Chorale to Debut New Piece

Cypress Chorale will debut the commissioned piece from Z. Randall Stroope at the Florida Vocal Association District Music Performance Assessment this Thursday evening. Chorale is scheduled to take the stage at 9:00 p.m. at North Fort Myers High School. Intermezzo will also be performing at District and their scheduled performance time is 7:45 p.m. The piece by Z. Randall Stroope is titled Homage. It was commissioned by the Cypress Lake Vocal Department to honor the memory of the three fathers who lost their lives this past fall. Dr. Stroope was struggling with how to tackle this piece and have it serve as a fitting memorial, and then thought of the words of his own father and the piece was born. The text is written by Dr. Stroope's father, W. L. Stroope. He was orphaned at two years old - losing both of his parents within days of each other - and he grew up as a part of a large family who loved and cared for each other. He was not schooled past the 8th grade, having to leave education for work to support the family. Nevertheless, he was self-educated, wrote beautiful poetry, spoke like a statesman, sang and read music well, and never showed regret for his meager start in life. His "wealth" was in the people around him and in his children. It is a beautiful piece and we look forward to sharing it with the world Thursday evening.

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