I love choral music. The first time music shook my soul was when I was just under ten years old listening to Sound of Music’s choral finale of “Climb Every Mountain.” I was never the same girl since then, for I have been entranced under a spell that makes me fall in love with music time and time again. I love that nearly one hundred voices come together to create such beautiful harmony, which transcends my heart into an intriguing and unfamiliar dimension.

I recall learning extensively about Richard Wagner and his opera Tannhäuser during my studies in college. My professor would spend weeks on going over the story line, the symbolism behind each character, many different arias, the musical form of certain orchestral selections, and how the music relates to the sentiments of the characters. While all the lectures were informative, I was not amused. However, when he played a recording of the end of the opera when…