Saul by Georg Fredrik Handel on Saturday, April 26th at the Elley-Long Music Center in Colchester and we hope to see you there!

Saul, composed in 1738, tells the story of King Saul, the first king of Israel, and his ultimately destructive jealousy of his successor David. Forcing his children to choose between him and David, Saul ultimately leads both his family and the nation to a tragic crisis. The famous ‘Dead March’ from Act Three of the oratorio has been used at the funerals of numerous significant political figures throughout history, including Winston Churchill, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.

“With Saul, Handel raised Old Testament oratorio to its highest point and produced one of the supreme masterpieces of dramatic art, comparable with the Oresteia and King Lear in the grandeur of its theme and the certainty and skill of its execution,” writes Winton Dean, foremost authority on Handel’s operas and oratorios.

Galvanizing the finest singers and instrumentalists for this performance of Saul is as big a project as the Burlington Choral Society has ever undertaken, but Artistic Director Richard Riley says that “the dramatic impact of this great work will stay in the memories of all those in the Elley-Long performance hall for years to come.

Please join us at the Elley-Long Music Center at Saint Michael's College on April 26th at 7:30pm. Tickets are available at http://www.sevendaystickets.com. General admission tickets for $30 are available online and at the door. Students 18 and under are free.

SATURDAY, April 26th — 7:30pm

Elley-Long Music Center, 223 Ethan Allen Ave., Colchester

Buy tickets here

Accessibility

Elley-Long Music Center has dedicated parking spaces for people with disabilities: one in front of the building and two in the parking lot along the side of the building. The main entrance for audience members is flat with no barriers. All restrooms have a stall that will accommodate a wheelchair.

If you would like a space reserved in the hall for a wheelchair, or if you need other accommodations, please email us at BCSsingers@gmail.com.

Questions about the concert?

Please contact the Burlington Choral Society at BCSsingers@gmail.com.

The Burlington Choral Society takes flight with “Birds, Byrd, and Birding to Change the World” on Saturday, November 23, 7:30 pm at the Elley-Long Music Center in Colchester, VT.  Inspired by soaring music referencing birds the from the 16th to 21st centuries, the concert features the 50-voice chorus, violin soloists Kathy Andrew and Laura Markowitz, cello soloist John Dunlop, and local author Trish O’Kane, whose book “Birding to Change the World” has received wide acclaim.

Two well-known pieces for solo violin and orchestra will receive first-ever performances involving chorus. The “Spring” violin concerto from Antonio Vivaldi’s famous “Four Seasons” will include the chorus singing Vivaldi’s own words. “The Lark Ascending,” by English composer Ralph Vaughn-Williams, will include words for the chorus that Vaughan-Williams cited as the inspiration for his rhapsody for violin and orchestra. English Renaissance composer William Byrd will soar with two works arranged for chorus with strings.

Birding to Change the World is the title of an uplifting 2024 memoir by UVM professor (and BCS tenor) Trish O’Kane. O’Kane will share passages about what birds can teach us about life, social change, and protecting the environment. 

Artistic Director Richard Riley has arranged all but one piece on the program, but not everything can be written down: in “Plainscapes” by Latvian composer Pēteris Vasks (b. 1946), the chorus, along with solo violin and cello, will improvise two minutes of birdsongs that are incorporated in the piece.

The program ends with “Birdsong” by the Atlanta composer Eric Nelson (b. 1959), set to a text by 13th century poet Rumi: “Birdsong brings relief to my longing. I’m just as ecstatic as they are.”

Please join us at the Elley-Long Music Center at Saint Michael's College on November 23rd at 7:30pm. Tickets available at http://www.sevendaystickets.com.. General admission tickets for $30 are available online and at the door. Students 18 and under are free.

SATURDAY, November 23 — 7:30pm

Elley-Long Music Center, 223 Ethan Allen Ave., Colchester

Buy tickets here

Accessibility

Elley-Long Music Center has dedicated parking spaces for people with disabilities: one in front of the building and two in the parking lot along the side of the building. The main entrance for audience members is flat with no barriers. All restrooms have a stall that will accommodate a wheelchair.

If you would like a space reserved in the hall for a wheelchair, or if you need other accommodations, please email us at BCSsingers@gmail.com.

Questions about the concert?

Please contact the Burlington Choral Society at BCSsingers@gmail.com.

On Saturday, April 20th, the Burlington Choral Society (BCS) will perform Giuseppe Verdi’s Requiem at the Elley-Long Music Center in Colchester, VT honoring the 150th anniversary year of its first performance at Milan’s Church of San Marco on May 22, 1874.

“The Verdi Requiem is one of the titans”, says BCS Artistic Director Richard Riley. “Dramatic from the downbeat!”

Verdi’s original setting was for four soloists, double choir and large orchestra. In this performance, the Burlington Choral Society will be performing a 2012 arrangement by the German choir director and music pedagogue Michael Betzner-Brandt, who arranged the work as a “chamber oratorio” for piano, horn, double bass, marimba and percussion. The four vocal soloists will be soprano Helen Lyons, mezzo soprano Amber Smoke, tenor Joshua Collier, and bass Jeremiah Johnson. Richard Riley will conduct.

The Verdi Requiem is almost never performed in a church setting, both because of the size of the full orchestra and chorus, and because its musical language is considered more operatic than liturgical. Nevertheless, it has become one of the most frequently performed major choral works in the United States and Europe. The Metropolitan Opera has performed it more than 50 times since 1901, most recently in September 2023. During World War II it was performed sixteen times by Jewish prisoners in the Theresienstadt Concentration Camp (Terezin). It was last performed in Burlington by the Vermont Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in 2010.

In presenting this Requiem performance, the Burlington Choral Society honors the memories of past members and leaders Ann Curran, William Harwood and Maria Novas-Schmidt.

Please join us at the Elley-Long Music Center at Saint Michael's College on April 20th at 7:30pm. Tickets available at http://www.sevendaystickets.com.

SATURDAY, APRIL 20 — 7:30pm

Elley-Long Music Center, 223 Ethan Allen Ave., Colchester

Buy tickets here

Accessibility

Elley-Long Music Center has dedicated parking spaces for people with disabilities: one in front of the building and two in the parking lot along the side of the building. The main entrance for audience members is flat with no barriers. All restrooms have a stall that will accommodate a wheelchair.

If you would like a space reserved in the hall for a wheelchair, or if you need other accommodations, please email us at BCSsingers@gmail.com.

Questions about the concert?

Please contact the Burlington Choral Society at BCSsingers@gmail.com.

The Burlington Choral Society returns for its fall concert on Saturday, November 18th with a program dedicated entirely to the works of Ludwig van Beethoven.

The Mass in C Major, composed in 1807 with a full orchestral accompaniment, has been newly arranged with pared down instrumentation to let the solo vocal and choral parts shine. With this more modern, intimate performance of the Mass, the 53 voices will speak on Beethoven’s behalf as they highlight his complex beliefs on the fertile ground between the known and unknown.

Composed just one year later, Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy features sparkling solo pianist Claire Black, six solo vocalists, strings, and chorus. It sets an ecstatic text that ends, “When love and strength are united, divine grace is bestowed upon man.”

The Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage is an eight-minute-long work based on a pair of poems by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Beethoven admired the poet, whom he met in 1812, and dedicated this 1815 piece to him. The first section depicts a sailor’s lament of his becalmed ship. The wind picks up before the second section, however, with the crew rejoicing at the continuation of their voyage.

We hope the chorus’s dedication to Beethoven helps shed light on the composer’s desire to tell his audiences who he is. These works will showcase Beethoven’s feelings on existentialism, despair, elation, and hope for mankind.

Please join us at the Elley-Long Music Center at Saint Michael's College on November 18 at 7:30pm. Tickets available at http://www.sevendaystickets.com.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 18 — 7:30pm

Elley-Long Music Center, 223 Ethan Allen Ave., Colchester

Buy tickets here

Accessibility

Elley-Long Music Center has dedicated parking spaces for people with disabilities: one in front of the building and two in the parking lot along the side of the building. The main entrance for audience members is flat with no barriers. All restrooms have a stall that will accommodate a wheelchair.

If you would like a space reserved in the hall for a wheelchair, or if you need other accommodations, please email us at BCSsingers@gmail.com.

Questions about the concert?

Please contact the Burlington Choral Society at BCSsingers@gmail.com.

For the first time, Burlington Choral Society and Onion River Chorus will join in song to perform music from and to war-torn Ukraine. With 100+ voices, the dual chorus will draw from Ukraine’s sacred and folk music traditions, as well as two pieces composed in the last year, to capture and honor the country’s rich choral heritage.

One standout in the program is “At Times I Wonder,” an unaccompanied piece composed by Burlington local Michael Schachter. The hauntingly introspective piece is set to a poem whose lines were famously recited by a Ukrainian soldier standing on a snowy battlefield on the eighth day of the ongoing war. Also featured in the program is “A Ukrainian Prayer,” written by English composer John Rutter at the onset of the war.

Conductor Richard Riley has previously directed choral music from Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania and is eager to showcase Ukraine’s unique choral identity as represented by its own composers.

Please join us in celebrating and supporting Ukraine with a program ranging from hushed lullabies to ethereal soundscapes to energetic tongue-twisting jigs. Donation information will be available on-site.

SATURDAY, APRIL 15 — 7:30pm

Elley-Long Music Center, 223 Ethan Allen Ave., Colchester

Buy tickets here

SUNDAY, APRIL 16 — 4:00pm

Montpelier High School, 5 High School Drive, Montpelier

Buy tickets here

Reserve your tickets before they’re gone! On sale now at www.SevenDaysTickets.com and at the door while supplies last. Tickets free for kids, $25 for 19+

Covid Safety Policy

All chorus members are vaccinated and boosted. The Burlington Choral Society requests that every eligible audience member be vaccinated and boosted. Masks are optional – and welcome -- in the Elley-Long Music Center.

If you are feeling sick, have symptoms of COVID-19, have recently tested positive or have recently come into contact with someone who has, please do not attend.

This policy is in effect as of October 4, 2022 and is subject to change.

Accessibility

Elley-Long Music Center has dedicated parking spaces for people with disabilities: one in front of the building and two in the parking lot along the side of the building. The main entrance for audience members is flat with no barriers. All restrooms have a stall that will accommodate a wheelchair.

If you would like a space reserved in the hall for a wheelchair, or if you need other accommodations, please email us at BCSsingers@gmail.com.

Questions about the concert?

Please contact the Burlington Choral Society at BCSsingers@gmail.com.

Artistic director Richard Riley will lead the chorus, with soloists and string orchestra, in flamboyant, theatrical music from composers Heinrich Biber (1644-1704) and Jan Zelenka (1679-1745). Bohemian Czech by birth, both went on to important careers -- Biber in Salzburg and Zelenka in Dresden.

Program highlights include Biber's dramatic Requiem, his joyous Magnificat and Zelenka's two versions of Dixit Dominus.

Riley says, "Biber and Zelenka's music takes us to the edge of what we thought we knew about choral music in the Baroque period. Their vivid musical language, drawn on their Bohemian heritage, is a door opener to how different music sounded from one city to the next. I hope that our program will provide an exhilarating trip from Salzburg to Dresden. Hop aboard!"

Soloists are sopranos Mary Bonhag and Jane Snyder, alto Amy Frostman, tenor Adam Hall and bass Michael Galvin.

Ticket Information

Adults: $25

Students: $8

www.SevenDaysTickets.com

Tickets may also be purchased at the door, as available.

Covid Safety Policy

All chorus members are vaccinated and boosted. The Burlington Choral Society requests that every eligible audience member be vaccinated and boosted. Masks are optional – and welcome -- in the Elley-Long Music Center.

If you are feeling sick, have symptoms of COVID-19, have recently tested positive or have recently come into contact with someone who has, please do not attend.

This policy is in effect as of October 4, 2022 and is subject to change.

Accessibility

Elley-Long Music Center has dedicated parking spaces for people with disabilities: one in front of the building and two in the parking lot along the side of the building. The main entrance for audience members is flat with no barriers. All restrooms have a stall that will accommodate a wheelchair.

If you would like a space reserved in the hall for a wheelchair, or if you need other accommodations, please email us by Thursday, November 17, at BCSsingers@gmail.com.

Questions about the concert?

Please contact the Burlington Choral Society at BCSsingers@gmail.com.

We invite you to an evening of glorious music. Schubert wrote his final Mass in the last year of his tragically short life. This dramatic masterpiece for chorus and full orchestra is both haunting and exuberant.

Artistic director Richard Riley will lead the chorus, with an orchestra of strings, winds, brass and timpani, in Franz Schubert’s Mass in E-flat Major. Written in 1828, shortly before Schubert died at age 31, it begins with the pleading Kyrie (Lord, have mercy) and moves through the colorful Gloria, Credo and Sanctus. The final movement, Agnus Dei, is a passionate prayer that ends with Dona nobis pacem (Grant us peace).

Also on the program are two short instrumental works. Opening the program will be Tchaikovsky’s Andante Cantabile from the String Quartet Op. 11, arranged for string orchestra. The second half will begin with pianist Jenny Bower performing Schubert’s Impromptu Op. 90.

Tickets are General Admission

Adult: $25

Student: $8

www.SevenDaysTickets.com

Tickets will be available on the Seven Days website up to the time of the concert.
We also expect to have tickets for sale at the door. Cash, checks and credit cards are welcome.

Directions to Elley-Long Music Center and parking information:

https://www.vyo.org/contact/

Covid Safety Policy

The concert will be held in the spacious Performance Hall of Elley-Long Music Center. All chorus members are fully vaccinated and boosted.

The Burlington Choral Society requests that every audience member be fully vaccinated and boosted.

For the safety of all audience members, masks are required inside the building.

If you are feeling sick, have symptoms of COVID-19, have recently tested positive or have recently come into contact with someone who has COVID-19, please do not attend.

This policy is in effect as of April 18, 2022.

Accessibility

Elley-Long Music Center has two dedicated parking spaces for people with disabilities: in front of the building and two in the parking lot along the side of the building. The main entrance for audience members is flat with no barriers. All restrooms have a stall that will accommodate a wheelchair.

 If you would like a space reserved in the hall for a wheelchair, or if you need other accommodations, please email us by Thursday, April 21, at BCSsingers@gmail.com.

Questions? Please contact the Burlington Choral Society at BCSsingers@gmail.com.

Burlington Choral Society Returns to Performing on Nov. 20

The Burlington Choral Society is eager to return to live performance with its fall concert, titled “There Is a Day,” on Saturday, Nov. 20. The chorus will present a world premiere and other works at 7:30 p.m. in the spacious Performance Hall at Elley-Long Music Center at St. Michael’s College in Fort Ethan Allen, Colchester, VT.

 Artistic director Richard Riley will lead chorus, soloists and strings in a program that features the premiere of Vermont composer Don Jamison’s There Is a Day.

The Burlington Choral Society commissioned Jamison’s piece. It sets seven poems by the renowned Wendell Berry in a sequence that moves from an anxious contemplation of a busy road (a "river of fire") to a search for true quiet ("when the road neither comes nor goes, and the way is not a way but a place") to a climb through a thicket full of bird song.

 BCS artistic director Richard Riley says a line in Jamison’s piece (“We pray for vision to see in our small imperfect love the Love of the ages, whose green tree yet stands amid the flames.”) influenced his choices for the rest of the program: J.S. Bach’s cantata Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland (Savior of the nations, come) and two works by the acclaimed young composer Jake Runestad. 

 Riley hears the ardent voice of Bach in the cantata, with “two assertive choral movements and solo movements, including the soprano’s Open, my whole heart.”

 Runestad’s works are Let My Love Be Heard, his setting of a poignant poem by Alfred Noyes. The other is The Hope of Loving, based on mystical poems by Daniel Ladinsky inspired by writers from St. Francis of Assisi to Meister Eckhart. The composer says he believes “love is our doorway into fostering compassion for others” and that “It is through love, both given and received, that our world can change.”

 Soloists are soprano Sarah Cullins, alto Julie Robbins, tenor Adam Hall and bass Erik Kroncke. Jenny Bower will play the organ on the Bach cantata.

Tickets are available at www.SevenDaysTickets.com, $25 for adults and $20 for students. You can buy tickets at the Seven Days Tickets website up to the time of the concert. We also expect to have tickets for sale at the door.

Directions to Elley-Long Music Center and parking information:

https://www.vyo.org/contact/

COVID Safety Policy

The concert will be held in the spacious Performance Hall of Elley-Long Music Center. All chorus members and guest artists are fully vaccinated. Chorus members will wear masks.

The Burlington Choral Society requests that every audience member be vaccinated. The Elley-Long Music Center requires masks for everyone indoors. If you are feeling sick, have symptoms of COVID-19, have recently tested positive or have recently come into contact with someone who has COVID-19, do not attend.

If you have questions, please contact BCSsingers@gmail.com.

Wednesday, December 18, 7:30 pm – 9:00 pm

College Street Congregational Church (map)

265 College St.

Burlington, VT

We’ll lift our voices with you in the Christmas choruses and final Amen of Handel's beloved Messiah. Bring a score, borrow one at the door, or just come listen. Richard Riley will conduct, with soloists and Jenny Bower on organ and piano. 

Admission is free, and donations to COTS by cash or check are welcome.

For its fall concert, the Burlington Choral Society presents music from a country rich in song. In recent years, the chorus has performed concerts featuring Estonia and Latvia. Next, we complete our musical tour of the three Baltic nations.

Artistic director Richard Riley will lead the chorus, soloists and guest instrumentalists.

The Lithuanian national anthem begins and ends the program, with an array of sacred and lively traditional and folk songs in between.

Classical pieces include the Magnificat, Mary’s song of joy, which composers through the ages have set to music. The BCS will perform a contemporary version by Kristina Vasiliauskaite. Other sacred works are a Pater Noster by Vaclovo Augustino and the 1899 cantata De Profundis by M.K. Ciurlionis.

Honoring the legacy of Lithuanian Jews who began settling in Vermont in the late 19th century, the program includes a solo performance of the poignant Yiddish song Unter dayne vayse shtern (Under Your white stars).

Our director says, “Lithuania’s distinctive choral style features ‘music of the people,’ as political turmoil has greatly influenced how Lithuanian music is disseminated and heard internationally. There's rich repertoire for the church, but equally interesting and distinctive are pieces from folk traditions. I have tried to enter into this remarkable culture by arranging three of the traditional songs myself."  

College Street Congregational Church [map]

265 College St., Burlington, VT

The Burlington Choral Society presents music for Lent and Easter that moves from tragic to festive. Bob Chilcott's new setting of the St. John Passion spans an enormous expressive range in telling the story of Christ's suffering and death. This will be its first Vermont performance.

John Taverner's Dum Transisset Sabbatum turns toward the light, then Pietro Mascagni's joyous Easter hymn from his opera Cavalleria Rusticana shines bright.

Artistic director Richard Riley will lead the chorus and instrumentalists, with guest artists tenor Adam Hall (Evangelist), bass-baritone Matt Sullivan (Jesus), baritone David Neiweem (Pontius Pilate), soprano Chayah Lichtig and Jenny Bower, organ. Instrumentalists will be Elizabeth Reid, viola; Perri Morris, cello; Jason Whitcomb and Don Wheater, trumpet; Joy Worland, horn; Lori Salimando-Porter, trombone; and William Keck, tuba.

The Burlington Choral Society presents music for Lent and Easter that moves from tragic to festive. Bob Chilcott's new setting of the St. John Passion spans an enormous expressive range in telling the story of Christ's suffering and death. This will be its first Vermont performance.

John Taverner's Dum Transisset Sabbatum turns toward the light, then Pietro Mascagni's joyous Easter hymn from his opera Cavalleria Rusticana shines bright.

Artistic director Richard Riley will lead the chorus and instrumentalists, with guest artists tenor Adam Hall (Evangelist), bass-baritone Matt Sullivan (Jesus), baritone David Neiweem (Pontius Pilate), soprano Chayah Lichtig and Jenny Bower, organ. Instrumentalists will be Elizabeth Reid, viola; Perri Morris, cello; Jason Whitcomb and Don Wheater, trumpet; Joy Worland, horn; Lori Salimando-Porter, trombone; and William Keck, tuba.

Join us for the Christmas portion of Handel's "Messiah." All singers are welcome to sing the choruses. Bring a score or borrow one at the door. Listeners also welcome. 

Richard Riley will conduct. Soloists will be sopranos Helen Lyons and Annalise Shelmandine, altos Julie Robbins and Laura Rasco, tenor Nathaniel Lew and bass Stuart Williams. Diane Huling will be the piano accompanist.

North Avenue Alliance Church, 901 North Avenue, Burlington, VT

(The church is just off the Beltline. Plenty of parking.) 

The Burlington Choral Society invites you to hear a big chorus celebrate some big birthdays at our fall concert.

The BCS will honor the 100th birthday of Leonard Bernstein with his best-known choral work, Chichester Psalms. The composer set six psalms to music that moves from majestic to boisterous to peacefully tender.

Our artistic director, Richard Riley, will conduct. Guest artists are vocal soloists Mary Bonhag, soprano; Eric Jurenas, countertenor; and Andrew Padgett, bass. Featured instrumentalists include organist Jennifer Bower, harpist Grace Cloutier, percussionist Nicola Cannizzaro and the Burlington Birthday Orchestra, an orchestra made up of local professionals who, when they perform with the BCS, acquire a name reflecting the theme of each concert.

Musicians around the world are performing Bernstein's works over the two-year period that spans his August 2018 birthday. Chichester Psalms was created in 1965 for a festival in England, but the world premiere was at Philharmonic Hall in New York at W. 65th St. and Broadway. Richard Riley says, "There's some Broadway in Bernstein's setting of the sacred Hebrew text." Bernstein even found a spot in the Psalms for some dramatic music he'd cut from West Side Story.

The conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin has said that Chichester Psalms exemplifies what Bernstein sought to do as a composer. He noted, "Bernstein had this goal all his life to bring people together regardless of their religions, origins, generations and aspirations in life." The work ends with the words Hineh mah tov, Umah naim, Shevet ahim, Gam yahad -- in English, Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity.

Birthday Odes includes festive tributes to two English royals: Henry Purcell's Ode for the Birthday of Queen Mary (Come, Ye Sons of Art) from 1694 and George Friedrich Handel's Ode for the Birthday of Queen Anne from 1713. The opening solo of the Handel ode, Eternal Source of Light Divine, was heard at the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. Riley says, "These festive tributes will take our audience back to a time when composers and choruses really knew how to throw the monarch and her court a birthday party."

Works from classical and folk traditions, featuring the 1943 cantata Dievs, Tava
Zeme Deg! (God, Thy Earth Is Aflame!) by Lūcija Garūta, which premiered with
the sound of bombs in the distance.
Also:
Līgo! (“Sway!”) and Pūt vējiņi ("Blow Winds"), traditionally sung at Latvian song
festivals
The Fruit Of Silence by Pēteris Vasks
Ave Verum Corpus by Imant Raminsh
Stars by Ēriks Ešenvalds

Joshua Collier, tenor
Erik Kroncke, bass
Lynnette Combs, organ
Claire Black, piano

College Street Congregational Church
265 College St., Burlington, VT 05401

Join us in singing the Christmas choruses of Handel's "Messiah." Bring a score or borrow one at the door. Listeners are also welcome.
 
Richard Riley will conduct, with pianist Claire Black and soloists.
 
North Avenue Alliance Church, 901 North Avenue, Burlington, VT.
 
Admission free.
 
Donations to COTS and NAAC Community Outreach are welcome.

The Burlington Choral Society's 40th anniversary season continues with performances of beloved music by Brahms.
 
Richard Riley, artistic director, will lead the chorus, soloists and two pianists in Johannes Brahms' Requiem.
 
A musical journey from sorrow to consolation, the piece will be sung in English, as it was in 1871, just three years after its German premiere. Also on the program is Brahms' passionate Schicksalslied (Song of Destiny).
 
Pianists Claire Black and Diane Huling will be side by side at the keyboard playing Brahms' own four-hand piano arrangement. Sarah Cullins, soprano, and Geoffrey Penar, baritone, are the soloists.
 
Riley said, "Performing the Brahms Requiem is one of the most profound experiences one can have in music. The music is gigantic, and yet intimate. Together, performers and audience create a environment where, through music, we share our most personal feelings about life and death."
 
VPR is media sponsor for the Burlington Choral Society's 2016-2017 season. Northfield Savings Bank is sponsor for the Barre concert.

The Burlington Choral Society's 40th anniversary season continues with performances of beloved music by Brahms.
 
Richard Riley, artistic director, will lead the chorus, soloists and two pianists in Johannes Brahms' Requiem.
 
A musical journey from sorrow to consolation, the piece will be sung in English, as it was in 1871, just three years after its German premiere. Also on the program is Brahms' passionate Schicksalslied (Song of Destiny).
 
Pianists Claire Black and Diane Huling will be side by side at the keyboard playing Brahms' own four-hand piano arrangement. Sarah Cullins, soprano, and Geoffrey Penar, baritone, are the soloists.
 
Riley said, "Performing the Brahms Requiem is one of the most profound experiences one can have in music. The music is gigantic, and yet intimate. Together, performers and audience create a environment where, through music, we share our most personal feelings about life and death."
 
VPR is media sponsor for the Burlington Choral Society's 2016-2017 season. Northfield Savings Bank is sponsor for the Barre concert.

Messiah Sing with the Burlington Choral Society

Everyone is invited to sing the Christmas choruses of Handel's Messiah with the Burlington Choral Society.  Bring a score or borrow one at the door.  (Please come early if you need to borrow a score.)

Richard Riley will conduct with pianist Claire Black and soloists from the BCS.

Tuesday, December 6th at 7 p.m., North Avenue Alliance Church, 901 North Avenue, Burlington, VT.

Admission is free.  Cash donations to COTS are welcome.

The Burlington Choral Society Will Celebrate Its 40th Anniversary With

J.S. Bach's Christmas Oratorio
Saturday, November 19, 7:30pm
Elley-Long Music Center
223 Ethan Allen Ave.
Colchester, VT

As we begin our 40th season, artistic director Richard Riley leads the Burlington Choral Society in Parts 1, 2 & 3 of Bach's timeless retelling of the Christmas story.

Experience the beauty, power and joy of the 100-voice chorus, soloists and period instrument orchestra.

Season Media Sponsor: VPR

We'd be happy to send you details about the concert as they become available.  Subscribe to our email list here.

The Burlington Choral Society will perform a program based on choral music from that remarkable Baltic Republic of Estonia, including what we believe to be the North American premiere of Tõnu Kõrvits' exquisite Kreek's Notebook, which is based on Estonian sacred folk melodies collected by Cyrillus Kreek. This program will also feature a piece commissioned for the BCS by Estonian-American composer Lembit Beecher. Lembit is in the first or second year of a three-year appointment as the first Composer In Residence of Opera Philadelphia in collaboration with Gotham Chamber Opera and Music Theatre Group of New York. From the Scrag Mountain Music website: "Born of Estonian and American parents, he grew up under the redwoods in Santa Cruz, California, a few miles from the wild Pacific. Since then he has lived in Boston, Houston, Ann Arbor, Berlin and New York, earning degrees from Harvard, Rice and the University of Michigan. This varied background has made him particularly sensitive to place, ecology and the strong emotional relationships that people forge with patterns in nature. He is also interested in memory and the various ways we tell stories, from emotional personal narratives to crisp and clean documentaries. Recent pieces have focused on reflections of the immigrant experience and the integration of recorded interviews with music."

We will also be featuring two pieces by Arvo Pärt, Magnificat and Estonian Lullaby, a selection of orchestral works, and three songs that are sung at the Estonian Song Festival, an event at which a chorus of 30,000 voices sings to an audience of 80,000!

This concert is sponsored by the Argosy Foundation and the Vermont Council on World Affairs.

Ticket Info: $25 for General Admission, $20 for Students and Seniors

Advance tickets will be available at the Flynntix Box Office and www.flynntix.org

Solomon is an extraordinary piece.  Written in 1748 at the height Handel's fame as an oratorio composer, it is one of the less-frequently performed Handel oratorios.  The reason?  It requires large forces: a large chorus, five soloists (covering eight named roles), and a large orchestra.  It tells three stories from the life of the biblical King Solomon rather than just one.  

It is not known for certain who wrote the libretto - it could have been a fellow named Newburgh Hamilton, with whom Handel had collaborated before - but regardless of who penned the words, it has more than a whiff of Augustan Age/George II triumphalism transposed onto the kingdom of Solomon: "til distant nations catch the song and glow with holy flame" and "from the East unto the West, who so wise as Solomon?"

But the three stories are given marvelous musical treatment.  In Act I, Solomon (an alto or countertenor role; we will have a countertenor) and Zadok the High Priest celebrate the completion of the Temple.  After completion of the Temple, how does Solomon celebrate?  By consummating his marriage with Pharaoh's daughter; the latter half of Act I is remarkable in its "explicitness with which it hymns the joys of the marriage bed."  Act II tells the famous story of Solomon's judgement in the case of the two women who both claim a baby as their own.  There is memorably affecting music in this part.  Act III describes the visit from the Queen of Sheba and her wonder at the magnificence of Solomon's empire.  In contrast to the sensual celebration of Solomon's marriage to Pharaoh's daughter in Act I, a curtain is drawn around what might have happened with the Queen of Sheba after Act III.  (According to the Bible, Solomon had 300 wives and 700 concubines.)  

Also not depicted in Handel's Solomon are Solomon's subsequent descent into idolatry.  No, in Handel's Solomon, the title character is powerful, wise, sexy, and in a way, humble.  Thanks to some over-the-top poetry, the characterization can sometimes border on Gilbert and Sullivan. Case in point: the Queen of Sheba sings to Solomon "Thy harmony's divine, great king/All obey the artist's string/And now illustrious prince receive/Such tribute as my realm can give./Here purest gold from earth's dark entrails torn/And gems resplendent that outshine the morn."  But some of the greatest encomiums are saved for Mother Nature and her many charms, including a lovely chorus at the end of Act I as Solomon and his new queen sleep off their marriage exertions: "May no rash intruder disturb their soft hours/To form fragrant pillows, arise O ye flowers!/Ye zephyrs soft breathing their slumbers prolong/While nightingales lull them to sleep with their song." 

Handel's music, in its infinite variety, is vivid throughout.

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We will perform the remarkable, influential, and almost-never-performed Grande Messe de Morts by the French composer François-Joseph Gossec, who lived a long and eventful life from 1734 to 1829. We can find no record of Gossec's Grande Messe de Morts having been performed in the United States since 1977, and yet this is a piece that made Gossec famous in France literally overnight.  Mozart (very artfully) stole from Gossec in his famous Requiem composed in 1791 (Mozart and Gossec were friends), and Berlioz clearly had Gossec's thrilling brass writing in the "Tuba Mirum" section in his ear 77 years later when he wrote his  famous Grande Messe de Morts in 1837.

Gossec always had a taste for the revolutionary, both musically and politically, and  became one of the most important classical music figures in the French Revolution.  For example, he scored his Te Deum for 1200 singers and 300 wind instruments, and several oratorios require the physical separation of multiple choirs, including invisible ones behind the stage. He wrote several works in honor of the French Revolution including Le Triomphe de la République, and L'Offrande à la Liberté.

The BCS Chorus commemorates the centenary of the birth of Benjamin Britten with works including Saint Nicolas, Rejoice in the Lamb, and the chamber piece Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings.
Tenor Adam Hall will be the featured soloist.