Reaping the bounty: Caring for the earth, caring for each other
April 22, 28 and 29
A concert…
Our program will showcase widely varied musical perspectives of the earth, its beginnings, and how we are to care for it, taken from different cultures and times. The featured work will be Robert Kyr’s motet cycle On the nature of creation, with creation texts taken from different world traditions: Genesis and the Rig Veda, Galileo and Johannes Kepler, Mayan and Seneca Indian.
Along with works by Brahms, Sibelius and Estevez, we will also present Eric Whitacre’s Cloudburst, acknowledged to be one of his most famous compositions. Adapted from a poem by Mexico’s Octavio Paz and written for eight-part choir, piano and percussion, the piece tells of singing songs that put forth roots and branches and birds and stars.
We are very pleased to be collaborating in this concert with the Lake Forest College Chamber Singers, and thank them for joining us in performing this wonderful music.
An art show…
Earth Day invites exploration of new ideas, including the Art of Recycling. Artists who work with recycled material will be displaying their work at our performances, offering creative perspectives on how to re-use what we’ve already made.
Can a choral concert speak to its audience with sculpture and painting and metal work as well as with notes, honoring Mother Earth with both visual and vocal art? We think so, and hope you will join us for this unique and compelling event.
Sun Apr 22, 4 pm
First United Church of Oak Park
848 Lake Street, Oak Park
www.firstunitedoakpark.com
Sat Apr 28, 7:30 pm
Southminster Presbyterian Church
916 E Central Road, Arlington Heights
www.southminsterchurchah.org
Sun Apr 29, 4 pm
Luther Memorial Church
2500 W Wilson, Chicago
www.luthermemorialchicago.org
Tickets: Conductor’s Circle* $40, Adult $20, Senior $15, Student $10
*In appreciation of this higher level of support you will receive reserved seating and a gift!
Click here to purchase tickets.
Keeping the Feast: Carols and Other Songs for Christmas
December 3, 10 and 11
Our December program will celebrate the bounty and feast of gifts given and received when we gather together, but more than that it will be a journey from loneliness and isolation to community and love.
Starting with the plea "O Come, O Come Emmanuel" set poignantly by CCA’s composer-in-residence, John Osterhagen, the Civil War-era ballad “Hard Times Come Again No More,” and Henry Purcell’s anguished “Hear my prayer, O Lord,” the first pieces of the program will express the pain many people feel during the holidays.
As the musical journey continues the selections will convey the extraordinary joy and love which we can share with one another, so beautifully expressed in pieces like Jan Sandström’s reflective arrangement of “Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming,” the Christmas hymn “Comfort, Comfort Now My People” which has been sung for over 300 years, and Healey Willan’s “An Apostrophe to the Heavenly Hosts,” with its antiphonal and ringing Alleluias.
This concert will explore emotions that sometimes run too deep for words, especially at Christmastime. What better way to express those feelings than with music?
Click here to purchase tickets.
Sat Dec 3, 7:30 pm
Luther Memorial Church
2500 W Wilson, Chicago
www.luthermemorialchicago.org
Sat Dec 10, 7:30 pm
Grace Episcopal Church
120 East First Street, Hinsdale
www.gracehinsdale.org
Sun Dec 11, 4 pm
St. Elisabeth’s Episcopal Church
556 Vernon Avenue, Glencoe
www.steglencoe.org
CCA's 2011-2012 season will include repertoire that highlights our relationship to the literal harvest and also to the communal harvest to which Gwendolyn Brooks alludes in her poem, "Paul Robeson."
We live in a time of complicated connections. We hope these two programs will present to you a glimpse of balance and bounty and peace – each person to each other person, each person to the earth – in a world where we are each other’s harvest: we are each other’s business: we are each other’s magnitude and bond.
Paul Robeson
by Gwendolyn Brooks
That time
we all heard it,
cool and clear,
cutting across the hot grit of the day.
The major Voice.
The adult Voice.
forgoing Rolling River,
forgoing tearful tale of bale and barge
and other symptoms of an old despond.
Warning in music-words devout and large,
that we are each other’s
harvest:
we are each other’s
business:
we are each other’s
magnitude and bond.