St. Charles Singers offer soothing spring sounds
From Staff Reports May 17, 2012 11:22AM
Brunette Brigade. Jeffrey Hunt, founder and artistic director of the St. Charles Singers, and a group of dark-haired choristers pose for a photo highlighting a song in the choir’s May concerts: “Black is the Color of My True Love’s Hair.” Front row, le
Updated: June 29, 2012 8:42AM
ST. CHARLES — The St. Charles Singers will conclude their 28th concert season this month when founder and artistic director Jeffrey Hunt leads the professional chamber choir in a program of soothing sounds for spring titled “Music for a While.”
The St. Charles Singers will present “Music for a While” at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Baker Memorial United Methodist Church, 307 Cedar Ave., St. Charles; and at 7 p.m. Sunday at St. Michael Catholic Church, 310 S. Wheaton Ave., Wheaton.
The internationally recognized mixed-voice ensemble will sing calming compositions on springtime themes — life’s pleasures, romantic love and the delights of the natural world.
Concertgoers will spend a while with songs by Arthur Baynon, Benjamin Britten, Stuart Churchill, William Dawson, James Erb, Gabriel Fauré, Ola Gjeilo, Nils Lindberg, Cecilia McDowall, Claudio Monteverdi, Joseph Twist, Ralph Vaughan Williams and Tomás Luis de Victoria.
Among the highlights:
The choir will perform two colorful “Choral Dances” from Britten’s opera “Gloriana,” Op. 53: “Country Girls,” for sopranos and altos; and “Rustics and Fishermen” for tenors and basses.
Churchill’s arrangement of the Appalachian folk song “Black Is the Color of My True Love’s Hair.”
Twist’s “On the Night Train,” from 2006, will take listeners on an evocative moonlit ride under “a mystic sky” through his native Australia’s remote, isolated bush country.
Audiences will hear Baynon’s “When Rooks Fly Homeward,” Dawson’s Black American spiritual “Soon Ah Will Be Done,” Erb’s “Shenandoah,” Fauré’s “Cantique de Jean Racine,” Gjeilo’s “Prelude,” Monteverdi’s “Lamento D’Arianna,” Purcell’s “Hear My Prayer, O Lord” and Victoria’s “Pange Lingua.”
Harpist Stephen Hartman will perform Stephen Paulus’ “A Summer’s Love,” a solo instrumental version of a love duet from the composer’s opera “Summer.” The harpist also will perform with the choir in the works by Fauré, McDowall and Churchill.
Tickets
Single tickets to “Music for a While” are $30 each for general admission and $20 for students and seniors.
Tickets are available at www.stcharlessingers.com or by calling 630-513-5272. Tickets are also available at Townhouse Books, 105 N. Second Ave., St. Charles (checks or cash only at this ticket venue). Tickets may also be purchased at the door on the day of the concert, depending on availability. Group discounts are available.
