College Community Chorus Past Programs

2011/2012 season

Saturday, November 19, 2011, 7:00 pm
Federated Church, Rochester, VT
Sunday, November 20, 2011, 3:00 pm
Mead Chapel, Middlebury College

Welcome Spring -- a concert for Mother's Day
Saturday evening, May 12, 2012, 7:30 pm
Rochester Federated Church, Rochester, VT
Donations support ongoing recovery from Tropical Storm Irene
Sunday evening, May 13, 2011, 3:00 pm
Mead Chapel, Middlebury College

Our 2011 Thanksgiving Program

The Chorus presented its annual fall concert the weekend before Thanksgiving, this year with themes of thanksgiving and remembrance.

We acknowledged the passing of ten years since 9/11, and the sufferings of so many locally from tropical storm Irene, with a special set of music including "Let Nothing Ever Grieve Thee" by Johannes Brahms; "There is a Season" by Albany, NY organist and composer Alfred Fedak, based on the text from Ecclesiastes; "Kyrie" by Concordia College composer-conductor René Clausen, written as part of the larger work "Memorial" commemorating the tragic events of 9/11; and, the powerful opening movement of Mozart's "Requiem" that includes the traditional Latin text "Rest eternal grant them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them."

We celebrated singing and offering thanks with a variety of songs, including "Dreamer of Dreams" with poetry by Arthur O'Shaugnessy set to music by Vermont composer Gwyneth Walker: "We are the music makers, we are the dreamers of dreams" alongside American composer Debra Scroggins' setting of Edgar Allen Poe's "A Dream within a Dream." We sang of the delights of the season with British composer-arranger Bob Chilcott's setting the traditional Thanksgiving hymn "Now Thank We." We also presented the joyful "Let the People Praise Thee" by Welsh composer William Matthias, and British composer-conductor John Rutter's "This is the Day" written, respectively, for royal weddings of Charles and Diana, and William and Kate.

We closed the program with the thanksgiving "Hymn for America" by Minnesota composer Stephen Paulus, and rousing gospel setting of "Let Everything that Hath Breath" by American composer Jeffery Ames.

Our Spring 2012 program

We offered a potpourri of music past and present for our annual May concerts that fell on Mother's Day weekend. In the 1690s, English composer Henry Purcell wrote special musical odes each year for Queen Mary's April 30th birthday. We will present choruses from Come, Ye Sons of Art, written in 1694, with its invitation to "come, come away, ye Sons of Art, tune all your voices and instruments play to celebrate this triumphant day." About 100 years later, Franz Joseph Haydn acknowledged the request of Empress Marie Therese, wife of Franz I of Austria, for church music, with his delightful setting and performance of the traditional Latin text Te Deum. This work was largely unknown until some fifty years ago, and we look forward to sharing it this spring.

We also presented several newly composed works, including Prayer, based on writings of Mother Teresa of Calcutta, by Minnesota conductor-composer René Clausen, and an inspiring version of Ubi caritas by Norwegian-born composer Ola Gjeilo. We offered new arrangements of classic poems and texts: Morning has Broken arranged by British composer Bob Chilcott; a Welsh Lullaby (Suo Gan) set by American composer K. Lee Scott; Afternoon on a Hill (Edna St. Vincent Millay) by another Minnesota conductor-composer, Eric Barnum; The Moon is Distant from the Sea (Emily Dickinson) by New Zealand native David N. Childs; and Omnia Sol (Let Your Heart Be Staid) by American composer and lyricist Z. Randall Stroope that incorporates lyrics from the medieval song, Carmina Burana.

We also featured two stirring songs by Vermont composers about Vermont, Counterpoint conductor Nathaniel Lew's arrangement of These Green Mountains by Diane Martin, and My Vermont, a chorale for voices and piano by Rutland composer-teacher-conductor Daniel Graves.

2010/2011 season

A Thanksgiving Celebration
Saturday, November 20, 7:30 pm
Burlington First United Methodist Church, 21 Buell St.
Sunday, November 21, 3:00 pm
Mead Chapel, Middlebury College

Welcome Spring!
Jeff Rehbach, conductor; George Matthew Jr. and Hannah Waite, accompanists
Saturday evening, April 30, 2011, 7:30 pm
First United Methodist Church, 21 Buell St, Burlington, VT
Sunday evening, May 1, 2011, 7:30 pm
Mead Chapel, Middlebury College
with the Middlebury College Women's Glee Club, Jessica Allen, director

Our 2010 Thanksgiving Program

The centerpiece of our Thanksgiving program was Johann Sebastian Bach's "Nun Danket Alle Gott" (Cantata 192) with chorus and organ, based on the traditional thanksgiving hymn tune "Now Thank We All Our God." The hymn also appears within a brand new composition by English composer John Rutter, "With Heart and Hands" that we shared. Program selections included settings of "O Be Joyful / Jubilate Deo" and "O Clap Your Hands" (Psalms 100 and 47) by Rutter, contemporary American composer David Childs, and noted twentieth-century British composer Ralph Vaughan Williams.

We acknowledged the change of seasons with three works, including "Late Summer Purple," a poem by Middlebury College professor emeritus Robert Pack set to music by Middlebury College professor Peter Hamlin, originally composed for the College's bicentennial ten years ago. We present "The Time of Turning" by Craig Courtney that utilizes a beautiful Irish traditional melody with newly written text "…as summer turns to autumn and bids farewell to spring, there comes a time for turning to every living thing." American composer Aaron Copland's "The Promise of Living," with its delightful melodies, offers "the promise of living, the promise of growing born of our singing in joy and thanksgiving."

Travel and journeys are often a part of Thanksgiving. The chorus sang "The Road Not Taken" on poetry of Robert Frost, set by American composer Randall Thompson. We reprised two works from our past Thanksgiving concerts by contemporary American composer Stephen Paulus, "Pilgrims' Hymn" and "The Road Home" with text by poet Michael Dennis Browne. Our program concluded with Vermont conductor and composer Robert De Cormier's energetic setting of "Lonesome Traveler" as we "keep right on a-travelin' on that road to freedom."

Welcome Spring!

Our spring 2011 concert included a variety of music celebrating the the new life brought by spring and summer, as well as reflecting on remembrance of past lives and our universal desires for peace.

In celebration of spring, we presented several madrigals from the sixteenth and seventeenth century, including Thomas Morley's Now Is the Month of Maying, Spring Returns to the music of Italian composer Luca Marenzio, and William Byrd's This Sweet and Merry Month of May that includes a tribute to Queen Elizabeth I.

We offered selections from Haydn's delightful work, The Creation, as well as an abridged setting of Beethoven's uplifting Choral Fantasy, a work originally scored for orchestra, chorus and piano solo, with senior music major Hannah Waite at the piano.

A special set within the program featured songs by contemporary American and Canadian composers. We will sing Eliza Gilkyson's poignant Requiem, written following the Asian tsunami of December 2004, and recently arranged for chorus by Craig Hella Johnson, director of the award-winning chorus Conspirare. We offered selections from Morten Lauridsen's Nocturnes, featuring his setting of Rilke's Sa nuite d'ete (Its Summer Night) and James Agee's Sure on This Shining Night. The Chorus sang the beautiful love song Roses I Send to You, a text by Canadian explorer, prospector and writer George E. Winkler, set to music by British Columbia composer Stephen Chatman.

The chorus will presented arrangements of traditional tunes include Shenandoah; O Waly Waly (The Water is Wide) by noted British composer John Rutter; and a stirring setting of Let Me Fly by Vermont's Robert De Cormier as arranged for Counterpoint.

For the Sunday evening performance, the Middlebury College Women's Glee Club will also performed. This 15-voice choir, under the direction of Jessica Allen, will offered a set of classic and contemporary works, including arrangements of the beloved Ave Maria by Franz Schubert and the uplifting psalm setting Cantate Domino by baroque composer Heinrich Schütz. The women will also sang the traditional Philippine children's song Pen-pen de Sarapen (from Tatlo Sa Buhay), arranged by Sidney Marquez Boquiren, and the American spiritual Down in the River to Pray. Works by contemporary composers included Remember by Donna Gartman Schultz and Midsummer (from Seasons of Love) by Eleanor Daley. The Women's Glee Club was founded in 2008.

2009/2010 season

A Thanksgiving Celebration
Saturday, November 21, 7:00 pm
Burlington First United Methodist Church
Sunday, November 22, 3:00 pm
Mead Chapel, Middlebury College

A Choral Potpourri
Special Concerts on Mother's Day Weekend
Saturday evening, May 8, 2010, 7:30 pm
First United Methodist Church, 21 Buell St, Burlington
~ donations support Haiti relief efforts ~
Sunday afternoon, May 9, 2010, 3:00 pm
Mead Chapel, Middlebury College

Our Thanksgiving 2009 program featured music of noted British composer-conductor John Rutter, including his vibrant settings of texts from psalm 47, O Clap Your Hands, alongside his stirring Gloria! Also included is Make a Joyful Noise by 20th-century Welsh composer William Mathias. The program highlights selections from G. F. Handel's splendid Dettingen Te Deum (We Praise Thee, O God).

Songs of our hope, peace, and love included Blessed are the Peacemakers by Middlebury College professor Peter Hamlin; Set Me as a Seal by Concordia College composer-conductor René Clausen; and the serene anthem Grant us Thy Peace by Felix Mendelssohn. We reprised two pieces from our past Thanksgiving concerts by contemporary American composer Stephen Paulus, Hymn for America and Pilgrims' Hymn.

Our program concluded with Vermont composer Gwyneth Walker's setting of the Quaker song How Can I Keep from Singing, and the rousing gospel song Rejoice! by African-American composer Jeffery Ames.

Our spring 2010 concert, titled A Choral Potpourri, included classic choral music as well as new works receiving their Vermont premiere. Works by George Frideric Handel included the powerful "Awake the Trumpet's Lofty Sound" and "Let Thy Hand be Strengthened", one of four extended anthems written for the coronation of England's King George II in 1727. The choir also prepared the beautiful "Cantique de Jean Racine" (a translation of a traditional Latin text) by French composer Gabriel Fauré, and "Locus iste" by Austrian composer and organist Anton Bruckner.

A special set within the program featured songs by contemporary American composers: in celebration of spring, "Come Live with Me and Be My Love" by David Dickau, a setting of the sixteenth-century poem by Christopher Marlowe; "i carry your heart" by Vermont composer Gwyneth Walker, based on a poem by E. E. Cummings; composer-conductor Z. Randall Stroope's poignant song, "Homage;" a moving Hebrew song by composer and opera director Allan Naplan entitled "Al Shlosha D'Varim" (the world is sustained by three things: truth, justice, and peace); and prominent composer Eric Whitacre's brand new composition, "The Seal Lullaby" on a text of Rudyard Kipling.

The chorus also prepared the energetic "Geographical Fugue" by 20th-century German-born pianist and composer Ernst Toch with its references to places around the globe. The program closed with Mormon Tabernacle Choir director Mack Wilberg's stirring arrangement "Bound for the Promised Land."