Concert Weekend is Almost Here

Tomorrow and Sunday, I'll be performing Händel's Messiah for the 25th and 26th time with my choir, the Apollo Chorus of Chicago. We're getting some great attention in anticipation of our concerts:

• Members of the choir were featured on WGN News yesterday morning
• We're one of the 9 Most Chicago Things To Do This Christmas on Buzzfeed
• We're one of Chicago Magazine's Ten Don't-Miss Picks for the Week Ahead

You can learn a lot more about Händel and Messiah at a pre-concert talk before Sunday's performance.

And you just might leave the performance happier than when you went in: in psychological research on the effect of mood, we usually play clips of music that reliably put people in either a good or bad mood. One frequently used song to put people in a good mood comes from Händel's Messiah - the Pastoral Symphony, also known as the Pifa, which sets the scene of the shepherds in the field who are about to be visited by angels: