VocalEssence Chorus & Ensemble Singers
Chamber orchestra
Soloists: Laura Hynes Smith, soprano (first weekend) and Maria Jette, soprano (second weekend); Anders Eckman, tenor; Steve Burger, baritone; and Jonah Berthelsen, boy soprano
Philip Brunelle, conductor
This year’s VocalEssence Welcome Christmas concert celebrates the holidays with the warmth of traditional carols and the exhilaration of new songs for the season.
A bouquet of French carols will add a certain je ne sais quoi to the traditional VocalEssence Christmas concerts. The 32-voice Ensemble Singers will be performing favorites such as O Holy Night, Carol of the Birds, Angels We Have Heard on High and Bring a Torch, Jeannette, Isabella in their original French.
Every year since 1998, VocalEssence and American Composers Forum have co-sponsored a contest for composers to write new Christmas carols. This year’s contest called for new carols for men’s voices accompanied by English horn. The winning carols, by James Kallembach (Chicago, IL) and Robert Sieving (St. Paul, MN), will be premiered at Welcome Christmas.
A highlight of the concert will be the performance of the classic Christmas cantata So Hallow’d Is the Time by Stephen Paulus. Scored for mixed chorus with string orchestra, it will feature Laura Hynes Smith, soprano (first weekend) and Maria Jette, soprano (second weekend); Anders Eckman, tenor; Steve Burger, baritone; and Jonah Berthelsen, boy soprano. The texts are drawn from English poets of the 17th and 18th centuries, including William Shakespeare, John Donne, Robert Southwell and John Milton.
Welcome Christmas will be recorded for broadcast in 2012 on Minnesota Public Radio Classical (regional) and American Public Media (national).
http://www.vocalessence.org/christmas2011 for more information