16th-Annual Season, 2007 - 2008
with special guests Christina Siemens, piano; Karen Sunmark, percussion; and Jerry Oram (10/20) and Vince Green (10/21), trumpet.
Saturday,
October 20, 2007 at 8:00 p.m
Holy Rosary Church, 4200 SW Genesee St., Seattle
[directions]
Sunday, October 21, 2007 at 3:00 p.m.
Blessed Sacrament Church, 5041 Ninth Ave. NE, Seattle
[directions]
“The autumn night takes the moon’s arm…and dances west toward the heavenly blue…with veils of northern lights…” Opus 7 presents a concert for that most beautiful time of year in the Northwest. As the heat of summer days passes into the brilliant colors of autumn, join Opus 7 as they fill the night with beautiful, multi-hued music on this concert of works inspired by the magic and melancholy of autumn.
Featured works include:
Sir Edward Elgar: As Torrents in Summer
Irving Fine: “Design for October” from The Choral New Yorker
Stefán Arason: “The autumn night takes the moon’s arm“ from Fimm vísur um nóttina
Samuel Barber: “Mary Hynes“ from Reincarnations
Sir Michael Tippett: Dance, Clarion Air
John Muehleisen: Snow. The King’s Trumpeter
William Bergsma: Riddle Me This
Robert Scandrett: She’s Like a Swallow
Stephen Foster/Craig Hella Johnson: Hard times come again no more
William Bolcom: “Worn Faces” & “Portrait” from The Mask
Carol Barnett: “Webster” from An American Thanksgiving
Frank Tichelli: There will be rest
Opus 7 has been invited to perform at the annual conference of the NW chapter of the American Choral Directors Association in Vancouver, BC in February of 2008, and several works from this program will be featured on that performance.
with special guests Clint Kraus, St. James Cathedral Associate Organist; Katie Weld, St. James Cathedral Mezzo-Soprano Soloist
Sunday, December 2 at 7:30
p.m.
St. James Cathedral
[directions]
Opus 7 features an outstanding array of British and European choral music for its annual Advent/Christmas Holiday concert.
Benjamin Britten: Christ’s Nativity. Britten’s early choral works, written while he was still a college student, are recognized as masterworks of the choral repertoire. Christ’s Nativity was written three years before his choral tour d’force A Boy was Born and shares many of the brilliant characteristics of vocal writing that exemplify Britten’s finest choral pieces.. This is a great opportunity to hear this rarely-performed work.
Gerald Finzi: Magnificat. Finzi’s lyrical gifts shine forth in this brilliant Magnificat setting for choir, soloists, & organ. Finzi’s setting is one of the most lucid and illuminating interpretations amongst all settings of this familiar text, and his musical style makes for a truly celebratory experience.
Kenneth Leighton: A Hymn of the Nativity and Of a rose is all my song. The Scottish composer Kenneth Leighton is an underrated (and underperformed) master of the choral art in the tradition of Benjamin Britten.
Two rarely performed works by Pierre Villette round out the featured works on this program: Hymne à la Vierge and O magnum misterium, which rivals the beauty of Morten Lauridsen’s well-known setting. Although he lived from 1926 to 1998, Villette’s genius as a choral composer is just being recognized.
Other works include:
Gerald Near: There is no rose;
Georg Schumann: “Beim Kindelwiegen” from Three Old German Songs “Maria Wiegenlied am Drei Königstage” & “Huldigung beim Jesuskinde” from Three Sacred Songs and
John Byrt: All and Some
with the St. James Cathedral Chamber Orchestra
Howard Fankhauser, St. James Cathedral Tenor Soloist
Gregory Carroll, St. James
Cathedral Baritone Soloist
Joseph Adam, St. James Cathedral Organist
Saturday, April 12 at 8:00 p.m.
St. James Cathedral
[directions]