The University at
Albany Department of Music is pleased to present its annual Spring Choral
Concert on Sunday,
April 27, 2008 at 7:30pm in the Main Theatre of the Performing Arts Center on the uptown campus. Featured will be the University Chorale in Leonard Bernstein’s “Chichester
Psalms” The Chorale will be accompanied
by harp, brass sextet, piano and an array of percussion, all under the baton of
Professor David M. Janower.
A huge
favorite of audiences, Bernstein’s “Chichester Psalms”
was written during his sabbatical leave from the NY Philharmonic, and
commissioned for a 1965
festival at Chichester Cathedral, England. The
premiere took place in New York City in
early 1965 with the composer conducting, followed by the performance in the
Chichester Festival in July that year. Paul Laird, University of Kansas,
writes: “Of the many of Bernstein's works that illustrate his eclectic
genius, Chichester Psalms is a felicitous example in which he used a
wide variety of music to help bring a text alive. The eighteen-minute piece has
proven popular because of its tunefulness, dance-like rhythms and
carefully-wrought form.”
The University
Chorale is comprised of over 100 singers, students, staff
and community members. The professional instrumentalists include harpist
Karlinda Caldicott, trumpeters Eric Latini, Lila Serapilio and Cathy Sheridan
and trombonists David Wampler, Phil Pandori and Michael Meidenbauer. These
guest instrumentalists are presented courtesy of the Dr. Suzanne Tieman
Memorial Fund. Staff accompanist Gordon
Hibberd will be the pianist.
The Chorale will
also perform three other short works accompanied by brass and percussion:
California composer Emma Lou
Diemer’s “Praise the Lord” and two pieces by Vermont composer Gwyneth
Walker from her set titled “Together in Song, A Celebration of Community
Singing.” The two movements are “Hear the Trumpet Sound,” based on the
spiritual “My Lord, What a Morning,” and “The Gospel Plow,” based on the
spiritual “Hold On!”
The University
Chamber Singers will open the program.
Also under the direction of Janower, the group is an ensemble of 25
students who recently returned from a concert tour of Barcelona and southern France. With an emphasis on music of living
composers, they will perform a Renaissance motet of Marc’ Antonio Ingegnerito
entitled “Tenebrae Factae sunt,” Billy Joel’s “And So It Goes,” Emma Lou
Diemer’s “El Dorado” and Berkshire composer Steve Murray’s setting of e.e.
cummings “o by the by.” Rounding out the program will be two works of Florida composer Paul
Basler and a half-dozen other works by living composers including Bradley
Ellingboe, Robert H. Young and Robert Cohen.
The accompanist for the group is Arla Wilding.
Tickets are
$8 for the general public and $4 for students and may be purchased through
the Performing Arts Center Box Office. For
further information, contact the Box Office at (518) 442-3997 or visit the
Performing Arts Center website at www.albany.edu/pac.
PAC
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