humbled by that yeah, I wrote this song actually I wrote part of this song 10, 15, 14 years ago or something like that before I was really songwriting very much I just wrote it during a Christmas season where I was really sad and I was really lonely so at the beginning I was like I need these carols I need candles I need all the light I felt so lonely and I felt so sad but then when I looked at it again just recently actually two years ago and rewrote it I'm in a super happy place in my life and so I added I made it a lot happier kind of a feel but I do want to acknowledge that at the holidays lots of people feel super lonely and so I think music can be a real help but know that you're not alone if you are feeling lonely there are people you can reach out there to and that's the reason I wrote this song because it says somewhere out there someone is praying someone is singing a song and it doesn't mean any particular religion but there are people out there that you can touch base with you don't have to stay all alone in your little house and so that's what this song is about and then I decided that I wanted to add these little snippets of traditional carols not necessarily this is more like a Santa Claus song than a religious song but for me it is about my heart so this is called On This Silent Night Somewhere out there someone is praying someone is singing a song I can feel it I can hear it I can sing along I hear them singing Hallelujah, Hallelujah joy to the world I hear them singing Hallelujah, Hallelujah On this silent night I need carols playing I need Christmas cheer Against the world became And a child's tear I need candles, warming light Against all hate and sin Against the jarring of the night I need truth all the year Somewhere out there someone is praying someone is singing a song I can feel it I can hear it I can sing along I hear them singing Hallelujah, Hallelujah joy to the world I hear them singing Hallelujah, Hallelujah On this silent night May the wicked turn to good May the good find peace May the peaceful be free from ties May the free let others free May all be happy All be healthy All see wonder tonight May no one have a share in sorrow On this holy night Somewhere out there someone is praying someone is singing a song I can feel it I can hear it I can sing along I hear them singing Hallelujah, Hallelujah joy to the world I hear them singing Hallelujah, Hallelujah On this silent night Amazing work, Susan! Thank you, thank you. I love that your sing-along thing is you cannot do that you cannot sing along, you know you're immediately a part of the choir you know, you have to take it back and get in there and they just sing with you before the end of the song you're singing along and you know the song it's great Thank you, awesome Yeah, that's good, I watched you and you were singing along so I could hear you singing Hallelujah! Now I would be ready In your head, okay? Yeah, listening affects this kind of chorus when it comes back that third time you're like totally ready for it you know, to get back into the refrain and it really struck me when you were talking about how you went through a sad time and you're like I didn't pick up on that when I first heard the song but now listening to it I can hear that you know, when you bring it really down to the sort of more mellow parts of the song and all the things you wish for other people it's just a Susan thing, right? when you're down you're still wishing good things for other people you know it's just your big heart and so so that's just a beautiful thing that I do hear in the song now and you get to just like rock out with the chorus you know, that's where we're going that's where we're hoping for and yeah, it's just it's a beautiful representation of how those two things can coexist in the holidays, right? like you can be happy even when you're sad, right? like you can find ways to even when you're down you know, cheer yourself up and so that's why I'm grateful for music in particular in a lot of ways it's always something that uplifted me when I was younger and going through harder times so thanks for reminding me about that yeah, you're welcome awesome yeah, the it is a lot of people really hate that there's so much Christmas music and it starts so early and lasts so long but honestly, I think it's important especially for the people who are sad it's okay to be sad and let the music make you cry you know, let the music let that out a little bit but then when you start singing along it changes everything even if you're singing sadly it changes you know, sing and see what happens to your heart sing and see what happens to the people around you the group of this too is things like Mariah Carey coming along with a Christmas song out of nowhere and then and it hit everybody right in the face it's a wonderful song and you know it's just interesting sometimes where these songs come from and it you know again it's not a religious song necessarily but it's joyful and for me joyful is religious so there you go yeah I was thinking that yeah I mean it's this is a great this song you know and I mean all of our songs but this song in particular is a great reminder of why holiday music exactly what you were just saying Susan's like it can be it can be a real source of joy and a real balm and all that stuff about getting like you know overexposed to so much I think what people are reacting to is I mean I don't want to get on my you know whatever political bag but like but we're reacting to kind of this oversaturation of like capitalism and like and you know the Christmas music being played in supermarkets and malls and things and and in commercials and it's really and then we put all of our anxiety onto that and it becomes oh I gotta plan this party oh I gotta do you know and it's all this kind of hustle culture that you know gets kind of you know forced down our throat and so little of it has to do with like joy right and just like hanging out with each other and spending time with each other and celebrating each other and and that is really kind of what this whole thing is supposed to be about right and yet and yet you know there's this kind of anxiety that comes with the holidays which is not what you know it should be about and I hope that music just like you said music once you really get into it and start listening to it and singing along to it or even just letting it wash over you that lets you just be in the present right and just be with the music itself rather than all these sort of things these scary abstract things that music might the music that the holidays might represent to people you know so I don't know that was a really nice reminder of that Thanks Joseph that's so interesting when you were talking about that I just kept thinking about the theme of this season was the power of singing with purpose and again like what is the purpose of these holiday songs right and yeah when it's to sell sweaters ugly sweaters or something like that yet this doesn't seem as great as when it's to celebrate something like family and having enough food on the table and being able to even maybe help others that are in need right and all of these bigger reasons for the season so I do think it's a really nice reminder as we close down our season about the purpose of singing to just be cognizant of that and again putting that forth is a really nice reminder so thanks As a lot of our songs are based around we talk about dollar and we talk about dollars and prisons are red and green you know we have these symbols that are you know we have all these symbols that link to to make our dream kind of more elaborate and we we just keep decorating and decorating I don't see anything really wrong with that but we do there are ways we can spend money that's really smart right so you know you're showing sometimes when they when people want money for causes that are not really legitimate and so we have to be careful and there are some standby places that you can give and right now our country needs to help with the drive to get his gun and the zombies it's really a mess there and they're going to need a lot of help so if you can as a way to get rid of money that you just have no other use for whatsoever Yeah instead of buying another another laughing Santa shaking his butt send some money down to Hurricane Relief Yeah no I hear that and the other thing I just wanted to add to that is that I love all over the world starting right now in fact right now it's Navaratri I've been doing these little tiny concerts about Navaratri which is the nine nights of the goddess in the fight against darkness so it's bringing light and so starting right about now going through the winter there are holidays all over the world that are all about bringing light into the darkness and that as a symbol of happiness and joy and love into your sorrow into whatever and so it is my great belief the power of singing and especially the power of singing with that purpose in mind not with the purpose of getting rich or getting famous but the power of singing as an offering as a song for a friend as all these episodes we had in this season Heather that you put together it's been a beautiful season and for all of you all of the episodes that we did were like little offerings of purpose purposeful singing and I think that it really does make us we are in this podcast we're stepping forward and we're bringing the light and we're asking you all to receive it receive our light and then go into your own life and step forward and sing a song or be the light or be the happiness be the joy in your own life Susan thank you it's coming up my season I love it I'll just turn it over to you actually it's not your season next but I could I could easily turn it right back over to you it's such a pleasure to talk with all of you today and we do have as you know another member who's not with us today our usual five members Joyce Wells is with us in spirit today she couldn't be with us in person but as we end our season together focused on the power of singing with purpose I just want to say again how grateful I am for this group the Santosha Voice Group and its members for bringing so much light and beautiful music to each episode and it's an honor to share the music with you all our audience and we hope you've enjoyed this special holiday gratitude bonus episode share it with your friends share the light spread the light spread just the non-anxiety for the holidays whatever the message is that you've taken away and we just want to wish you from all of us a very happy holidays thank you for listening happy holidays happy holidays have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season have a great holiday season