The Cantilena Chamber Choir Presents Christmas At Harvard
LENOX, Mass - The Cantilena Chamber Choir will present a Christmas program in the tradition of Harvard’s Memorial Church. The program is dedicated in memory of John Ferris, Harvard’s organist and choirmaster for over three decades who passed away this summer at age 82.The program will include works sung by the Harvard University Choir that appeared in the past Christmas services of Lessons and Carols at the church during Booth’s tenure. They include works by Bruckner, Handel, Ives and Sweelinck, and traditional carols in new arrangements. There will also be secular readings (both poignant and humorous) on the Christmas season as read by Stephen Booth, rector of the Trinity Parish in Lenox. The first program will be held on Sunday, DEC. 7th, at 3:00 pm at Trinity Church, 88 Walker Street, and the second concert will be held on Sunday, DEC. 14th at 3:00pm at the Old Parish Church on Main Street in Sheffield.
Featured on the December program is Benjamin Britten’s Ceremony of Carols, a work for Women’s Choir and harp written in 1942 on the transatlantic voyage that brought Britten back to wartime England. The featured harpist is Susan Knapp Thomas. Arrangements of familiar carols and songs will also be performed, including The Coventry Carol, Personant Hodie, and music by Billings and Ives.
Tickets are available at the door at $15 for adults and students are admitted free with a paying adult. Reservations (recommended) can be made by phone at 518-791-0185 or by email at satbchoir@yahoo.com. Those interested in more information can visit www.cantilenachoir.org.
Now in its fifth season, the Cantilena Chamber Choir is the Berkshire region's leading a cappella group. It is comprised of 24 singers who possess vocal training, good sight-reading skills, and considerable choral experience. Last season it has collaborated with the New England Baroque Soloists for two concerts, October and May, and presented a special performance of Ron Perera’s Golden Door as a benefit for the Berkshire Immigrant Center. Past season highlights include a concert with the New England Baroque Soloists, the Empire Brass at the Colonial Theater, a concert of works by Berkshire Composers, a special benefit for the Lenox Library with Shakespeare and Company’s Annette Miller, a collaboration with Boston University’s Tanglewood Two symposium in June 2007 at Williams College, and a production of Dido and Aeneas with Aston Magna.
The Cantilena Chamber Choir is under the artistic direction of Andrea Goodman who is also the Director of the Northern Berkshire Chorale in Williamstown and the Saratoga Choral Festival, an annual summer concert series for chorus and orchestra in Saratoga Springs, New York.
