The 2009 - 2010 Choir Concert Series
The Twentieth Annual Cathedral Choir Concert Series
August 12 and 13, 7:30 p.m.
Cathedral Centennial Concert
The Cathedral Choir, featuring the choristers of The Madeleine Choir School, and the Cathedral Chamber Orchestra will perform The Dream of Gerontius by Sir Edward Elgar. Popularly called just Gerontius, this is an oratorio (Opus 38) in two parts composed by Elgar in 1900 to text from the poem by Cardinal Newman. It relates the journey of a pious man's soul from his deathbed to his judgment before God and settling into Purgatory. It is widely regarded as Elgar's finest choral work and by some to be his magnum opus.
November 15, 8:00 p.m.
St. Cecilia's Day Concert
The Cathedral Choir and Chamber Orchestra will present music of Bruckner and Britten. This concert will also feature Choir School alumnus Evan Shinners, who will perform Ralph Vaughan Williams' Fantasia and other works.
December 21 and 22, 8:00 PM
December 24, 4:00 PM
The Cathedral Choir will present its Christmas Carol Service, featuring works of Morales, Sweelinck and Grier.
December 18 and 22, 12:15 PM
The choristers of The Madeleine Choir School will perform A Ceremony of Carols by Benjamin Britten.
Britten's A Ceremony of Carols is a masterpiece composed on board ship during a perilous five-week crossing of the North Atlantic in World War II as Britten returned to England from the U.S.A. in 1942. It is an unusual setting for treble voices and harp, and the “carols” are largely the product of 15th and 16th century writers, most of whom are anonymous. They retain their unique flavor by Britten's extensive use of old English language. The work opens and closes with the choir processing to plainsong, the Hodie chant sung for centuries at Vespers on Christmas Eve, and the sections in-between deal with the traditional stories surrounding the birth of Christ.
March 14, 2010 8:00 PM
Founders’ Day Concert
Mass in C minor, KV427…W. A. Mozart
Cantata Misericordiam, Op. 69…Benjamin Britten
Mozart’s Mass in C Minor is one of the composer’s major works, and the best known of his many settings of the Mass. Composed in 1782-3, it received it premier performance at St. Peter’s Abbey Church in Salzburg, a performance which featured his wife Constance as the soprano soloist. The C Minor Mass has evidence of the influence of both Bach and Handel, composers whom Mozart was studying at the time of its composition.
Benjamin Britten’s Cantata misericordium or “Song of the Merciful” was composed and first performed for the centenary of the Red Cross, celebrated in Geneva on September 1st, 1963. Composed for tenor and baritone soloists with chorus, the work is a setting of the Good Samaritan Parable, and is accompanied by a chamber orchestra comprised of strings, piano, timpani and harp. This setting of the Parable of the Good Samaritan, a tale that transcends all nations, cultures and religion, begins with the question “Who is my neighbor?” The work ends with the answer to the initial question: “Who your neighbor is, now you know,” and the chorus commends us to “Go and do likewise.”
April 2, 2010 3:00 PM
Good Friday Choral Meditation
The choristers of The Madeleine Choir School will present Stabat Mater by G. B. da Pergolesi. Stabat Mater is a thirteenth-century text attributed to Jacopone da Todi. Its title is an abbreviation of the first line, Stabat mater dolorosa ("The sorrowful mother was standing"). The hymn, one of the most powerful and moving of the medieval sequences, meditates on the suffering of Mary, the mother of Christ, during his crucifixion and death. Pergolesi’s musical setting of this text was composed at the end of his short life which was spent at a Franciscan monastery in Pozzuoli and it was written as a replacement for the Allesandro Scarlatti setting in use at the church of Maria dei Sette Dolori in Naples.
May 9, 2010 8:00 p.m.
Madeleine Festival Concert
To Obtain a Guaranteed Seating Pass
If you are interested in obtaining complimentary guaranteed seating passes, call the concert information line at 801.994.4663. Leave your name, the spelling of your last name, the number of passes you need (limit of four), the date of the concert you would like to attend, and a phone number where you can be reached to confirm your request. If you qualify for a reserved seating pass, you can call the concert line as detailed above (please specify that you are requesting a reserved seating pass) or you can pick up your reserved seating pass in the Advancement Office in Erbin Hall on the campus of The Madeleine Choir School.You may pick up your seating passes the evening of the performance at Will Call in the vestibule next to the elevator. Passes cannot be mailed. Passes are no longer available via email or fax; please use our concert information line.
