One American’s way of honoring her country, and those who have served it, was to arrange and coordinate a concert for the Tulsa Ontario Chorus which was performed along side the Tulsa Symphony Orchestra with vocal solo spots with Ian Gill.

The location for this concert was just amazing: a very unique and special spot in Tulsa, the Air and Space Museum. The museum houses commercial and military history and so amongst the museum displays and the display airplanes was a stage and seating set up for the performance. It was a remarkable venue for an amazing concert!!!

The performance started with the Presentation of the Colors by the Union High School Air Force Junior ROTC. The performance was a lovely combination of song and spoken words from famous men like Thomas Jefferson. The choir sang songs like the Star-Spangled Banner by John Stafford Smith, arranged by Tim Sharp, the ever joyful choir’s director. They moved from the Star-Spangled Banner to This Land is your Land by none other than Woody Guthrie. It makes you stop to think how much influence Oklahoma has on our history. Keeping with the Guthrie theme, they later performed I Don’t Need No Man by Tim Sharp based on a text popularized by Mr. Guthrie. Don McLean’s, American Pie followed and then after a few more songs, they ended the concert with the Armed Forces Medley, arranged by Don Wyrtzen. Each branch of the military was represented by a portion of their branch’s song; during the song, the service men and women were asked to stand during their branch’s part in the medley. The crowd clapped in a thunderous way to almost say “thank you for your service and sacrifice to our country.”

The Tulsa Ontario Chorus, Ian Gill, and the Tulsa Symphony Orchestra performed two back-to-back concerts and while I photographed the first performance, my husband and some close friends joined me for the second performance. It was still just as good the second time around- I didn’t want it to end!