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The WTIU program is also available for viewing via podcast and download on iTunes. At the iTunes “store,” simply search for “WTIU Weekly Special.” You should see “Bloomington Chamber Singers” on the list of segments from the November 5th program.

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If you would like to support our agency, simply write Bloomington Chamber Singers at the bottom of the Live United pledge card (just above the words Thank You! in large print at the bottom of the card) and indicate the amount you wish to be directed to BCS.

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Admission is free, but in the sharing tradition of the season, we ask that you bring donations for the local food banks.

Music, of course, was the most important ingredient Saturday evening when the Bloomington Chamber Singers offered their spring program of works by Bach, Mozart, Stravinsky and Samuel Barber, a program appropriately labeled “Pure Genius.”

But numbers couldn’t be ignored. The concert served to mark the ensemble’s 35 years of existence, its 18th under current music director Gerald Sousa. It attracted an audience that came very close to filling the spacious new sanctuary of the Evangelical Community Church, meaning it must have attracted one of the choir’s largest gathering of listeners ever.

On the back cover of the printed program, one read: “35 years … 167 concerts … 630 members … 2,863 donors … 1,000s of words … 1,000,000s of notes … 1 goal: Sing Great Music.” And great music most certainly was sung: on this occasion by the 60 current members of the BCS, assisted by an orchestral ensemble nearly as large. Fifteen former Chamber Singers were in the audience. And to one loyal member, Austin Caswell, who died March 1, the concert was dedicated.

Conductor Sousa chose works of challenge and bracing contrast to show off the courage and achievements of his singers. In the process, he proved once more how effective a teacher he is, so capable of coaxing more than the best out of his crew, diverse individuals with varying backgrounds and talents, most of them part-timers as musicians but united by a love of song.

Sousa opened with one of Bach’s most admired cantatas, No. 80, “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God,” built on the Martin Luther hymn. The chorus sang with confidence and needed power. The orchestra played in complementary fashion. Four soloists – one, alto Julie Grindle, from within the ranks of the chorus – added to the luster of the performance. Bass Michael Weyandt, tenor Daniel Shirley and soprano Angelique Zuluaga, all now studying their craft at IU, completed the quartet, and each seemed to have the measure of Bach’s sometimes dangerously embellished line.

The three from the Music School returned for further duties in Mozart’s “Vesperae sollenes de Dominica,” joined this time by another Chamber Singer, alto Susan Sullivan. This six-movement vesper, inspired by Psalm 109, contains gorgeous material that, in turn, seemed to inspire Sousa’s collected throng. The chorus sang resolutely and resonantly. The soloists were fully up to the task. Soprano Zuluaga, in the work’s “Laudate Dominum,” contributed as stunning a sample of free-floating, unfettered and yet beautifully controlled vocalization as this reviewer has heard in quite a while.

A choral version of Barber’s popular, gentle Adagio for Strings, using traditional words from the Agnus Dei in the mass, was performed with rapturous tones. That made transition to the contrapuntal, effusive “Symphony of Psalms” by Stravinsky even more dramatic. Saturday’s reading of this bold piece, deftly balancing its distinctive choral and instrumental elements, proved nothing short of praiseworthy.

Let it be said that at 35, hurray, the BCS is in exceptionally good form.

It made for a comfortable choice and, acoustically speaking, an excellent one. The choir sounded awfully good, not only, of course, because of where the concert was performed but because leader Sousa, as one has learned to expect, had prepared the singers well. This community chorus has become a treat to hear and a treasure to cherish.  

Sousa chose music ranging from the 16th century to the 20th and found a way of including a Who’s Who of British composers. What’s more, there were motets to enjoy, along with anthems and hymns and carols. Determined to be inclusive, Sousa gave his opening spot to an English Catholic, William Byrd, whose “Ave verum corpus,” gained a performance ever so serene and comforting.  

From the earlier periods, one also heard two works by Thomas Tallis, a radiant motet praising Jesus,”O nata lux de lumine,” and the first Lamentation from his “Lamentations of Jeremiah,” a dramatic sample of contrapuntal writing evocative of its text, a description of Jerusalem in ruins after the Babylonian captivity. They were both sung with intuitive sense for words and message. So, too, were Orlando Gibbons’ anthem, “O clap your hands” for double chorus, a joyful item with phrases in repetition, very like a round, and a lovely “Ave Maria” by another 16th century composer, Robert Parsons. 

Sometimes singing a cappella and at others with organ (niftily supplied by Kay Greenshaw), sometimes singing in full force and at others in reduced configurations, the ensemble gave expressive life to traditional pieces like the Wexford and Coventry Carols and to later material, most notably a sweetly sung “I sat down under His shadow” by Edward Bairstow, the rousing “Jerusalem” of Sir Charles Parry, William Walton’s celebratory “Jubilate Deo,” and John Tavener’s 1985 “Two Hymns to the Mother of God,” influenced not only by the musical past of the Church of England but by the heritage of the Russian Orthodox Church, to which this Britisher has switched allegiance. 

Here was a concert that in a single hour soothed the ears and touched the heart.

Eric Whitacre
Alf Houkom
Marjorie Hess
Steve Heitzeg
Krzysztof Penderecki
Stephen Paulus
Benjamin Britten’s Ceremony of Carols

By Peter Jacobi
BLOOMINGTON HERALD-TIMES
MARCH 5, 2007

When the last chords of “Elijah,” Mendelssohn’s imposing oratorio, had sounded on Saturday evening at the Evangelical Community Church, a cheers-punctuated standing ovation erupted from the audience that filled the spacious venue.

It was a natural reaction to a performance by the Bloomington Chamber Singers that might have surprised even its most devoted fans. This work of epic proportions — the music, not counting intermission, spans more than two hours — is a challenge for any choir, even the most full-time and professional. These local singers are neither. They’re gifted enough to have won places in the ensemble, but their commitment comes amid other responsibilities. They’re members of a community institution, and as such, they undertake a demanding regimen of rehearsals while also handling job-and-duty schedules.

But they have an inspiring leader in Gerald Sousa, who consistently pushes his chorus and determined last year that “Elijah” was the right choice, a dramatic interpretation of Old Testament texts focused on the prophet who brings his people back to the God he loves and, as reward, is taken into heaven by a whirlwind. The music is expansive in nature, climax-laden, effusively lyrical and demanding.

Preparation began in September. By Saturday night, the singers had mastered the score, not only so that beauteous and full-bodied sounds resonated about the church, but so, also, that just as full-bodied emotions stirring in the music could be keenly felt.

In no small measure, the success of the event depended also on the soloists. These included group members portraying angels, who seemed to rejoice in their lambent harmonies, and a quartet of distinguished guests assigned to portray various Biblical characters, which they did with expected finesse.

Without doubt, Timothy Noble was the evening’s star attraction as Elijah. His baritone is a force of nature, stunningly powerful as well as resonant and radiant, a pleasure to the ears. But the bonus to a Noble performance is his ability to modulate that instrument. In moments signifying Elijah’s fury over sin and corruption, the voice raved at astounding decibel levels. In pleas for the revival of a widow’s dead son, it softened to whispers and throbs of weeping. At all times, this veteran Elijah remained totally at one with the role.

Two colleagues from IU’s music faculty, tenor Alan Bennett and mezzo Mary Ann Hart (also well attuned to their assignments and exhibiting excellence of voice), contributed significantly as they assumed other roles, these ranging from Elijah’s devoted servant Obadiah to the evil Queen Jezebel. An alumna of the Jacobs School, soprano Dawn Spaetti, returned to add her well-formed voice to the mix. As did, briefly, a charming boy soprano, Will Grindle, playing the youth asked by Elijah to look out toward the sea to determine whether the prophet’s prayers for help have been heard by God.

Conductor Sousa kept all, including an orchestra of town and gown participants, impressively coordinated and musically exalted. Good show!

By Peter Jacobi H-T Reviewer

May 5, 2008

The spacious sanctuary of the Evangelical Community Church was just about filled on Saturday evening when the Bloomington Chamber Singers offered their challenging and rewarding program, capped by a performance of Brahms’ radiant expression of comfort, his “A German Requiem.”

Earlier, there had been more Brahms, “Schicksalslied” (”Song of Destiny”), and Samuel Barber’s fragrant, nostalgic “Knoxville: Summer of 1915.”

On the podium for the shorter, pre-intermission pieces was the gentleman usually in charge of conducting duties, the Chamber Singers’ music director, Gerald Sousa, seemingly and happily in complete control after a serious bout not awfully long ago with the heart. His period of recuperation cut enough into the rehearsal schedule to shift leadership in the Requiem from Maestro Sousa to Maestro Julie Grindle, the ensemble’s assistant conductor.

Let it be said that the 71 choristers sang as passionately and capably for her as they did for him, meaning they sang ever so appealingly throughout the evening, meaning also one heard not only sweetly and solidly produced sound but sound flavored with implications and meanings.

A boon in Bloomington is that a call for instrumentalists to people an orchestra usually brings excellent response. And that was certainly the case on this occasion. The gathered musicians – including faces recognized from various IU and local orchestras – handled their critically important collaborative responsibilities skillfully.

The Requiem also required a pair of soloists, both trained at the Jacobs School: soprano Christina Pier, an alumna who won the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and has forged a budding career, and baritone Austin Kness, a current master’s candidate we’ve seen take on major roles in IU Opera Theater productions. They were up to the task. Pier’s brilliant top and beauty of tone fully served Brahms’ evocations of human sorrow and God’s eternal promise in soaring fashion. Kness’ lyrical instrument cut right through orchestral and choral textures; equally noteworthy was diction of such clarity that it honored every word.

Pier was the soloist for the Barber, giving emotional voice to memories of an American past at “that time of evening when people sit on their porches, rocking gently and talking gently and watching the street.”

The Chamber Singers sat silently through the Barber but were kept busy the remainder of the concert. They truly did themselves proud. First, they artfully managed the inspired melodies Brahms used to reflect a poem by Friedrich Holderlin about humankind’s ever present struggle with fate. With Sousa in command of “Schicksalslied,” one heard in their singing an encompassing range of emotions.

The “German Requiem” sets references about death and mourning, about solace and ultimate eternal peace, taken from Martin Luther’s translation of the Bible. They fed Brahms’ imagination, as did the passing at the time of his beloved mother. The music he wrote is glorious. The choral demands are almost nonstop. Their realization, drawn out of the Chamber Singers by conductor Grindle, was at all times befitting.