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:
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.