Saturday, November 12 at 7:30 pm
St. Mark’s United Methodist Church (100 N St Rd 46, Bloomington, Indiana)
Tickets: $20 General Admission, $15 Students
In-person tickets available online or available at the door. Doors open 45 minutes prior to performance.
Livestream tickets available online.
On Saturday, November 12, the Bloomington Chamber Singers begin their season with a night of choral music featuring some of America’s most beloved composers from the 20th century alongside new contributions to the repertoire. Leonard Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms and Aaron Copland’s In the Beginning anchor a program that also includes recent compositions by Bloomington’s own Dominick DiOrio and BCS soprano Abby Henkel. Music by Barber, Lauridsen, Hagenberg, and Paul Simon round out the evening. Conducted by music director Gerald Sousa, the concert will take place at 7:30pm at St. Mark’s United Methodist Church, 100 N St Rd 46, Bloomington, Indiana.
Widely recognized as the composer of the Broadway classic West Side Story, Leonard Bernstein’s renown reaches far beyond the musical theater genre, having composed for solo piano, chamber ensembles, orchestra, ballet, and opera. His Chichester Psalms transcends the standard choral piece, setting the Hebrew text of Psalms 108 and 100, Psalms 23 and 2, and Psalms 131 and 133 in three movements. Themes inspired by Bernstein’s Jewish heritage and his personal crisis with faith echo hauntingly, with a particular focus on the internal struggle of the composer in the second movement. Treble voices sing a tender version of Psalm 23, “The Lord is my Shepherd,” contrasting with the angry words of Psalm 2, “Why do the nations rage,” set for tenor and bass. The third movement brings resolution, as all voices together proclaim their hope in the Lord.
Aaron Copland, dubbed the “Dean of American Composers,” worked in the populist style of musical composition, a style meant to echo the American spirit. Copland’s choral works number about twelve, and In the Beginning is widely considered the most substantial of them. The eighteen-minute work features a mezzo soprano soloist who movingly narrates the Biblical story of creation taken from the first chapter of Genesis. Four- and eight-part choir responses offer reflections on each miraculous event, as harmonic conclusions propel listeners onward, marking the days of creation, one by one.
Works by local Bloomington artists round out the program. Dominick DiOrio (a member of the Choral Conducting faculty at IU’s Jacob’s School of Music since 2012) composed All Is, as a reimagination of the traditional creation story. With text by poet Misha Penton, the piece refashions creation as a small boy under his mother’s watchful eye. DiOrio’s music captures the child’s innocent delight in creation and gestures to the consequences of its loss. Sorrow is Not My Name is a new composition by Abby Henkel, BCS soprano and recent recipient of Bloomington’s Emerging Artist grant. Setting a poem by IU Lilly Professor of Poetry, Ross Gay, the music showcases Henkel’s versatility and attention to detail; as in her other a cappella works, Henkel‘s uplifting music speaks to listeners across all walks of life.
