Tri-Valley chorus to celebrate 50 years Sunday at Pleasanton concert
- May 16, 2014
By Dolores Fox Ciardelli
Staff Writer, Pleasanton Weekly
The Valley Concert Chorale will celebrate 50 years as the Tri-Valley's premier chorus with an evening performance at 7:30 p.m. Sunday at the Amador Theater in Pleasanton.
The performance will feature the music of contemporary choral composer Morten Johannes Lauridsen.
The Pleasanton performance is part of a five-day festival of music by the choral group, which will include two choral performances, choral workshops for high school and college choirs and the showing of a film documentary about his life.
Lauridsen was named an American Choral Master by the National Endowment for the Arts and was the 2007 recipient of the National Medal of Arts.
"Having Mr. Lauridsen present to lead choral workshops and prepare the choirs for two incredible concerts is very exciting, especially for singers," said John Emory Bush, artistic director and conductor of the Chorale. "It's a great learning experience for everyone, especially for the college and high school students."
The Chorale, in collaboration with the choir of California State University. East Bay, will participate in the workshops, presented by Lauridsen himself. The culmination will be two performances of all-Lauridsen musical selections at Mission Dolores Basilica in San Francisco May 17 as well as at the Amador Theater the following day.
"This is a very special event for the Chorale, the colleges, high school and the community," Bush said.
The festival will include a special showing of the film, "Shining Night: A Portrait of Composer Morten Lauridsen," which offers a glimpse into his life and music. It won Best Documentary at the DC Independent Film Festival in 2012.
Lauridsen, 71, was composer-in-residence of the Los Angeles Master Chorale (1994-2001) and has been a professor of composition at the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music for more than 40 years. His works have been recorded on more than 200 CDs, five of which have received Grammy Award nominations.
Lauridsen is most noted for his seven vocal cycles and his series of a cappella motets, which are regularly performed by ensembles and vocal artists throughout the world. The two concerts will feature selections from his "Mid-Winter Songs," "Nocturnes," set to four poems, one of which is the moving "Sure on this Shining Night;" "Dirait-on" from his "Les Chansons des Roses" cycle; selections from "Madrigali: Six "Firesongs," "O Nata Lux" from "Lux Aeterna;" and "O Magnum Mysterium" performed a cappella.
Singers from the audience who know "Dirait-on" and "Sure on this Shining Night" are welcome to bring music and join the choirs in a reprise of these two selections.
"Mr. Lauridsen is one of, if not the most heralded choral composers in the world today," Bush said. "His choral works are some of the most moving and inspiring of pieces ever written, and we are so very fortunate to have him be a part of our 50th anniversary season, sharing his skill and insight to his music."
"It will be an experience the singers will never forget, and neither will the audiences who attend the May performances," he added.