Reaping the bounty: Caring for the earth, caring for each other
April 22, 28 and 29
Chicago Choral Artists will present the Midwest premiere of a new work by American composer Robert Kyr as part of its April concert series honoring Earth Day.
Mr. Kyr will attend the first performance on Sunday afternoon, April 22 at First United Church of Oak Park, at which he will give a pre-concert talk. The program will be repeated Saturday evening, April 28 at Southminster Presbyterian Church in Arlington Heights, and Sunday afternoon, April 29 at Luther Memorial Church in Chicago’s Lincoln Square community.
CCA’s new Artistic Director, Dr. Emilie Amrein, assistant professor of music at Lake Forest College, will conduct the 40-voice ensemble in all three performances, which will also include music by the 24-member Lake Forest College Chamber Singers.
Chicago area artists who work with recycled material will also be displaying their work, offering creative perspectives on how to re-use what we already have made.
Robert Kyr’s composition, “On the Nature of Creation,” is presented as four motets based on images of the creation of the universe from several religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Hinduism, the traditions of the Mayan and Seneca Indians, and even a fantasy imagined by Galileo.
Mr. Kyr, who lives in Oregon but does much of his composing in Christ of the Desert Monastery in New Mexico, has written 12 symphonies, three chamber symphonies, three violin concerti, chamber music, and numerous vocal works. Nick Strimple, writing in “Choral Music in the Twentieth Century,” says “His choral music is distinguished by a warmly compelling lyricism, as well as by a contrapuntal mastery that arises from his love of early music, especially the work of Dufay, Josquin Des Prez, and above all, Bach.”
Please click here to view a short video produced by NPR on Mr. Kyr's compositional process.
The program also includes works by Brahms, Sibelius and Estevez, and Eric Whitacre’s “Cloudburst,” acknowledged to be one of Whitacre’s most famous compositions. Adapted from a poem by Mexico’s Octavio Paz, the piece is written for eight-part choir, piano and percussion.
Sun Apr 22, 4 pm | Pre-concert talk by Robert Kyr at 3:30 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.spcah.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.
Click here to view maps to performance venues.
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?
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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.