Bloomington Chamber Singers

J. S. Bach:Mass in b minor

bcswebadmin — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 17:39:35 +0000

Johann Sebastian Bach’s monumental Mass in b minor is among the greatest artistic creations of Western music. Vast in concept, profound in spiritual depth, and remarkable for the diversity and intricacy of its musical language and architecture, the work inspires musicians and listeners alike.

As part of its ongoing commitment to cultivating artistic partnerships among regional arts organizations, Bloomington Chamber Singers has engaged the Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra for this production. A professional ensemble founded in 1999, the orchestra has rapidly become one of the region’s most respected interpreters of seventeenth and eighteenth century music. We look forward to performing this magnificent music with instruments and timbres that reflect Bach’s time and taste, and in collaboration with musicians who are specialists in the performance practices of this period. The two-hour work is scored for eight-part chorus and soloists, strings, winds, and brass. Its compositional techniques represent the mature genius of Bach, and are a compendium of his compositional styles.

BCS Artistic Director Gerald Sousa, now in his twenty-seventh season with the sixty-voice ensemble, will conduct. Two performances will be offered: 8pm Saturday evening, April 13th, and 3pm the next day, Sunday, April 14th at St. John the Apostle Catholic Church. Tickets are $25 (adult) and $15 (students) and are available now from any BCS member and the Buskirk-Chumley Theater box office.

Annual Community Messiah Sing

bcswebadmin — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 16:54:42 +0000

Now nearing its 24th year, this FREE Bloomington Christmas tradition draws hundreds of area singers (and listeners) who come together to sing Part One and the “Hallelujah Chorus” of Handel’s beloved oratorio, Messiah. Conductor Gerald Sousa, now in his 24th year as Music Director/Conductor of Bloomington Chamber Singers, will lead the combined singers and a chamber orchestra.

This year BCS will offer two opportunities to experience this great work:

Sunday, December 9th, 2012 at 3pm at the First Presbyterian Church in Martinville; and

Sunday, December 9th, 2012 at 7pm at St. Mark’s United Methodists Church in Bloomington.

Admission is free, but please bring a canned good to contribute towards a local food bank donation.

Come Sing With Us! Auditions announced for 2012-2013 season…

bcswebadmin — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 01:00:11 +0000

Auditions for new singers:
Tuesday, September 4th
5:30-6:45pm
Unitarian Universalist Church
(at the corner of Fee Lane and the Bypass)

Chamber Singers, the area’s premier vocal ensemble, will hold auditions for new singers interested in joining our 70-voice choral ensemble, now entering its 43rd season.

Principal concerts for 2012-2013 include:
• November 10, 2012: MASSES AND MADRIGALS—THEN AND NOW

William Byrd   Mass for Five Voices (c. 1595)
Arvo Pärt   Missa syllabica (1977)
Claudio Monteverdi   Madrigals from Books I-VIII (1587-1638)
Morton Lauridsen   Six Madrigali on Italian Renaissance Poems (1987)

• December 8, 2012

Our 25th Annual MESSIAH SING

• April, 2013

J.S. BACH: MASS in B MINOR, BWV 232
with the Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra

BCS, a 70-voice mixed chorus, is open by audition to experienced choral singers of all ages. Interested singers should bring a prepared piece to sing; an accompanist will be provided. Openings are available in all sections. For questions or additional information, contact the group’s musical director, Gerry Sousa (director@chambersingers.info).

Masses & Madrigals—Ancient & Modern

bcswebadmin — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 00:35:55 +0000

Over the ages, Western composers have turned repeatedly to certain musical forms. The most enduring (and challenging) of these forms is the Ordinary of the Roman Catholic Mass. Throughout the ages the Mass text has inspired some of Western civilization’s most profound compositions. Its secular counterpart was the madrigal, or partsong, a form that originated in Florence in the mid-16th century and quickly spread throughout Europe and England, where it influenced and transformed regional variants such as the French chanson, German lied, and English partsong. Much of its great popularity came from the profound and emotional texts of contemporary poets that inspired composers, particularly during the late 16th century when madrigals reached their maturity. Though the madrigal waned in popularity as the Baroque era blossomed, it has returned in recent years to attract contemporary composers, many of whom were drawn to the same great Renaissance poets that inspired the early madrigalists.

Masses & Madrigals—Ancient & Modern, then, is a concert of comparison and contrast. Two Masses anchor the two halves of the concert. The Mass for Four Voices by the English composer William Byrd (1539-1623) is one of the masterpieces of the Renaissance. Its counterpoint is brilliant and clear, its textures mystical and evocative. Estonian composer Arvo Pärt (b. 1935) is one of the most prominent composers of contemporary sacred music. His Missa syllabica is quite different in compositional style from Byrd’s Mass, yet both works are anchored by a deep and profound spiritual conviction and respect for the text.

Over the course of his life, the great Italian composer Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643) published nine books of madrigals. These remarkable volumes show a fascinating evolution from unaccompanied declamatory works found in the early books to a fully-realized concertato style in Book VIII, a style that reflects the use of continuo and the conventions of opera, a form invented by Monteverdi himself in 1607 that rapidly grew in popularity and swept throughout Europe during the 17th century. The contemporary American composer Morton Lauridsen (b. 1943) composed his Madrigali: Six ‘Firesongs’ on Italian Renaissance Poems in 1989. Lauridsen states in his preface that they are derivative from and indebted to to Monteverdi for their style and emotion.

Tickets ($15 general admission; $10 students) can purchased at the door the evening of the concert, or in advance through the Buskirk-Chumley Box Office (www.buskirkchumley.org, 812-323-3020).

Plan to join the Chamber Singers for this fascinating exploration of the sacred and the secular, the old and the new.

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.

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.