THE PHILADELPHIA SINGERS PRESENTS CENTERPIECE CONCERT OF 32ND ANNUAL CHORUS AMERICA CONFERENCE

500 arts leaders from across the United States and Canada expected to attend Conference and The Philadelphia Singers Centerpiece Concert at Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts

PHILADELPHIA, PA – The Philadelphia Singers will host the 32nd Annual National Chorus America Conference in Philadelphia from June 10th through the 13th at the Hyatt at Penn’s Landing and has the distinct honor of presenting the Centerpiece Concert in Verizon Hall at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, Broad and Spruce Streets, on Thursday, June 11 at 8:00 p.m. The concert will include Donald Martino’s a cappella Seven Pious Pieces and Charles Martin Loeffler’s gorgeous By the Rivers of Babylon performed by The Philadelphia Singers fully professional chorus. The finale will feature Anton Bruckner’s exquisite and seldom performed masterpiece, Mass in E Minor, featuring the glorious 150-voice Philadelphia Singers Chorale. Tickets for the concert are $36, $51 and $61 and may be purchased by calling 215-893-1999 or Click Here.

The 32nd Annual Chorus America Conference and Centerpiece Concert will shine a national spotlight on The Philadelphia Singers, and welcome the service organization back to its birthplace. Michael Korn, who founded The Philadelphia Singers in 1972, established Chorus America in 1977 as the Association of Professional Vocal Ensembles. The association has since expanded and in 1993 officially changed its name to Chorus America to reflect its role as a service organization that embraces the broad spectrum of choruses. For more information on Chorus America Conference and the Conference visit www.chorusamerica.org.

Music Director David Hayes said, “The Centerpiece Conference will put the artistic focus almost exclusively on the chorus, showcasing The Philadelphia Singers’ artistry and virtuosity.” Bruckner’s Mass in E Minor combines moments of quiet a cappella tranquility with passages of soaring beauty. The Philadelphia Singers Chorale will be joined by woodwinds and brass from the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia. A unique combination of flutes, harp, cello and organ will accompany the women of The Philadelphia Singers on Loeffler’s By The Rivers of Babylon and will feature organist Michael Stairs on the Kimmel Center’s magnificent Fred J. Cooper memorial organ. An expanded chorus of fifty-voices from the fully-professional ensemble will perform Martino’s a cappella Seven Pious Pieces.

Bruckner’s Mass in E Minor for chorus, wind and brass instruments is considered his first great work, premiering in 1866 when he was 42 years old. It is a beautiful combination of intricate Italian Renaissance polyphony and the dark sonorities and lush harmonies of the Romantic period. His use of a wind band makes it unique among the composer's works and among 19th-century liturgical works in general. Bruckner's choral writing is among the most glorious and powerful in all Romantic music: the polyphony for eight-part chorus in the Kyrie and the Sanctus is matched by few of his contemporaries. Bruckner's harmonic language is enormously expressive throughout, and much of the music is obviously inspired by the music of Wagner, whose Tristan und Isolde Bruckner had just heard.

American Donald Martino, who died in 2005, won the Pulitzer Prize in Music in 1974 and was the former chair of the New England Conservatory’s composition department. His Seven Pious Pieces is an a cappella work for mixed chorus set to texts by 17th century poet Robert Herrick. The Philadelphia Singers previously performed the piece in 1994 at its Philadelphia Premiere. Although Martino was known as an academic and a serialist composer, in an interview with the Boston Globe in 1980, he said, ''My music is not austere and academic. It is a fantasy that anyone writes academic music. I write music for people to listen to, to react to; I want them to say, 'Hey, this is nice!' " It is in this spirit that he set out to write Seven Pious Pieces, which he composed with an intent to demonstrate that a twelve-pitch piece could be made to sound tonal.

Charles Martin Loeffler was born in Germany, but lived most of his life in America, becoming a U.S. Citizen in 1887. By the Rivers of Babylon is set to text from Psalm 137. It is typical of his choral writing, which he often set to texts that reflect the sadness and transience of life, the loss of something once known and loved. To express this quality, he used a unique instrumentation of two flutes, harp, cello and organ. The melodic line is reminiscent of the reciting tones of Gregorian chant, while varied colors provided by the unusual orchestration provide an intriguing contrast to the women’s chorus which moves from subdued lamentation to energetic outbursts to quiet pleas.




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THE PHILADELPHIA SINGERS AND TEMPESTA DI MARE
JOIN FORCES TO PRESENT A MODERN WORLD PREMIERE OF
JOHN BLOW’S “WITH CHEERFUL HEARTS

PHILADELPHIA, PA – The Philadelphia Singers and Tempesta di Mare, two of our region’s finest ensembles, will join forces for the first time to present With Cheerful Hearts: Odes by Bach, Vivaldi, and Blow. The works on the program span an emotional range from unbridled joy to heartfelt loss, all glorious testaments to music’s power to convey our deepest emotions. Performances of With Cheerful Hearts will be held on Saturday, January 31, 2009 at 8:00 p.m., and Sunday, February 1, at 3:00 p.m. at Old St. Joseph’s Church, 321 Willings Alley (on 4th Street between Walnut and Locust Streets) in Philadelphia. Tickets are $20, $30 and $40. Student rush tickets are available for $10 at the door and children age 8-18 are free. Tickets may be purchased by calling 215-751-9494 or on-line by clicking here.

The major works on the program are Johann Sebastian Bach’s profound lament, Trauer Ode, and the modern world premiere of John Blow’s festive New Year’s ode, With Cheerful Hearts, both secular works. The Trauer Ode is one of Bach’s greatest cantatas and also among the least performed. In contrast to the solemnity of the Bach comes Blow’s joyful With Cheerful Hearts, composed as an ode for New Year’s Day 1690 during an amazingly fertile period in English music. The other works on the program are Vivaldi’s stunning Magnificat and Telemann’s Triple Concerto for flute, oboe d’amore and viola d’amore. Tempesta di Mare’s 20-piece ensemble will be matched by 20 voices from The Philadelphia Singers’ chamber chorus, with soloists drawn from the chorus.

While The Philadelphia Singers usually performs with a conductor, this concert will be led instead from within the orchestra by Tempesta di Mare’s concertmaster and continuo, as was the practice when this music was new. David Hayes, Music Director of The Philadelphia Singers, will be heavily involved in the preparation of the program, but he and Tempesta di Mare Artistic Co-Directors, Gwyn Roberts and Richard Stone, decided that it was important to uphold the original esthetic. Hayes says, “We are excited to work together to craft the interpretation. The beauty of this collaboration is that it is a chance for us to learn together.”

Roberts says, “The Bach is just fantastic. He wrote it as a St. John Passion in miniature, only secular. He was at the top of his form and composed it just months after completing the St. Matthew Passion. The music was written for the memorial of a local German heroine, Christiane Eberhardine, a staunch defender of the Lutheran faith. It employs instruments iconic of mourning in the orchestra—pairs of flutes, violas da gambas and lutes—and includes musical effects representing the tolling of bells throughout Leipzig, along with some of Bach’s most ravishing vocal writing. The modern world premiere of John Blow’s With Cheerful Hearts continues efforts to move Blow and his music out of the shadow of his now-more-famous counterpart, Henry Purcell, and into the limelight. “Blow and Purcell always make me very aware that their music comes from people who speak English,” says Roberts. “Think of Shakespeare’s iambic pentameter. That characteristic English rhythm affects musical accent patterns, phrasing, the shape of the musical line, everything.” Stone describes the Blow as “giddy fun, perfect for New Year’s Day."

David Hayes says in describing Vivaldi’s Mangificat, “if people are only familiar with Vivaldi’s Gloria in terms of his choral works, this piece will be a welcome surprise. While many elements of his musical language are relevant, there is a fresh and unexpected quality to the vocal writing." Regarding the collaboration as a whole he says, “Tempesta di Mare and The Philadelphia Singers have a lot of common ground but we have not had a chance to explore together, and this concert gives us the opportunity to take an interesting journey.”

This concert is funded in part by The Pew Center for Arts and Heritage, through the Philadelphia Music Project, and by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.



THE PHILADELPHIA SINGERS PRESENTS AN EXPANDED FOUR-CONCERT SEASON
2008-2009 Season includes collaborations with Tempesta di Mare and the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society as well as the Keynote Concert of the National Chorus America Conference.

PHILADELPHIA, PA - The Philadelphia Singers’ 2008/2009 subscription season continues the organization’s renewed artistic vision to embrace the ensemble’s long tradition of presenting masterworks and includes an enthusiastic commitment to the preservation and creation of American choral music. The expanded four-concert subscription series includes significant contemporary works, intimate chamber works and a choral blockbuster.

The Philadelphia Singers opens its 2008-2009 subscription season on December 6 at 5:00pm and December 7 at 2:30pm with Philadelphia’s beloved holiday tradition, “Christmas on Logan Square” in the beautiful St. Clement’s Church, 20th and Cherry Streets. This year’s program will take a nostalgic look at the music of American Christmases past. The concert begins with a candlelight procession and concludes with a rousing carol sing with the audience.

On January 31, 2009 at 8:00pm and February 1 at 4:00pm, The Philadelphia Singers partners with our city’s renowned baroque orchestra, Tempesta di Mare to present “With Cheerful Hearts: Odes by Bach, Vivaldi, and Blow” at Old St. Joseph’s Church, 321 Willings Alley in Philadelphia’s Old City Neighborhood. The program features the modern world premiere of John Blow’s festive New Years ode, With Cheerful Hearts, J.S. Bach’s profound Trauer Ode and Vivaldi’s stunning Magnificat. With Cheerful Hearts is an exquisitely English ode. Bach’s Trauer Ode is a gorgeous lament and while it’s rarely performed, it resembles a compact version of the St. John Passion. This first time collaboration celebrates the virtuosity of these two distinct ensembles matching The Philadelphia Singers’ twenty-four voiced chorus with Tempesta di Mare’s twenty-four piece orchestra.

On April 5, 2009 at 4:00pm, The Philadelphia Singers teams up with its frequent collaborators, The Philadelphia Chamber Music Society for “Tapestries of Sound” at the Church of the Holy Trinity at 19th and Rittenhouse Square. This co-presentation features a collection of a cappella and lightly accompanied works by a distinguished group of American composers including selections from J.C.D. Parker’s Seven Partsongs, C.M. Loeffler’s By The Rivers of Babylon, Carols of Death by William Schuman and The Syrens by Philadelphia composer William Walace Gilchrest. Gilchrest founded the Mendelssohn Club of Philadelphia in 1874 and was also a member of the Musical Fund Society of Philadelphia. The program also features Brahms’ Four Songs for Women’s Chorus and Claude Debussy’s Trois Chasons.

The Philadelphia Singers’ subscription series will conclude in epic fashion on Thursday, June 11, 2009 with the presentation of William Walton’s mammoth Belshazzar’s Feast and choruses from John Adams’ provocative opera Death of Klinghoffer. The concert will be held in Verizon Hall at the Kimmel Center, Broad and Spruce Streets and marks The Philadelphia Singers first return to Verizon Hall since its triumphant performance of Hector Berlioz’s Requiem in 2003. Bass-Baritone Eric Owens will sing the role of the narrator in Belshazzar’s Feast and an expanded Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia will join The Singers for both works. This concert is also the keynote concert of the 32nd annual National Chorus America Conference hosted by The Philadelphia Singers from June 9 through 13.

Approximately 500 chorus leaders from across the United States, Canada and beyond will attend. The Conference offers professional education and development opportunities to choral leaders that will result in strengthened organizations that are capable of accomplishing their important missions. The Conference provides information and tools for chorus managers, board members, and volunteers of varying experience levels to help choruses advance their operations as well as to groom and retain future leaders for the field. The Philadelphia Singers is able to serve as host of this prestigious event and present the Keynote concert in Verizon Hall through the generous support of The William Penn and Presser Foundations.

The Philadelphia Singers, a professional choral ensemble engages and inspires a broad range of audiences in the Philadelphia region with compelling concert experiences. The Singers has a special commitment to preserve and strengthen America’s rich choral heritage through performances, commissions, and music education. It seeks to enrich the broader community through embodying the highest standards of classical musicianship and providing a platform for its musicians to serve the community in a wide variety of formats.