THE MISSISSIPPI CHORUS is pleased to announce concert plans for 2011-2012. The season will begin on Saturday evening, December 17 at Wesley Chapel in Jackson and feature the first portion of George Frideric Handel’s beloved Messiah. In addition to a chamber ensemble of instrumentalists, Vicksburg organist Paul Lee will join Jackson’s own Phyllis Lewis-Hale (soprano), Lester Senter (mezzo-soprano), John White (tenor) and James Martin (bass-baritone) to present this elegant and invigorating story of the Advent and Nativity of Jesus. The CHORUS will open the concert with a cappella carols by German Renaissance composer Michael Praetorius (1571-1621) including his well-known and lively “Psallite.” “Christmas Day” by Gustav Holst (1874-1934) and “Fantasia on Christmas Carols” by Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) will be included, and the concert will end with “Candlelight Carol,” by John Rutter (born 1945).
On the afternoon of March 18, 2012 at St. Andrew’s Cathedral in downtown Jackson, a mid-season sacred music concert will feature the Mississippi Chorus Chamber Singers, a select group auditioned from among the chorus membership. Associate Artistic Director Harlan Zachary will serve prominently during this event as the Chamber Singers present the music of Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1525-1594), Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), Handel, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791). Palestrina’s signature “Sicut cervus” (Psalm 42) will open this Laetare Sunday concert of sacred music. Handel’s elegant “Nisi Dominus,” a youthful five-part setting of Psalm 126, will follow. Bach’s church cantata, “Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis” BWV 21 (I have great distress) will be offered, and the concert will conclude
with Mozart’s exquisite “Ave verum corpus” K.618 (Hail, true body).
The third and final concert of the season will take place on Tuesday, May 22, 2012 at Wesley Biblical Seminary and feature the music of Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809), Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) and Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) – three titans of Viennese music – as well as the winner of the 2012 Wideman International Piano Competition. The CHORUS is thrilled to announce this significant collaboration! Included in this concert’s repertoire are Haydn’s folk-song settings “Die Harmonie in der Ehe,” “Die Beredsamkeit,” “Abenlied zu Gott” and Beethoven’s stately, yet underperformed, “Mass in C,” Op.86. The Wideman inner will be featured in Beethoven’s “Choral Fantasy” Op.80. Brahams’ music will be represented by his “Lieder und Romanzen” Op.93a, the Op.112 Part Songs for chorus and piano, and his lush and hopeful “Geistliches Lied” Op.30. This event will be the sole opportunity to hear the 2012 Wideman winner in the State of Mississippi in 2012. You won’t want to miss it!
