Innocence and Hope

Saturday, November 15, 2008, 8:00 PM
St. Mark’s School, Class of 1945 Hall, Southborough

Intimations of Immortality - Finzi
Dona Nobis Pacem - Vaughan Williams

With soloists:
Maria Ferrante , Soprano
Stanley Wilson , Tenor
Steven Small , Baritone

Don’t miss these choral masterpieces by two of Britain’s most celebrated composers, setting works by some of our most distinguished poets. Finzi’s decision to set the poetry of England ’s Wordsworth was greeted with great skepticism but this exceptional setting of words to music fully met that challenge. Vaughan Williams’ Dona Nobis Pacem, largely based on text by the American Civil War poet Walt Whitman, has already become a choral favorite and is certainly appropriate for our time.

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Program Notes

(Links to background information on the composers and music.)

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Messiah Sing

Sunday, December 14, 2008, 3:30 PM
Evangelical Congregational Church, Westborough

With soloists:
TBA

An annual Holiday Tradition — Join the Mastersingers and soloists to sing the Christmas portion of Handel's Messiah. Come listen or bring/borrow from us a score and sing along in this informal, exhilarating event.

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Russian Choral Treasures

Saturday, March 21, 2008, 8:00 PM
St. Mark's School, Southborough

Sunday, March 22, 2008, 4:00 PM
Mechanics Hall, Worcester

Performed in collaboration with Master Singers of Worcester and Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

Symphony of Psalms - Stravinsky
Kvalite Boga! (Praise God!) op. 65 - Gretchaninoff

With orchestra and

A Cappella Russian Treasures:

“Bogoroditse”- Rachmaninoff
“Kalinka”- Prokhorov
“Sacred Love”- Sviridov
“Cherubic Hymn”- Glinka
“Kvalite” from All Night Vigil- Chesnokov

This is a unique opportunity to hear some of the best Russian Choral literature presented by the combined forces of the Assabet Valley Mastersingers and Master Singers of Worcester supported by instrumentalists from WPI and freelance professionals. Symphony of Psalms is familiar to many but the Gretchaninoff cantata Kvalite Boga! is a newly discovered and rarely heard choral gem. Some of the very best Russian a cappella choral literature accompany these two masterworks.

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Poetry in Song

Saturday, May 16, 2009, 8:00 PM
Chapel of the Cross, Westborough

Fern Hill - Corigliano
Frostiana - Thompson

Selected Contemporary settings by Brunner, Gawthrop, Stroope and others

We begin the season with settings of two great 19th century poets and conclude with compositions setting texts by two giants of the 20th century, Dylan Thomas and Robert Frost. Shorter musical settings of other contemporary poets, by some of our very best American contemporary composers, complete the program.

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