New Classic Singers opens its 26th concert season with “November Memories,” a concert of music for chorus with special reminiscences from that month, at 8 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 3, at the McAninch Arts Center (MAC) at College of DuPage.
The concert will feature guest composer Daniel Brewbaker. Lee Kesselman will conduct, while William Buhr will accompany the ensemble from the keyboard.
The Singers will perform selections that call to mind the special memories of the month of November, including Thanksgiving, Veterans Day, autumn in the Midwest, and memories from summers past. A special feature of the concert will be Herbert Howells’ Take Him, Earth, For Cherishing, written in memory of John F. Kennedy.
Brewbaker’s From the Heart, a commission from the ensemble’s 25th anniversary season, will be reprised. Other selections by Morten Lauridsen, Eleanor Daley and Javier Busto are on the program, as well as Thanksgiving pieces by William Billings and Carol Barnett. Selections by Charles Ives and Kirke Mechem will round out the concert.
New Classic Singers members include soloists, conductors, and teachers from throughout the Chicago area.
Ensemble members include Michelle Lynnea Daniels, Lisa Grisolia, Lombard; Cassondra Kippes, Darien; Madeline Morris, Deerfield; Leah Myszkowski, Daniel Burke, Chicago; Beth O’Riordan, Aurora; Karen Webb Owen, Warrenville; Susan Van Ordstrand, Elgin; Jennifer L. Barrett, Romeoville; Julie Dee, Roselle; Jean Follett, Doug Thompson, Hinsdale; Mele Howland, David Cookson, Andrew Johnson, Jack Dare, Downers Grove; Maureen M. Lyons, Matt Teichler, Kelly Miller, Wheaton; and Lea Severson, Henry Brandt, Naperville.
Also, Dottie Williames, Sugar Grove; David Burton, Westmont; Sean Doty, Burr Ridge; Paul Drennan, Glendale Heights; Paul Sirvatka, Glen Ellyn; Larry Stephens, Plainfield; Ben Adair, David Saunders, Woodridge; Scott Loughrige, Bolingbrook; Allen Pedersen, Western Springs; Daniel Saathoff, Warrenville; and Ben Sigwarth, Carol Stream.
Kesselman is known as a conductor, composer and arranger. His choral music is performed internationally. The ensemble will perform with the Fulcrum Point New Music Project at the Harris Theatre in Chicago in December.
Program
I Thanksgiving
An Anthem for Thanksgiving — William Billings
An American Thanksgiving (Three Hymns from The Sacred Harp) — arr. Carol Barnett
- Webster (Isaac Watts)
-
McKay (S.M.Denton/Samuel Stennett)
- Ninety-Third Psalm (Lucius Chapin/Philip Dandridge)
II An American President
Take Him, Earth, for Cherishing (1964) — Herbert Howells
III Summer Memories
Sa Nuit d’Été (from Nocturnes) — Morton Lauridsen
Zutaz (Remembering You) — Javier Busto
Circus Band — Charles Ives
INTERMISSION
IV Of Sacrifice
Shiloh (A Requiem, April 1862) — Jeffrey Van
In Remembrance (from Requiem) — Eleanor Daley
V
From the Heart (2006) — Daniel Brewbaker
VI
Two Choruses from John Brown — Kirke Mechem
- Blow Ye The Trumpet
- Dan-u-el
