November 2010     Volume 2    #2


Singers' Holiday Concert
Monday or Tuesday Messiah
Conductor's Circle is Filling Up!


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Talented Friends Are Home for Singers' Holiday Concert

Carols With Brass, the Singers' opening concert, will surely get Peterborough in the Christmas spirit this Saturday (November 27). And the choir has invited many friends, old and new, home for the holidays to add to the festivities.

Christopher Mayell, a young tenor who is quickly making his mark as a rising star of Canada's opera stages and concert halls, will perform two beloved Christmas songs, Shubert's "Ave Maria" and Adam's "O Holy Night." With the choir, he will also sing a contemporary song of praise: Paul Basler's "Gloria," an energetic, uplifting hybrid of the western classical tradition and African styles.

But Basler's "Gloria" is not the only recent holiday song on the program. Another talented friend, composer, conductor, and organist Norman Reintamm, will accompany the choir as it sings an even newer composition -- "In Bethlehem," a piece that the Singers commissioned from him especially for the concert. Reintamm, who is currently the Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Cathedral Bluffs Symphony Orchestra, has numerous choral compositions to his credit and is no stranger to the Peterborough Singers. The choir premiered his setting of the Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis at Winchester Cathedral in England, and it will join his orchestra for an April 2011 performance of Verdi's Requiem. As for Reintamm's new composition, it could be added immediately to Oxford's Carols for Choirs. It has many flavours and moves seamlessly between the tempos and melodies of a rustic dance, a contemplative song of praise, and an exuberant glorification. You'll have to come to its first performance on Saturday night to learn more!

Insider Program Notes

"Ave Maria" was inspired by Sir Walter Scott's poem The Lady of the Lake, which depicts Ellen Douglas (the lady in question) hiding and praying to the Virgin Mary. "Ave Maria" or "Ellen's Third Song" quickly became popular, as Schubert explained in a letter to his father: "My new songs from Scott's Lady of the Lake especially had much success. They also wondered greatly at my piety, which I expressed in a hymn to the Holy Virgin and which, it appears, grips every soul and turns it to devotion."

"O Holy Night" or "Cantique de Noël" was composed in 1847 to the French poem "Minuit, Chrétiens," written by wine merchant and poet Placide Cappeau at the request of his parish priest, who wanted something new for Christmas mass.

"Gloria" by Paul Basler is part of his Missa Kenya (Kenyan Mass), which was published in 1995; Basler, one of the most performed composers of his generation, spent a year as a Fulbright Scholar in Kenya.

"Gloria," a challenging piece for sopranos and altos by Ruth Watson Henderson, is the lead track on the Elmer Iseler Singers' Sing All Ye Joyful CD.

  
Another long-time friend, trumpeter extraordinaire Paul Otway, heads up the "with brass" part of the concert. He will lead the Paul Otway Brass, described by our own Syd Birrell as a group of "brilliant musicians," in holiday favourites such as "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" and "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen." And Otway has arranged many of these classic Christmas tunes himself, especially for his brass players. The Paul Otway Brass will also perform Ruth Watson Henderson's challenging "Gloria" with the sopranos and altos of the Singers.

Indeed, many Peterborough Singers will contribute their individual talents as well as their choral abilities. Chorister Anne Normand will direct St. Teresa's School Choir in secular and sacred pieces sure to touch "the holly in our hearts." And, to round out the musical accompaniment, alto Gael Morrison, who does double duty as the choir's rehearsal pianist, will be joined by fellow alto Mary Taves, bass David Tomlinson, and Ron Reid on percussion.

"There's something here for everyone," says Artistic Director Syd Birrell. "It's an extraordinary collection of music, of musicians, and of offerings for our audience," all served up on a holiday platter at George Street United Church on November 27. The concert will start at 7:30 pm, and tickets are available at the door.

www.peterboroughsingers.com | singers@peterboroughsingers.com | Phn: (705) 745-1820
P.O. Box 2146 | Peterborough, Ontario | K9J 7Y4