Majestic Masses
November 17–​18, 2023

Our season opens with two stellar works created in Vienna during the Classical era for chorus, orchestra, and soloists.
The concert begins with Franz Schubert’s youthful Mass No. 2 in G. Composed in less than a week in March 1815, it has become the best known of his three short Mass settings.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Mass in C minor, K. 427 is considered one of his greatest works. The incomplete version was composed while Wolfgang was in Vienna courting his then fiancée, Constanze, who was the soprano soloist at the work’s 1783 premiere in Salzburg. We present the reconstruction and completion by Helmut Eder.

Icons of the Baroque
March 2​–3, 2024

Harkening back to our roots as the Baroque Choral Guild in 1978, this concert features treasured masterpieces of the Baroque era.
The program opens with Johann Sebastian Bach’s exquisite motet Jesu, meine Freude, accompanied by string quintet and harpsichord.
Highly regarded in her day, the prolific Italian composer and nun Isabella Leonarda is represented with a sweet setting of the Magnificat.
The program concludes with one of the greatest and quirkiest of George Frideric Handel’s choral works, Dixit Dominus. Composed in the Italian concerto style, this setting of Psalm 110 in Latin spans nine movements. The energetic declamation and dramatic word painting of the choral writing is virtuosic throughout.

American Journey
June 1–2, 2024

​Our season concludes with a survey of the styles and genres of American choral music composed over the last 250 years. The program begins with the music of William Billings in the Northeast and Shape Note music from Southern Harmony. We then journey westward as we sing songs of travel and migration across our great nation.
Sacred music from great American composers such as Charles Ives, Randall Thompson, and Alice Parker is joined by examples of other quintessential American genres including spirituals, jazz, and Broadway.