Upcoming 2009 Concerts
St. Cecilia Chamber Choir presents
a Christmas Treat:
A Ceremony of Lessons and Carols – December 11 and 12, 2009
Don’t miss a special Yuletide Treat on Friday, December 11 and
Saturday, December 12: the St. Cecilia Chamber Choir will be presenting
its well-loved “Ceremony of Lessons and Carols” at
Newcastle’s Second
Congregational Church at 7:30 on the evening of the 11th and at Bowdoin
College Chapel in Brunswick at 3:00 in the afternoon of the 12th.
Hear lessons, both sacred and secular, and wonderful music of the
season in this special performance, the ninth time that the St. Cecilia
Chamber Choir has celebrated Christmas with Mid-Coast audiences in this
format. Adapted from the Christmas Eve service at King’s College
Chapel
in Cambridge, England, this year’s “Ceremony”
includes music by
Giovanni Da Palestrina, John Tavener and Charles Villiers Stanford, and
a number of wonderful settings of Christmas poetry by William Blake,
Thomas Hardy and Christina Rossetti. Intermingled with Nativity
readings are compositions of a father and son – Richard Francis
of
Damariscotta and his father, Keith Francis of New York City –
that set
to music aspects of the season: “Love, the Rose is on the
way”, “…the
shepherds in their field arise” and oxen kneeling by the Christ
child’s
cradle. The program concludes in candlelight with “Silent
Night”.
The audience is always encouraged to join in with the singing of the
familiar Christmas Carols that are interspersed throughout the program.
Come early to be sure to get a seat. This really is the way to bring
the spirit of the season alive for friends and family!
Tickets are $10 in advance (with no charge for students or children) or
$12 at the door; advance tickets are available from Gulf of Maine Books
in Brunswick and at Maine Coast Bookshop and Café in
Damariscotta. The
2009-2010 Concert Season is underwritten by the First, N.A. whose
financial support the Choir gratefully acknowledges. The St. Cecilia
Chamber Choir is a fully-auditioned chorus of about forty Mid-Coast
residents who have been performing since 1995 under the direction of
Linda Blanchard. Blanchard also serves as director of the Sheepscot
Valley Chorus and the choirs of St. Andrew’s Church in Newcastle.
Sean
Fleming is the Choir’s organist and accompanist and also is
involved
with a remarkable number of musicals, recitals and choral productions
each year in the Mid-Coast. For further information about
upcoming
concerts and auditions for the next semester, visit the St. Cecilia
website www.ceciliachoir.org or contact director Linda Blanchard at
380-2768.
Past
Concerts
What: St. Cecilia
Chamber Choir Halloween Benefit Concert
Where: Waldo Theatre, Waldoboro
When: Saturday, October, 24th, 7:00 p.m.
Contact: Director Linda Blanchard, 380-2768
Websites: ceciliachoir.org and thewaldo.org
St. Cecilia Chamber Choir presents “Vile Voices and Musical
Mayhem”, a
Halloween concert to benefit Waldo Theatre on Saturday, October 24th,
7:00 p.m., at the Waldo Theatre in Waldoboro. As a special treat,
we’ll also feature kids from the Waldo Youth Theatre.
Advance tickets
are available at Maine Coast Book Shop in Damariscotta and from the
Waldo Theatre website, www.thewaldo.org. Tickets are $10 in
advance,
$12 at the door; students are admitted free of charge.
The spooky and eclectic program includes everything from opera to
doo-wop, Gregorian chants for the dead, music from The Phantom of the
Opera and Harry Potter, a cowboy ballad, Tom Lehrer songs, and
more.
All this combined with special lighting, sound effects, and Sean
Fleming at the keyboard will make for a fun and creepy musical evening
not to be missed. Come in costume, and bring friends!
St. Cecilia
Chamber Choir is a 25-voice auditioned ensemble with
members from Rockland to New Gloucester. Our mission is to present
outstanding performances of the very best choral repertoire, to provide
challenging musical opportunities to gifted local youth, to support our
community with outreach programs, and to support Maine composers
through the commission and performance of new music. Our student
members are Sam and Harry Mason of Alna and Thai Lien Parsons of
Damariscotta. The Choir is directed by Linda Blanchard and accompanied
by Sean Fleming, who have led the group since its inception. For
further information about upcoming concerts and auditions, visit the
St. Cecilia website www.ceciliachoir.org or contact director Linda
Blanchard at 380-2768.
On Sunday, the third of May at 4
PM, the St. Cecilia Chamber Choir and
the Tapestry Singers will join forces to present a program of baroque
music. The selections will include Johann Sebastian Bach’s
motet for
double chorus, Der Geist hilft unser Schwachheit auf, Bach’s
Cantata
140, Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, and George Frideric
Handel’s
Chandos Anthem number 11, Let God Arise. Featured soloists will
include soprano Nicola Lugosch, mezzo sopranos Linda Blanchard and Amy
Lalime, tenor Douglas Barley, and bass-baritone John David Adams.
The
joint choruses will be led by their directors, Linda Blanchard and
Harold Falconer. Choral accompanist Sean Fleming will play the
harpsichord and be joined by a nine- piece baroque orchestra.
Bach wrote the motet in October of 1729 for the funeral of a
colleague. Nevertheless, the music is joyful, almost dance-like,
lively in character and optimistic in tone. It begins with the
two
choruses singing more or less in tandem. As the music progresses,
they
gradually meld together into an exciting fugue and end with a gentle
chorale.
The cantata, one of Bach’s most popular, may sound familiar to
many as
it uses the hymn tune, Wake, awake, for night is flying. The tune
is
heard several times throughout the work, accompanied by the magnificent
counterpoint for which Bach is so famous. Instruments weave
around
voices, and voices around other voices.
Handel’s anthem Let God Arise is as typical of Handel as the
other two
selections are of Bach. It was a youthful composition, written in
1728
for one of his most important patrons, the 3rd Earl of
Burlington. It
is filled with florid solos and scintillating choruses, anticipating
some of Handel’s famous later works, including the well-loved
Messiah.
The program will be presented at St. Patrick’s Church on Academy
Hill
Road in Newcastle at 4 PM on Sunday, May 3rd. Tickets are $12 at
the
door or $10 in advance and may be purchased from chorus members or at
the Maine Coast Book Shop in Damariscotta. Students are admitted
for
free.
For further information contact: Steve Ward at 563-8191
or Harold Falconer at 644-1174.
St.
Cecilia Chamber Choir presents Sing for Spring, a mixed bouquet of
short choral works, on Saturday, April 4 at 7:30 PM and Sunday, April
5 at 3 pm at St. Andrew’s Church, Newcastle.
St. Cecilia Chamber
Choir will present 21 delightful songs at its concerts in
Newcastle’s
St. Andrew’s Church on April 4 and 5 to get everyone in the mood
for
Spring, the wakening flowers, and renewed love. Five Renaissance
composers that are known both for beautiful religious music and their
madrigals are well-represented, including Josquin des Prez, Orlando
Gibbons and Tomas De Vittoria. Giovanni Gabrieli’s piece for a
double
chorus, Lieto Godea, will also be presented where the two choirs call
back and forth to one another singing of warm April breezes and the
sorrow of unrequited love.
There will also be songs from
several
19th and early 20th century composers, including Alexander
Gretchaninov, whose works are not often heard, but who wrote glorious
music in the Russian liturgical tradition. The choir will present
Gretchaninov’s Cherubim Song, a wondrous musical work with eight
different choral voices moving in harmony with one another. St. Cecilia
Choir will perform works by Gabriel Faure, Edward Elgar, and Camille
Saint-Saens, plus some charming adaptations of folk songs,
Mairi’s
Wedding and Scarborough Fair among them. The songs range from praise
to the Virgin Mary to songs evocative of spring flowers, of summer
moonlight, lost loves, and Silver Swans. All of the songs are
beautiful and accessible and, although several are in foreign
languages, translations will be provided.
The choir will
present this program twice, both times at St. Andrews Church in
Newcastle. Times are Saturday, April 4 at 7:30 PM and Sunday,
April 5
at 3 pm. Tickets are $12 at the door, $10 in advance with students
admitted free. Tickets are available at the Maine Coast Book Shop and
Café in Damariscotta.
St. Cecilia Chamber Choir is a 39-voice,
auditioned choir that has been led since 1995 by Linda Blanchard of
Damariscotta, with accompaniment by Sean Fleming. Choir members come
from all over the mid-coast area to sing under Ms. Blanchard’s
direction. Blanchard and Fleming also serve as director and
organist/accompanist of the Sheepscot Valley Singers and the choirs of
St. Andrew’s Church in Newcastle.
Do not miss this special
musical event. Celebrate winter’s end and seasonal rebirth with
St.
Cecilia Chamber Choir. For further information, contact Steve Ward
at
563-8191.
ST. CECILIA
CHAMBER CHOIR PRESENTS
CHRISTMAS LESSONS
AND CAROLS CONCERTS
On Friday and
Saturday, December 12 and 13, 2008, the St. Cecilia Chamber Choir will
give three performances of a "Ceremony of Lessons and Carols" in
Newcastle and Brunswick, as it has each Christmas season since
1995. Modeled on the Christmas Eve tradition of Kings College in
Cambridge, England, the program alternates readings of poetry, sacred
works, and seasonal entertainments with music of Advent and Christmas.
The choir will
present its “Ceremony of Lessons and Carols” at the Second
Congregational Church in Newcastle on Friday, December 12 at 7:30 p.m.
and twice on Saturday, December 13, at 3:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. at
Bowdoin College Chapel in Brunswick. Both concert venues provide
marvelous acoustics for appreciating the St. Cecilia Choir’s
musicianship.
Works
by Ord, Francis, Ferko, Susa, Pärt, Locklair, Vaughan Williams,
Ives, and others will be featured, and familar carols for audience
participation will be sung.
St. Cecilia
Chamber Choir is a 34-voice auditioned ensemble with members from New
Gloucester to Northport. Their mission is to present outstanding
performances of the very best choral repertoire; to provide challenging
musical opportunities to gifted local youth (tenor Sam Mason, a
home-schooled 9th grader from Alna, is in his fourth year in the Choir
and is the third member of his family to sing with St. Cecilia);
support the community with outreach programs; and to support Maine
composers through the commission and performance of new music. The
Choir is directed by Linda Blanchard and accompanied by Sean Fleming,
who jointly have led the group since its inception and also serve
together as director and accompanist for the Sheepscot Valley Chorus.
Blanchard is Director of Choirs and Fleming is Organist at St.
Andrew’s Church in Newcastle. For further information about
upcoming concerts and auditions for the next semester, visit the St.
Cecilia website www.ceciliachoir.org or contact director Linda
Blanchard at 563-2754.
St. Cecilia
Chamber Choir to Present
Eight Choral Works at Spring Concerts, April 11 and 12, 2008
The St. Cecilia Chamber Choir will present three choral
masterworks at its Spring concerts on April 11 and 12, along with five
smaller -- but delightful -- pieces.
Two of the major works are based on celebrated poetry.
English poet W. H. Auden provided the lyrics for “The
Twelve” composed in 2000 by local composer Richard Francis, with
a powerful evocation of the lives of the twelve apostles and their
legacy. English composer Benjamin Britten based his 1943 work
“Rejoice in the Lamb” on the poetry of Christopher Smart,
an 18th century mystic and street preacher who celebrated the
“divine architecture of the natural world”, including his
cat Jeoffrey. Together, both works demonstrate the range and
versatility of the English choral tradition.
The third major piece is Herbert Howell’s “Te
Deum”. Composed for Christ College, Cambridge in 1944,
Howell’s work is a stirring celebration of faith. The choir will
also perform a 1962 piece by American composer Ned Rorem, a setting of
the 23rd Psalm by Keith Francis (father of “The Twelve”
composer, Richard Francis), “God is Gone Up” by English
composer Gerald Finzi, Edward Bairstow’s 1925 a cappella piece
“I Sat Down Under His Shadow” and “Draw Us in The
Spirit’s Tether” by Harold W. Friedell.
The choir will present this program twice, at
7:30 PM on Friday April 11 at the Second Congregational Church in
Newcastle and at 7:30 PM on Saturday April 12 at Bowdoin College Chapel
in Brunswick. Tickets are $15 at the door, $10 in advance with students
under 18 admitted free. Tickets are available at Gulf of Maine Books in
Brunswick and at Maine Coast Book Shop and CafÈ in Damariscotta.
The St. Cecilia Chamber Choir is a 33-voice,
auditioned choir that has been led since 1995 by Linda Blanchard of
Damariscotta, with organ accompaniment by Sean Fleming. Much of the
music at the April concerts will be noteworthy for Fleming’s
treatment of powerful organ passages, particularly Finzi’s
“God is Gone Up’ and Richard Francis’ “The
Twelve”. Alto Nan White and Baritone Stephen White also will
contribute solos in Britten’s “Rejoice in the Lamb”.
Choir members come from locations as distant as New
Gloucester and Northport to sing under Ms. Blanchard’s direction.
Blanchard and Fleming also serve as director and organist/accompanist
of the Sheepscot Valley Singers and the choirs of St. Andrew’s
Church in Newcastle.
Do not miss this special musical event – the
Choir’s April 11 and 12 Spring concerts. Celebrate winter’s
end and seasonal rebirth with the musicianship and skill of the St.
Cecilia Chamber Choir.For further information contact, Steve Ward at
563 8191
ST. CECILIA CHAMBER CHOIR PRESENTS
FOR IMMEDIATE
RELEASE
St. Cecilia
Chamber Choir Presents “Steeple Fund” Benefit Concert
January 26
On Saturday January 26 at 7:30 PM the St. Cecilia Chamber
Choir will perform a varied program of traditional Scottish and
American music in a benefit for the Damariscotta Baptist Church Steeple
Fund. The benefit concert will take place at the church and will be the
latest in a series of efforts to raise funds for the renovation of the
Damariscotta Baptist Church’s historic steeple and clock tower.
The concert will consist of hymns and folksongs of
Scotland and America, including four Robert Burns ballads that are
well-known to lovers of Scottish music, four traditional songs from
Appalachia and the American South, three pieces associated with the
Scottish highlands (including two versions of “Amazing
Grace”) and four arrangements by Aaron Copland of American
folksongs and spirituals. Soloists for the January 26 concert include
baritone Stephen White and tenor John Ward.
Don’t miss this extraordinary benefit concert and
the musicianship of the St. Cecilia Chamber Choir. A 34-voice
auditioned choir with members drawn from Northport to New Gloucester,
the Choir is directed by Linda Blanchard with piano and organ
accompaniment by Sean Fleming. Blanchard and Fleming serve as choirs
director and organist, respectively, at St. Andrews Episcopal Church in
Newcastle, the Sheepscot Valley Chorus and numerous other musical
ventures in the mid-coast area.
The January 26 benefit will consist of one performance at
7:30 with admission at the door for $15 to benefit the Steeple Fund.
Students and children will be admitted at no charge. This is the latest
in a series of performances by the St. Cecilia Choir to benefit
community institutions each year. Previous concert proceeds have gone
to assist the Skidompha Library in Damariscotta, historic St.
John’s Church in Dresden, Round Top Center for the Arts, The
Leadership School at Kieve and the Old German Church in Waldoboro.
For further information see the Choir’s website at
www.ceciliachoir.org or call the Damariscotta Baptist Church at 563
3587.
ST. CECILIA CHAMBER CHOIR PRESENTS
CHRISTMAS LESSONS
AND CAROLS CONCERT
On Friday and
Saturday, December 14 and 15, 2007, the St. Cecilia Chamber Choir will
give three performances of a "Ceremony of Lessons and Carols" in
Newcastle and Brunswick, as it has each Christmas season since
1995. Modeled on the Christmas Eve tradition of Kings College in
Cambridge, England, the program alternates readings of poetry, sacred
works, and seasonal entertainments with music of Advent and Christmas.
The choir will
present its “Ceremony of Lessons and Carols” at the Second
Congregational Church in Newcastle on Friday, December 14 at 7:30 p.m.
and twice on Saturday, December 15, at 3:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. at
Bowdoin College Chapel in Brunswick. Both concert venues provide
marvelous acoustics for appreciating the St. Cecilia Choir’s
musicianship.
The 2007 Ceremony
of Lessons and Carols will premier a commission of a new Magnificat by
local composer and St. Cecilia Choir member Richard Francis.
“My
inspiration is the text of the Magnificat, and I try to amplify the
meaning with word painting,” said Francis. “I write by
instinct, and so many musical ideas want to come out--it’s hard
to choose!” His setting is in the English choral tradition, with
a substantial organ interlude that will showcase accompanist Sean
Fleming’s talent. Francis (b. 1969) received his bachelor’s
degree from Bowdoin College and his Masters from the University of
Michigan. A resident of Damariscotta, he is a freelance 'cellist and
recording engineer and teaches privately, in addition to his work as a
composer. Other commissions have come from the Portland Choral Arts
Society, Bangor Symphony, the American Guild of Organists and Bowdoin
College.
The St. Cecilia
concert will also include such works as the chant-like “God Is
With Us” by John Tavener, a John Rutter piece called “There
Is a Flower”, Judith Weir’s haunting “Illuminare,
Jerusalem”, and a rousing “Welcome, Yule!” by
Sir C. Hubert Parry. The audience will be invited to join in the
singing of several traditional carols, including the classic David
Willcocks setting of “Hark! The Herald Angels
Sing.” The concert concludes by candlelight, as the
Christmas Children, Lindsey Merritt and Eli Diaute, both students at
Great Salt Bay School, and Carli Jo Storms, a student at Bristol
Consolidated Schools, sing alone the first verse of “Silent
Night,” then lead the Choir in a candlelight recessional.
Featured soloists,
all members of St. Cecilia Choir, are Janet Booth, Sandra Francis,
Richard Francis, Wendy Love, Del Merritt, Jackie Merritt, Ruth Monsell,
Chrisso Rheault, Susan Russell and Stephen White.
Tickets for adults
are $12 at the door, or $10 in advance; students are admitted for
free. Tickets are available at Maine Coast Book Shop in
Damariscotta and the Gulf of Maine Books in Brunswick.
St. Cecilia
Chamber Choir is a 34-voice auditioned ensemble with members from New
Gloucester to Northport. Their mission is to present outstanding
performances of the very best choral repertoire; to provide challenging
musical opportunities to gifted local youth (tenor Sam Mason, a
home-schooled 9th grader from Alna, is in his third year in the Choir
and is the third member of his family to sing with St. Cecilia);
support the community with outreach programs; and to support Maine
composers through the commission and performance of new music. The
Choir is directed by Linda Blanchard and accompanied by Sean Fleming,
who jointly have led the group since its inception and also serve
together as director and accompanist for the Sheepscot Valley Chorus.
Blanchard is Director of Choirs and Fleming is Organist at St.
Andrew’s Church in Newcastle. For further information about
upcoming concerts and auditions for the next semester, visit the St.
Cecilia website www.ceciliachoir.org or contact director Linda
Blanchard at 563-2754.
St.
Cecilia Chamber Choir Presentation of the Requiem of Tomas Luis De
Victoria and the Requiem of Maurice Durufle – May 19 and 20, 2007
Southern Maine music-lovers will have a choice between two
wonderful settings for hearing the St Cecilia Chamber Choir’s
presentation of the “Requiem” of Spanish Renaissance
composer Tomas Luis De Victoria and the 20th century
“Requiem” of Maurice Durufle. On May 19 at 7:30 PM, the
Chamber Choir presents the two choral requiems at the Cathedral Church
of St. Luke on State Street in Portland – a wonderful, echoing
stone environment for choral harmony. The following afternoon, on May
20 at 4:00 PM, the setting will be Boothbay Harbor’s
white-clapboarded Congregational Church on Route 27 with an acoustic
composed of 19th century wood and plaster, Both venues will set off
these glorious pieces to maximum advantage.
The pair of requiems present styles that are
both complementary and contrasting. Victoria’s version of
the latin mass for the dead dates from 1605 and was the final
piece Victoria composed before his own death five years later.
The piece is accompanied only with organ doubling the bass section but
otherwise consists of six-part a capella harmonies that follow
introductory plainchant for each section of the mass. Opening with a
serene “Requiem Aeternam” section, Victoria moves to
the “Kyrie” and on to a sequence of passionate, angry and
joyous emotions. His “Requiem” is at times lush and
muscular and at others ethereal and tender. It is an extraordinary and
moving composition.
Durufle’s “Requiem” presents a different
and distinctly modern aesthetic. Maurice Durufle held the position of
organist at St. Etienne-du-Mont in Paris throughout his career, until
his death in 1986. His most celebrated work, the “Requiem”,
dates from 1947. In the aftermath of world war and political turmoil in
Europe, Durufle’s version is surprisingly full of affirmation and
hope. The organ accompaniment is full of energy and rhythm and sets off
the choral harmonies that often are doubled or in unison.
Interestingly, the same Gregorian plainsong that figures prominently in
the Victoria “Requiem” recurs and is echoed in the Durufle.
In this sense, the two pieces have a strong kinship despite their
differing styles and the 350 year gap that separates their dates of
composition.
Come hear these two moving and glorious compositions on
the 19th and 20th of May. Tickets for the Boothbay Harbor concert on
May 20 are $12 in advance and $10 at the door with youth age 18 or
under admitted free. Admission for the Portland concert at St.
Luke’s Cathedral on Saturday May 19 is a $10 donation for adults
and $5 for youth. Advance tickets are available at Gulf of Maine
Bookstore in Brunswick and the Maine Coast Bookshop and Café in
Damariscotta or by calling 563 2654 or by accessing the Choir’s
website at tickets@Ceciliachoir.org.
The St. Cecilia Chamber Choir is a 34-voice,
auditioned choir whose members hail from New Gloucester all the way to
Rockland. Founded and directed by Linda Blanchard and Sean Fleming, the
Choir celebrates its 12th year of performances in Midcoast and Southern
Maine this year. The Choir includes three youth members currently and
takes seriously its mission to help promote talented student
musicians. The Choir regularly performs a Christmas Lessons and
Carols concert each December at Bowdoin College Chapel and has appeared
at the Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul in Lewiston and many other local
venues. It is incorporated as a non-profit corporation and accepts
contributions that are fully tax-deductible uder State and federal law.
Linda Blanchard is the Director of Choirs and
Sean Fleming is the Organist at St. Andrews Church in Newcastle where
the Choir rehearses. The Choir is named after the patron saint of
singing and music, St. Cecilia.
St. Cecilia Chamber Choir Performs 11th
Christmas Season (2006)
On Saturday December 16th at 7:30 PM at
Newcastle’s Second Congregational Church and Sunday afternoon
December 17th at 3 PM at Bowdoin College Chapel in Brunswick, the St.
Cecilia Chamber Choir will present a ceremony of lessons and carols for
the Christmas season. For many years, the Choir has entertained
Mid-Coast audiences with this presentation of carols and readings,
modeled after the Christmas Eve service at King’s College at
Cambridge University in the United Kingdom.
This year’s program begins with Richard
Marlow’s setting of the “Advent Responsory” with
words taken from an early medieval Roman rite. The Choir then
processes to “People, Look East” - a piece by Richard
Francis that was commissioned in Advent 2001; the composer sings with
the Choir and also is a highly-regarded composer of choral music and a
cellist. “And I Saw a New Heaven” is a lush and
mystical anthem composed in 1928 by Edgar L. Bainton and is followed in
the concert program by a thrilling composition by contemporary English
composer John Tavener, “A Hymn to the Mother of God”;
composed in 1985, “Hymn” is a double choir composition with
a text from the Greek Orthodox Liturgy of St. Basil. The Choir
then turns to Bob Chilcott’s “Nova! Nova!” - a joyous
presentation of Angel Gabriel’s appearance to the
shepherds. “The Virgin’s Cradle Hymn” by Edmund
Rubbra (1926), a moving depiction of the Nativity scene, “Once in
Royal David’s City,” with a descant and organ setting by
Sir David Willcocks of King’s College, and “Hark, the
Herald Angels Sing” conclude the first half.
After an intermission, the Choir presents a rousing
version of “Masters in This Hall,” a traditional French
carol also arranged by Sir David Willcocks. Interspersed with
readings that evoke the season, the concert continues with traditional
carols, “What Sweeter Music” composed in 1988 by John
Rutter and a marvelous setting of “Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing
Day” composed in 1966 by John Gardner. The ceremony of
lessons and carols concludes in a candle-lit presentation of
“Silent Night,” led by our Christmas Children, Harry Mason
of Alna and Thai Lien Parsons of Newcastle.
The audience is encouraged to
participate in singing the familiar carols on the program.
The St. Cecilia Chamber Choir is a 40-voice,
auditioned Choir whose members hail from locations as far-flung as New
Gloucester and Northport. Linda Blanchard has directed the Choir
since its inception in 1995 and Sean Fleming also has served
continuously as the Choir’s accompanist/organist. Blanchard
and Fleming are Choir director and organist, respectively, at St.
Andrews Church in Newcastle and are extensively associated with choral
music and theatrical presentations in Mid-Coast Maine.
Concert tickets for the December 16 and 17 events
are $12 at the door and $10 in advance; students and children are
free. Tickets can be purchased in advance at Maine Coast Book
Shop in Damariscotta and Gulf of Maine Books in Brunswick.
For more information, call 563-2754.
St. Cecilia offers rare treat
(2006)
NEWCASTLE -- St. Cecilia Chamber Choir will perform an unusual concert
program featuring a compelling choral piece from the 18th century and
an equally compelling composition from the 20th at 7:30 p.m. Saturday,
May 20, at Second Congregational Church, River Road.
The choir will perform J.S. Bach’s
Cantata 150, “Nach dir, Herr, verlanget mich” (For You,
Lord, is My Longing), one of his most elegant and popular. The piece
will be presented with a chamber orchestra in keeping with Baroque
practice when the piece first was performed in Leipzig, Germany.
Soloists will be Janet Booth, Stephen White, Chrisso Rheault, Steve
Ward, Sandra Francis and Kit Pfeiffer.
Also featured will be the world premiere of
“Super Flumina Babylonis” by New York composer Leroy Sam
Parkins, a powerful setting of Psalm 137 that reflects the
composer’s background in both classical and jazz music. The text
is an emotional outcry of the Hebrew people exiled in Babylon. The
choir takes the part of the Babylonian tormentors and soloists Shanna
Babbidge, Judy Falconer, Cally Aldrich and Richard Francis voice the
laments of the Hebrew captives. Composer Parkins will give a preconcert
talk on the piece at 7 p.m.
The concert also features a number of works
selected by the choir for its 10th anniversary, delayed a year in its
celebration due to the birth this time last year of director Linda
Blanchard’s first child. “Ave Maria” by Los Angeles
composer Morten Lauridsen is an cappella composition in 10-part
harmony. Two two rousing Victorian compositions by C. Hubert Parry
include his setting of Blake’s poem “Jerusalem,”
especially relevant due to the popularity of “The DaVinci
Code.” “The Silver Swan” is a classic gem, composed
by Orlando Gibbons in 1612. The choir’s men will sing the Irish
folk tune “Down by the Sally Gardens” in a lush arrangement
by Henry G. Mishkin on a text by William Butler Yeats.
Tickets are on sale at Artsake Framing and
Maine Coast Book Shop, both in Damariscotta. They are $10 in advance
and will be $12 at the door. Students younger than 18 are admitted free.
The public is invited free of charge to a
special open rehearsal and recording session the night before the
performance, at 7 p.m. Friday, May 19. Parkins and keyboardist Sean
Fleming will perform some jazz numbers, and refreshments will be
served. In addition to rehearsing, the focus of the evening will be the
recording session for “Super Flumina Babylonis.” Cantata
150 will not be rehearsed.
St. Cecilia Chamber Choir Presents March
Round Top Benefit Concert (2006)
On
Saturday, March 25th at 7:30 p.m., St. Cecilia Chamber Choir will
present a concert at the Second Congregational Church in Newcastle,
Maine, to benefit the Round Top Center for the Arts. Works will
include selections from Morley, Rutter, Swingle, Willan, and Bach
(P.D.Q. that is!). All selections will have the theme of
springtime and love. There will favorites such as Londonderry
Air, My Bonny Lass She Smileth, and also some surprises! The
public is cordially invited to attend!
St. Cecilia Chamber Choir Performs 10th
Christmas Season (2005)
On
Saturday and Sunday, December 18 and 19, 2005, the St. Cecilia Chamber
Choir will present a Ceremony of Lessons and Carols for audiences in
Newcastle and Brunswick as it has each Christmas season since 1995.
Modeled on the traditional Christmas Eve service at King’s
College, Cambridge, the ceremony of lessons and carols alternates
readings of poetry, sacred works and seasonal entertainment with music
of Advent and Christmas.
This year the St. Cecilia Chamber Choir begins its Christmas concert as
it has for many years with the “Matin Responsory” of
Giovanni Palestrina (1526 - 1594), a thrilling announcement of the
Messiah’s expected arrival. Other sacred compositions in the
first half of the concert include “The Lamb”, with words by
William Blake and wonderful music by John Tavener (1944 - ), a
contemporary English composer whose music is informed by his Greek
Orthodox faith. Arvo Part, a Russian Orthodox composer from Estonia
(1935 - ) contributes the “Magnificat”, a celebration of
Mary’s impending delivery of the Christ child. Part’s music
was entirely unknown in the West until the 1980s and has qualities of
profound reverence, mysticism and joy.
A third major piece with an Eastern Orthodox flavor is “Salvation
is Created,” a marvelous Russian choral piece performed without
accompaniment, by Pavel Chesnokov (1877-1944), edited by Mid-Coast
musician Anthony Antolini. Chesnokov’s piece is muscular and
vibrant with low bass notes that are a special treat. Interspersed
among these sacred pieces are familiar Christmas carols such “The
First Noel,” John Rutter’s contemporary setting of
“Dormi, Jesu” with words by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and a
powerful Advent evocation, “People, Look East”, by Richard
Francis, composer and long-time member of the St. Cecilia Choir, who
composed this work for Newcastle’s St. Andrews Choir for Advent
2001.
The second half of the concert consists of rollicking carols
(“Here We Come A-Wassailing” and “God Rest You Merry,
Gentlemen”); a rendition of an anonymous 16th- Century carol,
“Sir Christemas” by William Mathias (1934 - 1992), Welsh
composer and member of the Royal Academy of Music; readings of seasonal
poetry; and a jewel-like setting of the Nativity scene “O Magnum
Mysterium.” This last piece is by Morten Lauridsen (1943 - ), a
faculty member at the USC School of Music in Los Angeles, and received
its world premiere for Christmas 1994.
The Ceremony concludes with three traditional carols that audience
members will relish: “Joys Seven” with a Stephen Cleobury
arrangement; “O Come All Ye Faithful” as arranged by Daniel
Willcocks; and Franz Grueber’s “Silent Night.” This
year, Nicole Thomas of Union and Gina Maris of Topsham will be the
Choir’s “Christmas angels” for the lessons and carols
concert.
St. Cecilia Chamber Choir is a 34-voice auditioned ensemble with
members from Camden to Arrowsic. The Choir is directed by Linda
Blanchard with the assistance of organist and accompanist, Sean
Fleming, who jointly have led the choir since its inception. Linda
Blanchard also directs the Sheepscot Valley Chorus, for which Sean
Fleming serves as accompanist, and is Director of Choirs at St.
Andrew’s Church in Newcastle, where Fleming is Organist.
The choir will present its Ceremony of Lessons and Carols at St.
Patrick’s Church in Damariscotta Mills/Newcastle on Saturday,
December 18 at 7:30 p.m. and at Bowdoin College Chapel in Brunswick on
Sunday afternoon, December 19, at 3:00 p.m. Admission at the door is
$12 for adults with anyone 21 or under admitted free. Advance tickets
are available for $10 from MacBeans in Brunswick and Maine Coast
Bookshop in Damariscotta or on-line from jfarlow@midcoast.com.
Don’t miss this extraordinary event with its mixture of
traditional and contemporary celebrations of the Advent and Christmas
seasons. Both concert venues (the Bowdoin Chapel and St.
Patrick’s new sanctuary) provide marvelous acoustics for
appreciating St. Cecilia’s musicianship.
St. Cecilia Chamber Choir celebrates ten years of performing in
Mid-Coast Maine with two performances of their spring concert, on
Saturday, April 16th, 7:00 p.m. at Bowdoin College Chapel in Brunswick,
and on Sunday, April 17th, 3:00 p.m. at St. Patrick’s Church
in
Newcastle.
Tenth Anniversary Celebration of
Choral
Singing:
St. Cecilia Chamber Choir Presents Spring Concerts (2005)
This 10th Anniversary concert features works of two
great
masters of German music, Johannes Brahms and J.S. Bach.
Brahms’
Three Motets, Opus 110 are performed without accompaniment in a double
choir formation that creates a powerful interplay among the eight
parts. At times antiphonally homophonic and at times contrapuntal,
these motets are a treat for those who love Brahms’ rich
harmonic
language. J.S. Bach’s Cantata No. 150 Nach dir, Herr,
verlanget
mich (For You, Lord, is my Longing) is deservedly one of his most
popular. His setting of the soulful text carries the listener through a
spectrum of emotions with breathtaking beauty. Our performance features
chamber orchestra, in keeping with Baroque-era practice in use when
J.S. Bach originally presented the work in Leipzig, Germany.
In the second half of the concert, the Choir presents two compositions
setting the sacred text “Ave Maria.” The first is a
sweetly
exultant Brahms motet for four part women’s voices and organ.
The
second, by American composer Morten Lauridsen, is a stunning a cappella
composition in ten-part harmony, almost crystalline in its purity.
Turning to more light-hearted themes, the Choir also will present three
folk songs of the British Isles, The Sailor and Young Nancy arranged by
E.J. Moeran, Just as The Tide Was Flowing, arranged by Vaughan
Williams, and Down by the Sally Gardens, arranged by H.G. Mishkin. This
last Irish air features the tenors and basses in lush four-part
harmony. The program concludes with two works, whose texts envision a
time of peace. The first, Mendelssohn’s classic Da Nobis
Pacem
(Grant us Peace) is beautifully effective in its simplicity. We close
with a great favorite of St. Cecilia audiences over the past years, a
setting of William Blake’s stirring poem
“Jerusalem”
by English composer C. Hubert Parry. This majestic work has been a kind
of national anthem in England for the past century, and is equally
thrilling to audiences in America.
St. Cecilia Chamber Choir is a 35-voice, auditioned choir with members
from locations throughout Mid-Coast Maine from Rockland to Boothbay
Harbor. Our mission is to present outstanding performances of the very
best choral repertoire; to provide challenging musical opportunities to
gifted local youth; to support our community with outreach programs;
and to support Maine composers through the commission and performance
of new music. This year our student members are Maggie Kelsey of
Damariscotta, and Sarah Sproul and Greta Warren, both of Newcastle.
From its inception the Choir has been directed by Linda Blanchard and
accompanied by Sean Fleming; the husband and wife team reside in
Damariscotta and also provide music at St. Andrew’s Church in
Newcastle. The April 16th and 17th concerts are underwritten with the
generous support of Tidewater Telecom and Lincolnville Telephone
Company, by Midcoast Internet Solutions, by two anonymous donors and by
the collective donations of the Friends of St. Cecilia Chamber Choir.
The Choir maintains a web site at www.ceciliachoir.org
and will
be auditioning new members for its 11th concert season this September.
Do not miss this unique and memorable event for lovers of great
musicianship and choral singing in Mid-Coast Maine. The Sunday
afternoon concert on April 17th at St. Patrick’s Church,
Newcastle, will be followed by a reception at which audience members,
Choir members and friends can celebrate the Choir’s tenth
year of
performance. Advance tickets are available for $10 from Maine Coast
Bookshop in Damariscotta. Admission at the door is $12 for adults, with
anyone 21 or under admitted free.
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