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St.
Cecilia Chamber Choir Celebrates Spring
with
Sacred Texts and Themes of the Sea
April
10 and 11 in Brunswick
and Newcastle
For
further information contact: Steve Ward at 563 8191
If you like exuberant choral
music that
celebrates Easter and spring’s arrival, don’t miss the St.
Cecilia Chamber
Choir’s concerts, Saturday April 10 at 3
PM
in Brunswick
and Sunday April 11 at 3
PM
in Newcastle.
The concert’s first half
includes stirring music for organ and full choir by William Mathias,
“Let the
People Praise Thee, O God,” that was first performed at
Westminster Abbey for
the 1981 wedding of Diana Spencer and Prince Charles. Just as powerful
is the
featured work in the first half: “A Sequence for St.
Michael,” Herbert Howells’
1961 setting of a medieval lyric celebrating St. Michael’s
slaying of the
dragon, with prayers for divine blessing. Richard Francis of
Damariscotta takes
the tenor solo in Howells’ “Sequence”.
Richard Francis
also contributes an original composition, “Easter Hymn,”
that is based on a
poem by A. E. Houseman, focusing on Jesus’ doubts and fears in
the Garden
of Gethsemane.
The
program’s first half continues with a luscious 1925 composition
for double
choirs by William Harris, “Faire is the Heaven,” with
lyrics by 16th
century English poet Edmund Spencer and a “Magnificat” set
in eight parts in
1987 by American composer Conrad Susa that is full of rhythmic
surprises.
The concert’s
second half explores pastoral and maritime themes, in a more peaceful
mood.
Selections include two pieces each by Charles V. Stanford and by Ralph
Vaughan
Williams that illustrate the high-water mark of 20th century
English
choral song. The Choir concludes the concert with an e. e. cummings
poem set to
music by Todd Monsell – son of a choir member – and finally
an A. C. Swinburne
poem from 1865 celebrating spring that has been set to music by the
Choir’s own
Richard Francis.
Celebrate spring’s
approach with this varied and high-spirited program. The
3:00 PM Saturday afternoon concert will take place at Bowdoin
Chapel on the Bowdoin College campus in Brunswick and the 3 PM Sunday
concert
will be at the Second Congregational Church in Newcastle. Tickets
are $10
in advance (at Gulf
of Maine
Books
in Brunswick
and
Maine Coast Book Shop in Damariscotta) and $12 at the door. Children
and
students are admitted at no charge. For more information, visit the
Choir’s web
site at www.ceciliachoir.org
or
call 380-2768.
Now in its 14th
season, the St. Cecilia Chamber Choir is directed by Linda Blanchard
– Director
of the Sheepscot Valley Chorus and of choirs at St. Andrew’s
Church in Newcastle
– with
organ accompaniment by Sean Fleming – organist at St.
Andrew’s. The Choir is
composed of 30 fully-auditioned members who hail from the length and
breadth of
Mid-Coast Maine.
This St. Cecilia
2009-2010 concert season is once more sponsored by The First bank, of
Wiscasset
and points north.
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