St. Charles Singers to perform at multiple sites this season

The St. Charles Singers have announced details of their programs for the 2007-2008 concert season.

This is the ensemble's 24th concert season, but it is the first in which the internationally known mixed choir will present all its programs at multiple locations.

In addition to performing at its longtime principal venue of Baker Memorial United Methodist Church in St. Charles, the 34-voice professional chamber choir also will present each of its concerts at St. Michael Church in Wheaton, where the singers attracted a sizable audience at their first appearance there last spring.

The St. Charles Singers will present three different programs this season in St. Charles and Wheaton: "Candlelight Carols" on Dec. 1 and 2, "Faire Is the Heaven" on March 8 and 9, and "Just as the Tide Was Flowing" on June 7 and 8.

Incandescent carols by candlelight

For their "Candlelight Carols" concerts, the St. Charles Singers will offer a mix of works that are new to their repertoire, along with top selections from past concerts.

Among those rediscoveries are "Myn Lyking" by Richard. R. Terry (1865-1938), with words from a 15th-century English text, and the melodic, superbly crafted "Jesus Christ, the Apple Tree" by Elizabeth Poston (1905-1987), based on an anonymous text that begins, "The tree of life my soul hath seen/Laden with fruit and always green."

New to the ensemble's Christmas repertoire are selected works by, among others, Michael Praetorious (1571-1621), William Walton (1902-1983) and contemporary composers Morten Lauridsen (b. 1943) and Karsten Gundermann (b. 1966). In Gundermann's arrangement of the traditional German carol "Susser die Glocken nie klingen" (Sweeter the Bells Never Sound), vocal patterns evoke the chiming of church bells.

In keeping with their tradition, the St. Charles Singers will close the program with Sir David Willcocks' arrangement of "Silent Night."

"Candlelight Carols" will be presented at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 1 at Baker Memorial United Methodist Church, 307 Cedar Ave., St. Charles; and 3:30 p.m. Dec. 2 at St. Michael Church, 310 S. Wheaton Ave., Wheaton, and again at 7 p.m. at Baker Memorial.

Sacred songs across the centuries

Choral works inspired by and performed amid the architectural and acoustical splendors of great churches and cathedrals of Europe are the focus of "Faire Is the Heaven: Sacred Songs in Sacred Places."

The concert takes its title from "Faire Is the Heaven," a double-choir motet written to a Renaissance text by William Harris (1883-1973). The authoritative New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians says the piece has "a spaciousness of conception and a richness" that rank it as the composer's "best work." Harris was associated with England's Christ Church Cathedral and St. George's Chapel, Windsor.

Tomas Luis de Victoria (1548-1611) received his earliest musical training at Avila Cathedral in his native Spain and spent most of his career in Rome. Composer Herbert Howells (1892-1983) was a musician at Gloucester and Salisbury cathedrals.

The program will include, among other works, the St. Charles Singers' first performance of contemporary Estonian composer Arvo Part's Berliner Messe (Berlin Mass), written in the early 1990s.

The concert will be presented at 7:30 p.m. March 8 at Baker Memorial United Methodist Church in St. Charles and 4 p.m. March 9 at St. Michael Church in Wheaton.

'Chansons and Folk Songs'

The final program, "Just as the Tide Was Flowing: Chansons and Folk Songs," embraces works, in diverse styles and languages, relating to the ancient element of water. The title comes from one of the "5 English Folk Songs" of Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958), one of several song cycles on the program.

The ensemble will give its first performance of contemporary Polish composer Henryk Gorecki's Szeroka woda (Broad Waters), a set of traditional Polish folk songs.

Trois chansons (Three Songs), from the early 1900s, is one of French composer Maurice Ravel's rare forays into choral writing, much less poetry writing. Two of Ravel's texts have an ironic humor, while another makes repeated references to going off to war, a subject very much on Ravel's mind in 1915.

Among the program's American works are Three Mountain Ballads (1958) by Joliet native Ron Nelson (b. 1929), an arrangement of the Kentucky folk song "Shenandoah," and a Robert Shaw and Alice Parker arrangement of the sailor work song "Lowlands."

"Just as the Tide Was Flowing" will be presented at 7:30 p.m. June 7 at Baker Memorial United Methodist Church in St. Charles and 4 p.m. June 8 at St. Michael Church in Wheaton.

If you go

St. Charles Singers concert schedule for 2007-08 season

Concerts: "Candlelight Carols": Dec. 1 (St. Charles) and Dec. 2 (Wheaton and St. Charles).

"Faire Is the Heaven: Sacred Songs in Sacred Places": March 8 (St. Charles) and March 9 (Wheaton).

"Just as the Tide Was Flowing: Chansons and Folk Songs": June 7 (St. Charles) and June 8 (Wheaton).

Tickets: Single concert tickets are $35 (premium seating), $25 (general admission), and $20 for seniors 65+ and full-time students 23 and under. For concert tickets and information, call (630) 513-5272 or visit www.stcharlessingers.com.