Jennifer Ryan asked Jennifer Ryan:

Are you an avid singer? What’s your favorite hymn or piece of choral music?

Jennifer Ryan Yes, I am an incredibly avid singer! I belonged to my school choir (which was terribly serious) and then a few different adult choirs. Most of all, I simply loved choir practice: creeping into a cold church at night, greeting my fellow choir members with a joke or two, and then singing, hearing our beautiful, combined voices blend together to create such a majestic sound.
Since I wrote Chilbury, I’ve come to learn that all kinds of chemical reactions happen when we sing with other people, which is part of the great bonding experience that it becomes. And then there’s the music, which affects our emotions in such a profound way.
My favorite choral work is Mozart’s Requiem. What a phenomenal, intense, moving piece of music! Mozart was writing it as he himself was dying, and it brings the whole of humanity, death, and spirituality together in an incredibly big and moving way. It was as if he was truly putting his all into it. It was the very last piece of music that he wrote—indeed, he didn’t quite finish it—and, tragically, it became the Requiem for his own funeral.

flag