Luminosity: The Measure of Light
$25 non-reserved (students with ID FREE)
Charles Villiers Stanford — Three Latin Motets, Op. 38
William Henry Harris — Bring Us, O Lord God
John Rutter — Loving Shepherd of Thy Sheep
What is the sound that light makes? Find out on June 6 and 7 when the Seattle Choral Company presents its season finale, Luminosity: the measure of light.
The central work on the program will be Morten Lauridsen’s cherished contemporary masterpiece, Lux Aeterna (Eternal Light) — an intimate work of quiet serenity centered around a universal symbol of hope, reassurance, goodness and illumination at all levels. It is rapturously beautiful, in the composer's distinctly tonal style with honest and heartfelt choral writing.
The Seattle Choral Company presented the first Seattle performance of Lauridsen’s Lux Aeterna in May of 2000, with the composer present. About the performance, Seattle Times music critic Melinda Bargreen wrote,
“The audience was already on its feet, with a standing ovation for the Seattle Choral Company's first Seattle performance of Morten Lauridsen's Lux Aeterna.
"But when Lauridsen himself stepped onto the stage to acknowledge the applause, a football-stadium roar arose in the sedate confines of the... church. You don't hear that kind of roar very often in performances of new music; it's a response that indicates the audience has been moved, impressed and delighted by what it just heard.”
Also on the program will be these amazing works written to be sung in a large cathedral space:
Missa Choralis (Choral Mass) by Franz Liszt
Three Motets, Op. 38 by Sir Charles Villiers Stanford
Bring us, O Lord by Sir William Harris
Loving Shepherd of Thy Sheep by John Rutter
Hear the Seattle Choral Company weave their voices into a gorgeous tapestry of sound at Saint Mark’s Cathedral! These are going to be wondrous performances of great cathedral choral works and we would be honored to have you bring your listening presence on either evening.
About Seattle Choral Company
Founded in 1982 by Artistic Director Freddie Coleman, the Seattle Choral Company has, over the course of 40 years, become one of the region's most accomplished and respected choral organizations. Maestro Coleman's finely-tuned yet spirited interpretations of the masterworks of classical choral music have been acclaimed by critics and audiences, including Berlioz's Te Deum, Prokofiev's Alexander Nevsky, Orff's Carmina Burana, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, Haydn's Creation, Mozart's C minor Mass, Bach's St. John Passion, and many more. After a recent performance at Benaroya Hall featuring Johannes Brahms' Ein deutsches Requiem, The Gathering Note wrote that the performance "was anchored by deep emotions, a strong sense of purpose, and an excellent advocate in Freddie Coleman and the Seattle Choral Company."
Freddie Coleman has also championed America's finest contemporary choral composers, offering area listeners their first live hearing of such works as Arvo Pärt's Te Deum, Philip Glass' Itaipu, Hawley's Songs of Kabir, Roxanna Panufnik's Westminster Mass, and Morten Lauridsen's Lux Aeterna. In 2001, the SCC commissioned a new choral work, Seattle, by New York composer William Hawley, as part of the city of Seattle’s sesquicentennial celebrations. Additionally, the Company has commissioned and premiered new works from gifted Seattle composers, such as Donald Skirvin and Bern Herbolsheimer. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer recently applauded this commitment, stating "it's not surprising that Coleman…would devote an entire program to contemporary music. He has long been an advocate for living composers."
In the 1980s the Seattle Choral Company toured to Australia and the former Soviet Union. (Their work as cultural ambassadors was recognized with a commendation from the Washington State legislature.) The many albums it has recorded, including The Moon Is Silently Singing, When the Morning Stars Sang Together, Carmina Burana, and Unearthed, have been highly praised and received extensive radio exposure. The Company has recorded soundtracks for Public Television (Death: the Trip of a Lifetime) and NBC (Crime and Punishment and Noah's Ark), and its recordings have been used in at least a dozen Hollywood movie trailers.
The Seattle Choral Company has become a valued collaborator with other performing arts organizations in the region. It has appeared on stage with the Pacific Northwest Ballet many times, including several mountings of Kent Stowell's staging of Orff's Carmina Burana, and Hail to the Conquering Hero, featuring choruses by Handel. In 2010, the SCC appeared with the Seattle Youth Symphony in Mahler's Symphony No. 2 ("Resurrection") at Benaroya Hall. The SCC has appeared with the Seattle Symphony on many occasions, including Those Glorious MGM Movie Musicals, Gershwin's Porgy and Bess, Holiday Pops with Doc Severinsen, Holiday Pops with Marvin Hamlisch, New Year's Eve with the Seattle Symphony, and most recently The Matrix Live In Concert. On four occasions, they have appeared at the Paramount Theater in the touring production of Video Games Live, and members of the Company sang in both the Seattle and Portland productions of Star Wars In Concert. The SCC is partnered with the Northwest Sinfonietta, and is an artist-in-residence at Saint Mark's Episcopal Cathedral.
http://www.seattlechoralcompany.org