Bloomington Chamber Singers

Ludwig van Beethoven: Missa solemnis, op. 123

bcswebadmin — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 05:44:58 +0000

Bloomington Chamber Singers will present Ludwig van Beethoven’s Missa solemnis in D, op. 123, on Saturday, April 21st, 2012, at 8pm at the Evangelical Community Church, 503 South High St. in Bloomington.

Music Director Gerald Sousa will conduct the eighty-voice choral ensemble and orchestra. Joining BCS as guest artists are soloists Meghan Dewald, soprano; Sarah Ballman, mezzo-soprano; Michael Day, tenor; and Samuel Spade, bass-baritone.

One of the pillars of Western choral-orchestral music, Missa solemnis was composed at the peak of Beethoven’s creative output, and is universally recognized as a work of extraordinary musical and spiritual importance.

General admission is $25.00; senior or student tickets are $20. Advance tickets may be purchased from choir members; online by clicking here; or downtown at the Sunrise Box Office (114 E. Kirkwood Ave., at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater). (www.buskirkchumley.org 812-323-3020).

REVIEW: “Peace on Earth” (12/2/2011)

bcswebadmin — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 22:01:01 +0000

MUSIC REVIEW: BLOOMINGTON CHAMBER SINGERS
Varied ‘Peace on Earth’ provided a revelation

By Peter Jacobi H-T Reviewer | pjacobi@heraldt.com
December 5, 2011

The program was titled “Peace on Earth, Music of the Season.” As given by the Bloomington Chamber Singers, it attracted a capacity crowd to the First United Methodist Church on Friday evening. And from pre-concert brass exhortations by the likes of Monteverdi, Palestrina, Praetorius and Gabrieli, all written about 400 years ago, to concert’s end, the last notes of the 20th century chorale “Friede auf Erden” (“Peace on Earth”) by Arnold Schoenberg, the music proved a revelation.

The ensemble’s music director, Gerald Sousa, had pieced together a remarkably varied bill of fare that, nevertheless, as a package carried out the seasonal theme of “Peace on Earth.”

As one listened to this well-trained local chorus of singers from all walks of life, a response of awe kept cropping up that 70 members, each busy with the concerns of professional and everyday existence, had devoted so much time and emotional energy to prepare this gift of music, while also getting ready for the annual “Messiah Sing” on Dec. 11 and a performance of Beethoven’s challenging “Missa Solemnis” next April.

Credit their loyalty and credit Sousa, their committed leader. As a team, they once again rose to the occasion: first in more music by Praetorius, the familiar and favored “In dulci jubilo,” and Gabrieli, a soaring “O magnum mysterium” with countertenor Brennan Hall blending angelically from the balcony and, additionally, both an exultation (“Hodie Christus natus est,” “Today Christ is born”) and a benediction. The benediction, “In ecclesiis,” asked for solo contributions, here supplied by four sweetly-voiced guests from the Jacobs School: soprano Arwen Myers, tenor Asitha Tennekoon, bass-baritone Gavin Hayes, and, again, Hall.

The concert’s first half concluded with one of Bach’s most admired cantatas, “Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme” (“Awake, calls the voice to us”), a joyous work that brought well crafted and flexible sound from the chorus and notable contributions in arias and recitatives from Myers, Tennekoon and Hayes. Throughout, organist Gregory Geehern and varying combinations of instrumentalists completed scoring requirements.

Geehern was particularly important in the post-intermission surprise, the “Son of God Mass,” written in 2001 by the British composer James Whitbourn, an astoundingly beautiful and intense composition that matches organ, chorus, and, of all things, soprano saxophone.

The combination turned out to be magical. Supporting words of love, of happiness, of grief, of hope, the saxophone, much like a pure-voiced and passionate soprano, tonally beseeched, prayed and hauntingly raised emotional fervor. Keegan White, who makes his living as director of bands at Eastern Greene Schools, was nothing short of wonderful on his sax; his performance was flawless and penetratingly soulful.

Guided by conductor Sousa, the Chamber Singers added hushes and hallelujahs reverentially and in adroit fashion.

The concert ended with Schoenberg’s 1907 cry for a better world, “Friede auf Erden,” the composer’s last work shaped in the harmonic style that had suffused music for centuries. He would thereafter explore a 12-tone world. But this 10-minute cantata — close to lyrical when the focus in the text is on peace and good will, close to atonal when strife and evil hold sway — adheres, in both form and polyphony, to what for so long had been. Conductor, chorus and orchestra gave the work a sumptuous and stirring treatment.

Copyright: HeraldTimesOnline.com 2011

Christmas in Columbus

bcswebadmin — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 02:15:22 +0000

In addition to our annual Messiah Sing, this year Bloomington Chamber Singers will be performing a free concert at 7pm on Sunday, December 18 at St. Paul Lutheran Church in Columbus, IN. The concert program will include a selection of 17th-century Christmas motets, one of J.S. Bach’s most famous cantatas, “Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme,” BWV 140, and James Whitbourn’s “Son of God Mass”, featuring Keegan White, saxophonist, and Greg Geehern, organist. We’ll also perform a number of carols and other traditional Christmas songs. Please join us!

Bloomington Chamber Singers Celebration and Diva Night to Honor Ted Jones

bcswebadmin — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 17:37:47 +0000

We will honor long-time singer and Bloomington Chamber Singers charter member Ted Jones at St. Mark’s Methodist Church on Friday, November 4th, at 7:00 p.m. Lots of good music, fun, and recognition of Ted for his 80-year journey, and his great work with us and other arts organizations. You are welcome. A reception will follow.

Show Your Support with Supper for Singers

bcswebadmin — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 23:52:13 +0000

Please download and print the certificate linked below. Support local business and art at the same time!

Thursday, November 17, 2011
Kirkwood Café

Annual Community Messiah Sing

bcswebadmin — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 16:59:24 +0000

For over 20 years, this FREE Bloomington Christmas tradition draws hundreds of singers who come together to sing Part One and the “Hallelujah Chorus” of Handel’s beloved oratorio, Messiah. Conductor Gerald Sousa, now in his 23rd year as Music Director/Conductor of Bloomington Chamber Singers, will lead the combined singers and a chamber orchestra. Admission is free, but please bring a canned good to contribute towards a local food bank donation.

Peace On Earth: Music of the Season

bcswebadmin — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 16:48:31 +0000

In addition to our annual Messiah Sing, this year the Bloomington Chamber Singers will be performing Peace on Earth: Music of the Season, a concert including a selection of Christmas motets by the renowned 17th-century Italian composer Giovanni Gabrieli, one of J.S. Bach’s most famous cantatas, “Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme,” BWV 140, James Whitbourn’s “Son of God Mass”, and Friede auf Erden (“Peace on Earth”), Arnold Schoenberg’s remarkable setting of the passionate essay on peace written by the Swiss poet Conrad Meyer. Joining BCS for our performance of Whitbourn’s “Son of God Mass” will be Keegan White, saxophonist, and Greg Geehern, organist.

General admission is $20.00. Advance tickets for the December 2, 2011 performance may be purchased from choir members or through Sunrise Box Office, in person at 114 E. Kirkwood Ave. (www.buskirkchumley.org 812-323-3020) and online.

Auditions for 2011/2012!

bcswebadmin — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 16:34:49 +0000

The Bloomington Chamber Singers will be holding auditions for the upcoming season this month, Tuesday, August 30th and on September 6th. Auditions will be held at the Universalist Unitarian Church on the north side of Bloomington (just off the bypass).

If you’re interested in singing with us you may come with a prepared piece or one may be provided for you.

Auditions will be held from 5:30 to 6:45 PM.

Our latest CD release:J. S. Bach: St. Matthew Passion

bcswebadmin — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 13:35:09 +0000

On April 5, 2009, Bloomington Chamber Singers performed J.S. Bach’s monumental St. Matthew Passion. Some of the area’s most accomplished musicians joined the Chamber Singers for a performance that Herald-Times review Peter Jacobi heralded as “a revelation.”

After numerous request from our patrons and supporters, we are proud to announce the release of a professionally-mastered CD recording of that performance.

The 3-disc set is available for $20 plus shipping, and can be ordered by mailing this completed order form to the BCS address you will find on the form. For additional information, email bcs@chambersingers.info with “SMP order” in the subject line.

The entire recording, as well as individual movements, are available on iTunes and from http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bloomingtonchambersinger.

REVIEW: Carmina Burana (4/17/ 2011)

bcswebadmin — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 22:06:22 +0000

MUSIC REVIEW: ‘CARMINA BURANA’

Three musical groups team up for Orff work
By Peter Jacobi H-T Reviewer | pjacobi@heraldt.com

April 19, 2011, last update: 4/18 @ 10:28 pm

When Carl Orff’s “Carmina Burana” premiered in 1937, it proved a sensation. The work’s emphasis on rhythm and simple harmonies, on attractive melodies and emotional gusto came as a pleasant surprise. Here was music that caught hold easily, so different from much of the classical music being written at the time.

Orff’s “scenic cantata,” inspired by 13th century poems discovered at a Benedictine monastery in the Bavarian Alps, still has the power to evoke enthusiastic response. It certainly did so Sunday evening in the IU Auditorium when three Bloomington musical institutions — the Bloomington Chamber Singers, Camerata Orchestra and IU Children’s Choir — combined forces to give the piece a rousing, charged, let’s-give-it-all-we-got-and-then-some performance.

Perhaps there was some roughness around the edges, but who could care when what one heard, under the knowing guidance of conductor Gerald Sousa, held such high levels of enthusiasm and ebullience. The poems are all about the fickleness and cruelty of fate, about springtime and desire and boozing and love from both the male and female perspective. The music blatantly echoes literary content. No one on stage seemed to forget that.

The choristers, adult and young, strongly made their vocal case. The Camerata, what with two grand pianos and lots of timpani, underscored the merriment. The soloists, each in a different way, evoked theme deftly. Baritone Samuel Spade had the most to do, warbling, mooning and extolling on various matters, and doing so most effectively. Maria Izzo Walker used her delicate, sky-touching soprano with affecting purity to sing of love courtly and not so. Tenor Anthony Webb brought laughter with a vocally and theatrically unrestrained rendition of a swan being roasted on a spit and “catching sight of gnashing teeth.”

As appetizer, Sousa and the Camerata played the Overture and Scherzo from incidental music Mendelssohn wrote for “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” The performance was quite lovely but hardly necessary considering the musical stimulation that followed.