A Winter Rose. Annual Holiday Season Concert. Saturday, December 7 th, Theresa D. McGee David Wallace Music Director Accompanist.

Transcription

1 Present A Winter Rose Annual Holiday Season Concert Saturday, December 7 th, 2002 Timothy Edwards Middle School Auditorium One Arnold Way South Windsor, CT Theresa D. McGee David Wallace Music Director Accompanist

2 With Our Appreciation Winter Rose A mythical rose that blooms just before the first snows of winter. The rose, a symbol of stubborn inner strength, refuses to yield its beauty to the cold of late fall. By its pale, snowwhite bloom, it symbolizes the last growth of the year and gives us one last token of beauty before the snows. Allied Printing for printing the programs The Wapping Community Church for providing rehearsal space. We would like to recognize and thank the following individuals who have contributed extra time supporting the chorus Denise Archibald Art Querido Steve Cohen Janice McGinley Joel Zimmerman

3 With Our Appreciation Producers Rockville Bank Foundation Performers Thomas Fisher Imperial Oil Company, Inc. Martin Pandozzi South Windsor Rotary Tolland Bank Patrons Mayor Bill Aman Lawrence J. Andrus, D.D.S., P.C. Bahler Brothers, Inc. Geissler s Super Market, Inc. New England Silica, Inc. Rsk-Kellco, Inc. Cheryl St. Onge Samsel & Carmon Funeral Home Ruth L. Silk Lois I. Tylutki In Memory Of Tom Monsees Helen And Joseph Monsees About The Chorus The South Windsor Community Chorus members share a desire to provide entertainment, musical growth and education, personal challenge, creativity, and community service. The Chorus welcomes voices (with or without musical background) from South Windsor and the surrounding towns. This organization originally began in 1971 as Friends of Music. Bobbie Reeves (Director) and Karen Krinjak (Accompanist) volunteered their services to help raise money for band uniforms for the South Windsor High School. Today, membership ranges from 40 to 50 singers from towns throughout the region. The Chorus performs two major concerts a season, winter and spring, as well as shorter programs throughout the community. Our repertoire consists of light classical, popular show tunes, and traditional numbers. The group is sponsored in part by the Recreation Department of the Town of South Windsor, through the generosity of companies and organizations in the community, as well as by members of the chorus themselves. In June of each year, a $250 scholarship is awarded to a deserving graduate of the Senior Class of South Windsor High School courtesy of the South Windsor Community Chorus. For more information on how you can join us on our musical adventure, please call Lehman A. Mann Sr at Please visit us at our web site:

4 Program Notes Hallelujah (from "Christ on the Mount of Olives"), by Ludwig von Beethoven ( ). The oratorio was composed by Beethoven during the summer of 1801, a collaboration with Franz Huber who persuaded him to help with the text. The first performance took place in Vienna in 1803 where it was very well recieved by the public. "Christ on the Mount of Olives" is the English translation of "Christus am Olberge". In 1802 Beethoven wrote the now famous letter to his brothers referred to as the "Heiligenstadt Testament". It was in this letter that he lamented his tortured state of increasing deafness, perhaps the greatest tragedy for a composer. So by the time "The Mount of Olives" was composed, Beethoven was almost entirely deaf, and yet there is no trace of the suicidal gloom found in the letter anywhere in the music you hear tonight. And the Glory of the Lord (from "Messiah") is the first choral entrance in George F. Handel"s( ) most popular work. Handel began composition of his famous oratorio on Saturday, August 22, 1741 and completed it on Saturday, September 12, 1741; and so in the span of only 24 days, one of Western music's most beloved and enduring works was born. The oratorio consists of three parts, with libretto by Charles Jennens, based on various books of the Bible and Prayer Book Psalter. The first performance was given in Dublin on April 13, 1742, in aid of charity; however, it achieved its lasting success after performances in 1750 in aid of the Foundling Hospital in London which benefitted from annual performances of the work even after Handel's death. In the 260 years since its first performance, no other work of its time holds such an extraordinary place among music history, with a continuous series of performances from 1742 to the present day. There is No Rose (from "A Ceremony of Carols") was composed in the spring of 1942 aboard a ship as Benjamin Britten crossed the Atlantic (ridden with German U-Boats) enroute to England from the U.S. The work was originally a set of 7 Christmas Carols written for treble voices and harp, with its first performance in December of Later, Britten would add four additional carols. He drew on The English Galaxy of Shorter Poems as a source for the largely medieval texts as well as the Latin text Hodie Christus natus est. We Need Your Support Ticket sales cover only a portion of our operating costs. It is through the generosity of friends like you the South Windsor Community Chorus is able to present quality programs. While your contribution in any amount is greatly appreciated, the following is a list of suggested donation levels Directors $ 1,500 and up Listing in each concert program, inclusion on our website, and ten tickets to our winter and spring concerts. Conductors $ 1,000 Listing in each concert program, inclusion on our website, and six tickets to our winter and spring concerts. Producers $ 500 Listing in each concert program, inclusion on our website, and three tickets to our winter and spring concerts. Performers $ $ 250 Listing in each concert program and two tickets to our winter and spring concerts. Patron $ 5 - $ 75 Llisting in each concert program (up to 45 characters) Enclosed is my check for $ To the order of South Windsor Community Chorus. Name: Address: City, State, Zip: I wish my gift to be anonymous My gift is in memory or (please type or print clearly): Does your company have a matching gift program? Please check with your employer to see if your gift qualifies for matching funds. My company will match my gift. My company s matching gift form is enclosed. I would like to sing in SWCC, please call me at South Windsor Community Chorus c/o Mrs. Shirley Nanci, Treasurer 435 Graham Rd. South Windsor, CT 06074

5 Theresa D. McGee, Music Director Theresa D. McGee is known throughout the area as a performer of distinction. She has been a frequent participant in the prestigious Conducting Fellows program of The Dennis Keene Choral Festival, an internationally important music festival dedicated to the highest professional levels of conducting for established orchestral and choral conductors. While there, she has studied with some of the nation s most revered master conductors including Dennis Keene, Peter Bagley, John Alexander, and Alan Harler. She also studies choral conducting at the Yale School of Music and the Institute of Sacred Music; and orchestra conducting with the world-renowned conductor and teacher Gustav Meier, Director of Orchestra Conducting at the Peabody Conservatory of Music. She is also the Music Director of the South Windsor Community Chorus, a 31-yearold ensemble based in South Windsor, CT. In 2001, Ms. McGee led the South Windsor Community Chorus into their 30 th anniversary year, where under her guidance, the chorus commissioned its first choral work with the world premiere in December of In addition, she has held various Music Director positions in churches throughout Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey. She has performed in concert as an ensemble singer with some of the most prestigious conductors of our time, including Gerard Schwarz, Johannes Somary, Skinner Chavez, and Dennis Keene. Sought after as a pianist and organist, Ms. McGee was invited to be the featured organist for the Connecticut Public Television show Connecticut Journal: Cyber Religion, which aired in January Her talent as a pianist and collaborator has been appreciated by such reputable organizations as the Connecticut Ballet, Manhattan School of Music Preparatory & College divisions, The Harlem School of the Arts, the Loomis Chaffee recital series, and First Night-Sturbridge, MA. Ms. McGee s versatility in delivering polished performances of styles ranging from Baroque to Broadway puts her in demand as a collaborator in chamber music and presenting recitals with singes and instrumentalists David Wallace, Pianist David Wallace studied piano in Melbourne and Orlando, Florida, as well as in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He lent his diverse musical talent to numerous school bands, choruses, jazz bands, and churches as a vocalist, instrumentalist (playing trumpet and piano), and director. In addition to serving as our pianist since 1995, he is the music director of the 2 nd Congregational Church of Manchester. David and his family are residents of South Windsor. Program Notes There Shall a Star come out of Jacob (from "Christus") is taken from an unfinished oratorio by Felix Mendelssohn ( ). He was famous in his lifetime not only as a composer, but as one of the foremost pianists and conductor's of his day. He ranks among the best composer's of choral works, with his oratorio "Elijah" the most popular and effective since Handel. In his last year he had begun work on the oratorio "Christus", but after years of overwork and poor health, and only months after the death of his beloved sister Fanny, Mendelssohn suddenly died at the age of 38, leaving the work unfinished. Maria Walks Amid the Thorn, and Lo! How a Rose e're Blooming were composed by Hugo Distler ( ). He had a lifelong interest in the music of Johann Sebastian Bach and Heinrich Schutz, drawing much of his inspiration from Baroque church music. He composed most of his sacred music in the 1930's while holding several important music positions in Lubeck, Germany. The Nazi party's opposition to church music caused Distler to move to Stuttgart in 1937, where the constant threat of the military draft and the death of close friends in the war caused him great stress and sorrow, eventually leading him to take his own life. Laudate Dominum (from "Vesperae solennes de confessore", K. 339) by Wolfgang A. Mozart ( ). The English translation: "Solemn Vespers for a Confessor" was composed for the Cathedral in Salzburg in 1779, where he was employed in the musical establishment of the ruling Prince Archbiship Colloredo. The text is based on Psalm 117 and is translated below. Laudate Dominum Laudate dominum omnes gentes: (O praise the Lord, all ye heathen:) laudate eum omnes populi. (praise him, all ye nations.) Quoniam confirmata est super nos misericordia ejus: (For his merciful kindness is ever more and more towards us) et veritas Domini manet in aeternum. (and the truth of the Lord endureth for ever.) Gloria Patri, et Filio, (Glory be to the Father, and to the Son,) et Spiritui Sancto (and to the Holy Ghost.) Sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper, (As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,) et in saecula saeculorum. Amen.(world without end. Amen.)

6 Chorus Members Sopranos Denise Archibald (w) Nancy Lohmann Carol Ballard Stacy Melanson Hilda Bentley Shirley Nanci (w, c) June Christensen Eileen Nelli (w) Leona Dunham (w) Lynn Saitta (w, c) Carol Klock Laurel Wrynn (w) Lucy Albetski (w) Donna Brown (w) Lisa Burch (w, c) Therese Kidd-O Brien (w,c) Betty Luty Jan Kremidas Judy McAndrew Thomas R. Fisher (c) Lehman A. Mann Sr. (c) (c) Member of the Chamber Ensemble President Vice-President Business Manager Treasurer Librarian Secretary Altos Tenors Basses Officers Janice McGinley Janet Querido Cheryl St. Onge Carol Slicer (w) Kathy Wheeler Shelly Polo Shari Smith (w,c) Joel P. Zimmerman (w) Member of the Women s Chorus Lehman A. Mann Sr. Lucy Albetski Brian Lammers Shirley Nanci Jan Kremidas Donna Brown A Winter Rose Hallelujah (from The Mount of Olives) Ludwig van Beethoven And the Glory of the Lord (from Messiah) George F. Handel There is no Rose (from A Ceremony of Carols, Op. 28) Benjamin Britten The Women's Chorus There Shall a Star Come Out of Jacob Laudate Dominum (from Vesperae solennes de confessore, K. 339) Leonora Williams, soprano Sing We Now of Christmas (Noel Nouvelet - traditional French carol) ~ Intermission ~ All Through the Night (Welsh tune) The Ladies of SWCC Felix Mendelssohn Wolfgang A. Mozart arr. H. Helvey arr. R. Kauffmann Sing We of Hanukkah R. Emerson The Christmas Waltz S. Cahn & J. Styne Maria Walks Amid the Thorn (Medieval German Carol) Hugo Distler Lo! How a Rose e'er Blooming (from The Christmas Story, Op. 10) Hugo Distler The Chamber Chorus The Christmas Song Jingle Bells (words & melody by J. Pierpont ) The Twelve Days of Christmas (traditional English Carol) M. Torme & R. Wells arr. David Willcocks arr. John Rutter Please join us for a light reception in the cafeteria following the performance