Enjoy St. Charles Singers this weekend
Submitted by St. Charles Singers
The St. Charles Singers will showcase the celebratory side of Mozart in concerts combining joyful sacred solo and choral music with two rarely heard orchestral works Saturday, May 14, in St. Charles and Sunday, May 15, in Chicago. The program will be the finale to the St. Charles Singers’ 27th season.
The acclaimed 32-voice professional chamber choir, led by founder Jeffrey Hunt, and the Metropolis Chamber Orchestra will present “Mozart Journey 3: Jubilant Mozart” at 8 p.m. Saturday, May 14, at Baker Memorial United Methodist Church, 307 Cedar Ave., St. Charles, with a preconcert talk by musicologist Jonathan Saylor of Wheaton College at 7 p.m. On Sunday, May 15, the concert will be at 2:30 p.m. at Holy Family Church, 1080 W. Roosevelt Road on Chicago’s Near West Side, with Saylor’s preconcert talk at 1:30 p.m.
“Jubilant Mozart” is the third program in the multiyear “Mozart Journey” series being presented by the choir and chamber orchestra.
Soprano Kimberly McCord of Oak Park, an international concert and recording artist, will make her debut as guest soloist with the St. Charles Singers. Opera magazine described her as having “the ideal mix of drama, power, and sensitivity.” She has performed widely in the U.S. and Europe, where she recorded music of Bach with London’s Gabrieli Consort on Deutsche Grammophon’s Archiv Produktion label. Among her other engagements, she has appeared with Chicago’s Music of the Baroque in works by Bach, Handel, Mozart, and Vivaldi; and she sang the role of Fiordiligi in Mozart’s “Cosi Fan Tutte” with Milwaukee Opera Theatre.
McCord will sing the solo part — a virtuoso showpiece — in Mozart’s “Exsultate, Jubilate” (“Rejoice, Be Glad”), K. 165, a concerto for orchestra and soprano. Mozart, just 17 at the time, brilliantly incorporated different styles of operatic singing within the three-movement framework (fast-slow-fast) of a classical symphony. The “Alleluia” finale, sometimes performed as a separate piece, is a favorite of singers and audiences alike.
The soprano also will sing a spectacular high-spirited solo part in the radiant and vigorous “Vesperae Solennes de Dominica” (“Dominican Solemn Vespers”), K. 321, a surprisingly sunny work despite its title. In addition to her solo turn, McCord will also sing in the choir’s soprano section. Other soloists in the Vespers are choir members Amanda Brex-Castillo, soprano; Debby Wilder, alto; David Hunt, tenor; and David Hartley, bass.
This will be the first time the St. Charles Singers has presented either of those Mozart works.
The Metropolis Chamber Orchestra will be featured in Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante for winds and orchestra, K. 297b; and the short March, K. 62.
The Sinfonia is an elegant example of a type of music popular in Mozart’s day — a hybrid of a symphony and a concerto starring a quartet of wind soloists. Each wind player —oboist, clarinetist, bassoonist, and horn player — gets to demonstrate his or her instrument’s unique qualities. Wind soloists in the Sinfonia Concertante will be Deb Stevenson, oboe; Wagner Campos, clarinet; Jonathan Saylor, bassoon; and Daniel O’Connell, horn.
Concertmaster of the Metropolis Chamber Orchestra is violinist Thomas Yang, who is also concertmaster of Oak Park’s Handel Week Festival. He has held the same role with the Lake Forest Symphony, Chicago Sinfonietta, and Illinois Chamber Symphony.
The March K. 62, about three minutes long, is “a fun piece and very rarely performed,” Jeffrey Hunt says.
The choir’s Mozart Journey series with the Metropolis Chamber Orchestra will encompass all of the composer’s sacred choral music and some of his religiously inspired, non-choral vocal music like the “Exsultate, Jubilate.” The project represents a sizable portion of the St. Charles Singers’ regular concert seasons through January 2015.
Concerts include instrumental chamber works by Mozart that illuminate the choral pieces or simply enlarge and enrich the listener’s experience of Mozart’s music.
Single tickets to Mozart Journey concerts are $40 adult admission, $30 for seniors 65 and older, and $20 for students (with ID). For tickets and information, call (630) 513-5272 or visit www.stcharlessingers.com. Tickets also are available at Townhouse Books, 105 N. Second Ave. in St. Charles; cash or checks only at this ticket venue.