Louder Than Words: GFS Choir’s Annual Concert at Foulkeways

Every fall, the GFS Upper School Choir performs a special concert for the residents of Foulkeways at Gwynedd, a Quaker retirement home where a number of GFS alumni and Germantown Monthly Meeting members live. This tradition was established in 1968 when Mary Brewer, the GFS choir director at the time, brought the students to perform.  

This year, the Choir paid their visit to Foulkeways on Thursday, November 20. Following dinner and opening remarks were made by Jack Rhoads ’56, a Foulkeways resident, GFS Chief Advancement Officer Hannah Henderson ’91 shared info about the recently-completed Alumni Survey and highlights from the final year of the Picture This campaign. Head of School Dana Weeks updated the attendees about the many exciting happenings at Coulter Street, including the recent Upper School and Faculty/Staff musical, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and the launch of Essentially GFS. 

GFS Choir Director Anne Hess explained the theme for the evening: Louder Than Words, a curated selection of texts and songs that explore what gives words meaning. 

“Is it the written words themselves? The context? The feelings behind the words? Who writes or speaks them? Is it the embodiment of words spoken, sung, or acted upon?” Hess asked. 

The concert opened with Rosephanye Powell’s The Word was God, which explores the power of words as a force for creation. A diverse range of pieces were sung, from Jussi Chydenius’s Deep in the Night to Bruno Mars’ Talking to the Moon. Of the second-to-last piece, Let the Life I’ve Lived Speak for Me, American composer Gwyneth Walker writes, “Sometimes our words are full of embellishment or praise, and other times, a plain yet beautiful truth will suffice.” 

The performance concluded with an invitation for the audience to join the Choir in singing Peter Lutkin’s The Lord Bless You and Keep You, a concert benediction that is a GFS choral tradition.

After the concert, the students stood in a row, and as the audience processed out of the auditorium they shook hands and enthusiastically greeted one another. It’s a newer tradition at the Foulkeways concert that left everyone smiling and already looking forward to next year.