Newly composed pieces included two songs with texts by Sara Teasdale, scored by longtime Vermont resident Gwyneth Walker and by Missouri-based composer Susan LaBarr. From Celtic traditions, we offered Aisling (meaning 'dream' or 'vision') scored for solo violin and gently accompanied by the choir and piano. Romy played solo fiddle as we performed a traditional Norwegian song, Gropen, a lively dance tune. We welcomed as our guest violinist Middlebury Union High School student Romy Munkres, the Young Tradition Vermont 2018 contest winner. John of the Cross and contemporary author Charles Anthony Silvestri with its uplifting sentiment, "Praise to all music which soars to inspire!" We also offered the powerful final chorus from the Emergent Universe Oratorio composed six years ago by Middlebury's Sam Guarnaccia on a text by William Blake: " To See a World in a Grain of Sand and a Heaven in a Wild Flower, Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand and Eternity in an hour." We closed the program with Luminous Night of the Soul by award-winning Norwegian American composer Ola Gjeilo who combines texts by sixteenth-century Spanish mystic poet St. We premiered a special work that Middlebury College professor Peter Hamlin written in memory of our long-time chorus member Grace Weber '79 who passed away in December 2016, and her husband Steve (retired College forester) who passed away in May 2019. Also on the program, we sang Modimo and Ngokujabula!, African-influenced music by Michael Barrett and Dan Forrest drawing on traditional texts to express jubilation and using powerful harmonies and energetic rhythms. Johnson reminds us with his dynamic setting of Sing Out Your Joy based on ancient psalm texts. Music also lifts our spirits, as African-American gospel songwriter Victor C. Our program included Iowa composer Elaine Hagenberg's The Music of Stillness that sets poetry by Sara Teasdale, and by Minnesota composer Stephen Paulus who wrote Hymn to the Eternal Flame in remembrance of all who suffered and perished in the horrors of the Holocaust. We sang One Voice to open the concert, with the words "This is the sound of one voice, of voices two, of voices three-the sound of all of us singing with love" by North American composer Ruth Moody, who writes for the Canadian folk-roots trio The Wailin' Jennys. Brahms composed the work in tribute to his friend, the painter Anselm Feuerbach, whose paintings drew upon antiquity and Renaissance motifs. Its text by nineteenth-century German author Friedrich Schiller, with references to ancient Greek mythology, d epicts the death of that which is beautiful. As day fades to dusk and the soundwaves wash over you, you’ll enter that magical world of twilight and leave with a sense of collective connection to the power of music and the human voice.Ĭurated and conducted by Brett Weymark, this magical program includes Norwegian Ola Gjeilo’s Dark Night of the Soul and Luminous Night of the Soul alternating between moments of peaceful stillness and rhythmic brightness, American Eric Whitacre’s translucent Nox Arumque and Lux Arumque, Arvo Pärt’s mesmerising Spiegel im Spiegel, all centred around Samuel Barber’s immortal Agnus Dei.The choir presented its annual Thanksgiving concert on the Robison Concert Hall stage, as historic and contemporary texts and music from around the globe filled the hour-long program with a variety of music to celebrate the joy of Thanksgiving and hope for our future.įrom the classical traditional, we sang Nänie by Johannes Brahms, an elegy with lush melodies and harmonies. Musically, the journey travels from darkness to light, book-ended by some of the oldest music in Western culture, the medieval Gregorian chant.
With no chairs in sight, you’ll relax into the comfort of your cushion, yoga mat or blanket and settle into the sweet spot between meditation and active listening.
This is an altogether different way to experience the sonic beauty of Sydney Philharmonia Choirs’ Chamber Singers. Lie amongst the raw sandstone and towering columns of The Cutaway and let the lush acoustics of this vast, cathedral-esque space surround you.
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