St. Charles Singers wind down season
Barely back to earth after last week's highly anticipated release of its recording with the Elgin Symphony Orchestra of its first commercial CD, the St. Charles Singers will offer their final concerts of the 2007-08 season this weekend.
Founder and artistic director Jeffrey Hunt will lead his 30-voice ensemble in a program titled "Just as the Tide Was Flowing" at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Baker Memorial United Methodist Church, 307 Cedar Ave., St. Charles; and 4 p.m. Sunday at St. Michael Church, 310 S. Wheaton Ave., Wheaton.
The program will cover a wide spectrum of music spanning several centuries and national origins, ranging from a set of Shakespeare-era English madrigals to music by 20th- and 21st - entury American composers.
"I try to like to do that as much as I can just to give people a sense, when they hear choral music, of different periods," Hunt said. "I love to do that, especially if it's surrounding a theme, which makes it fun and interesting. This weekend's theme, for instance, is images of water through music."
The bulk of this weekend's program will be performed a cappella, with some of the American folk song arrangements accompanied by piano.
"For example, we're doing Ron Nelson's piano arrangement for sopranos and alto voices of 'Three Mountain Ballads,' " Hunt said. "Ron is from Joliet, and he's really an interesting composer. There's a quote off his Web site in which (conductor) Leonard Slatkin calls him 'the quintessential American composer.'"
Also on the program is West Coast-based composer Eric Whitacre's "Night Water," based on a text by Mexican poet Octavio Paz. "We have previously done music by Eric Whitacre," Hunt said. "His choral music is coming more and more into the forefront. This particular piece I really like. It fits right in with our overall theme of water."
Other music includes the St. Charles Singers' first performance of contemporary Polish composer Henryk Górecki's Szeroka woda ("Broad Waters"), a set of traditional Polish folk songs about rivers and morning dew. These rarely heard songs will be sung in their native language.
The St. Charles Singers, founded in 1984, traditionally do three concert programs a year: a Christmas concert, along with concerts in March and June. In addition, the group frequently collaborates with the Elgin Symphony (as on the new recording), and has made several European tours.
"If we get invited to a festival overseas, then we'll build a tour around that," Hunt said. "We've gone to England twice and the last time, we went to France. We get funding through our organization, which works hard to make that possible; then, each singer does contribute something out of his or her own pocket. I'm always so very grateful about that, and they also take some of their vacation time. To bring a choir of 32 or 33 voices to Europe, especially with today's high travel costs, is an expensive process."
In addition to the new ESO Copland CD, the St. Charles Singers have made five other recordings. Two are for Chicago label Proteus Entertainment, accompanied the Metropolis Chamber Orchestra: a holiday album, "Christmas in St. Charles," and a collection of British and American folk songs titled "I Know Where I'm Going."
These recordings are available for purchase at stcharlessingers.com, and the new ESO-Copland album is on sale at area Barnes & Noble locations as well as amazon.com.
"I think about 80 percent of the choir makes a living at music, either a combination of teaching or performing," Hunt said. "Another 20 percent are nonprofessional musicians, just good choral singers. I have one singer who's a physicist at Fermilab; he has a Ph.D in physics, and he's just a very smart singer."
Tickets for this weekend's concerts are available at the door for $35 (premium seating, St. Charles only), $25 (general admission, both St. Charles and Wheaton), $20 for seniors 65 and over, and $10 for full-time students 23 and under.
You can also reserve tickets by calling (630) 513-5272 or at stcharlessingers.com.