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Performing Groups
New music programming and interest has been on the increase in
recent years. Every few weeks we will
acknowledge and encourage this trend by calling attention to groups in the area
that present music by living composers through performance, commissions,
competitions, and/or community education and outreach.
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| Performing
Group of the Month - Providence Singers |
Under Julian Wachner's dynamic artistic direction, the Providence Singers has become one of New England's outstanding choruses, earning critical acclaim and delighting ever-larger audiences throughout the region. Recent guest appearances with Dave Brubeck at the Newport Jazz Festival and with noted regional orchestras (Rhode Island Philharmonic, New Haven Symphony Orchestra) mark the ensemble's exciting growth.
One-hundred voices strong, the Providence Singers is committed both to sustaining and advancing the choral art, through inspiring concerts, new music commissions, education programs, and innovative collaborations.
The chorus has commissioned, premiered, or performed the music of many living composers; a list of recent programs includes Carlyle Sharpe, Stephen Paulus, Trevor Weston, Elena Ruehr, Julian Wachner, John Tavener, Morten Lauridsen, Henryk Gorecki, Robert Kyr, Dave Brubeck, James Woodman, Libby Larsen, Lloyd Pfautsch, Will Ayton, Paul Bowles, Ned Rorem, and William Mathias.
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The Providence Singers -- Rhode Island's "Best Rafter-Ringing Voices" (Providence Phoenix, 2003) |
Next Concert date:
The Providence Singers - "Music for a New Age"
Julian Wachner, conductor
Friday, February 25, 8 pm - St. Joseph's Church, 90 Hope St., Providence
Sunday, February 27, 3 pm - St. Mary's Church, 330 Wood St., Bristol
Chant and poetry settings for chorus, percussion and harp, by award-winning living composers - featuring three works commissioned by the Providence Singers and Julian Wachner:
Trevor Weston's Ma'at Musing - ancient Egyptian texts brought to life in this world-premiere performance; Elena Ruehr's Cricket, Spider, Bee - a song-cycle based on Emily Dickinson's "insect" poems, commissioned by Julian Wachner in 1996; and sometimes i feel alive - Wachner's own double prize-winning composition, commissioned for the Providence Singers in 1998 - setting romantic poems of e.e. cummings for a cappella chorus.
The concert also includes John Tavener's Song for Athene, a profoundly moving work best-known for its performance at Princess Diana's funeral in 1997, and The Lamb, based on William Blake's poem; Morten Lauridsen's gorgeous O Magnum Mysterium; and Henryk Gorecki's simply glorious Amen.
For concert details: http://www.providencesingers.org or 401-683-1932
Trevor Weston's commission is funded by a grant from the New England Foundation for the Arrs and Meet the Composer, Inc., with additional support from ASCAP, The Virgil Thompson Fund, the New England state arts agencies, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Concert supported in part by a New Works grant from the RI Foundation. General operating support is provided by the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts.
Meet the Composer
February 25, 4-5:30 pm
The Providence Singers and Community MusicWorks present a workshop with Trevor Weston on Friday, February 25, 2005, from 4 to 5:30 pm at the Met School, 362 Dexter Street, Providence. Weston will explore the creative possibilities of choral singing and introduce his new Egyptian-inspired work for chorus and percussion - a special preview to the world premiere performance at 8:00 that evening. The workshop is open to the public.
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