The Fruit of Silence: featuring John Rutter's Requiem
Advance: $25 ($20 senior, $5 youth/student)
At the door: $30 ($24 senior)
The Seattle Choral Company (SCC), led by their founding artistic director, Freddie Coleman, is pleased to announce their mid-season concert, titled "The Fruit of Silence: featuring John Rutter's Requiem."
The concert, which centers on a theme of darkness giving way to light, will take place on Saturday, March 25, 2023, at 8pm at Saint Mark's Episcopal Cathedral. There will be a pre-concert talk at 7pm with SCC Director Freddie Coleman.
Featured works on the program will include:
Requiem by John Rutter (b. 1945, London, UK)
Composed for soprano solo, mixed choir, 2 flutes, oboe, 2 clarinets, bassoon, 2 horns, strings, harp, timpani and glockenspiel.
Canticles of Light by Bob Chilcott (b. 1955, Plymouth, UK)
Composed for mixed choir, treble choir, 2 flutes, oboe, 2 clarinets, bassoon, strings, and tubular bells.
The Fruit of Silence by Pēteris Vasks (b. 1946, Aizpute, Latvia) Composed for mixed choir and strings.
Joining the SCC will be guest artists Jennifer Bromagen, soprano, and members of the North Corner Chamber Orchestra.
____________________
John Rutter unashamedly composes instantly memorable tunes. In a world where so many composers believe music is no longer primarily about melody, Rutter stands out as someone who defiantly bucks that trend.
Rutter is a composer primarily of choral works, including Christmas carols, anthems, and extended works such as the Gloria, the Requiem, and the Magnificat. Rutter's style is influenced by 20th-century English and French choral compositions as well as American songwriting.
His compositions are most popular in the United States and the UK, with the London Evening Standard writing, "For infectious melodic invention and consummate craftsmanship, Rutter has few peers."
Rutter's Requiem is unmistakably optimistic in its message of hope and solace, expressed through uplifting musical themes and beautiful texts in both Latin and English. Following in the style of composers such as Brahms and Fauré, Rutter's Requiem is not strictly a setting of the Requiem Mass as laid down in Catholic liturgy. His Requiem is a musical setting of sections of the Missa pro Defunctis, the Book of Common Prayer, and the Psalms. These seven movements contain prayers on behalf of all humanity, psalms, personal prayers to Christ, and in the central Sanctus an affirmation of divine glory.
The Requiem was completed in 1985 and is "in memoriam L. F. R.," dedicating this work to Rutter's late father. In Rutter’s own words:
"The Requiem was written in 1985 and dedicated to the memory of my father, who had died the previous year. In writing it, I was influenced and inspired by the example of Fauré. I doubt whether any specific musical resemblances can be traced, but I am sure that Fauré's Requiem crystallized my thoughts about the kind of Requiem I wanted to write: intimate rather than grandiose, contemplative and lyric rather than dramatic, and ultimately moving towards light rather than darkness – the 'lux aeterna' of the closing text."
Among the British composers contending for the popular crown of John Rutter is certainly Bob Chilcott. Chilcott is a former member of the King's Singers, and he brings that experience to bear in his ability to create lush, expressive choral textures. Chilcott remains one of the best-loved choral composers of today, and his music is performed across the globe. London's The Observer hailed him as "a contemporary hero of British choral music."
Chilcott's dark and beautiful Canticles of Light, eloquently expresses the idea that out of despair and futility can spring hope for the future. Bob Chilcott wrote the following commentary on this often-performed work:
"Three Latin texts, well-known to singers and composers, 'Te lucis ante terminum', 'Christe qui splendor et dies', and 'O nata lux' are the texts that I use in the piece Canticles of Light. The first two of these texts come from the evening service of Compline and they ask God for protection through the darkness of the night. The third text, 'O nata lux', comes from the morning service of Lauds and sings of God as ‘the light born from light’.
"This work was written in 1999 for the Winchester Music Club to sing alongside the Winchester Cathedral Girls' Choir. I included tolling bells at the suggestion of the Dean of Winchester and a friend, who loved the sound of the bells of Winchester Cathedral."
Pēteris Vasks composed the choral work, The Fruit of Silence in 2013 for the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival. Based on the words of Mary Teresa Bojaxhiu, known more commonly as Mother Teresa, this poignant choral piece is becoming a staple for choirs around the world.
The lyrics to Mother Theresa's poem are simple but eloquent:
"The fruit of silence is prayer.
The fruit of prayer is faith.
The fruit of faith is love.
The fruit of love is service.
The fruit of service is peace."
Described by the composer as a "very silent meditation," The Fruit of Silence takes the five lines of text from Mother Teresa and imagines them in the modern day. Vasks uses his own unique style to create a hauntingly beautiful atmosphere that slowly develops over the course of the piece.
About Seattle Choral Company
Founded in 1982 by Artistic Director Freddie Coleman, the Seattle Choral Company has, over the course of 40 years, become one of the region's most accomplished and respected choral organizations. Maestro Coleman's finely-tuned yet spirited interpretations of the masterworks of classical choral music have been acclaimed by critics and audiences, including Berlioz's Te Deum, Prokofiev's Alexander Nevsky, Orff's Carmina Burana, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, Haydn's Creation, Mozart's C minor Mass, Bach's St. John Passion, and many more. After a recent performance at Benaroya Hall featuring Johannes Brahms' Ein deutsches Requiem, The Gathering Note wrote that the performance "was anchored by deep emotions, a strong sense of purpose, and an excellent advocate in Freddie Coleman and the Seattle Choral Company."
Freddie Coleman has also championed America's finest contemporary choral composers, offering area listeners their first live hearing of such works as Arvo Pärt's Te Deum, Philip Glass' Itaipu, Hawley's Songs of Kabir, Roxanna Panufnik's Westminster Mass, and Morten Lauridsen's Lux Aeterna. In 2001, the SCC commissioned a new choral work, Seattle, by New York composer William Hawley, as part of the city of Seattle’s sesquicentennial celebrations. Additionally, the Company has commissioned and premiered new works from gifted Seattle composers, such as Donald Skirvin and Bern Herbolsheimer. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer recently applauded this commitment, stating "it's not surprising that Coleman…would devote an entire program to contemporary music. He has long been an advocate for living composers."
In the 1980s the Seattle Choral Company toured to Australia and the former Soviet Union. (Their work as cultural ambassadors was recognized with a commendation from the Washington State legislature.) The many albums it has recorded, including The Moon Is Silently Singing, When the Morning Stars Sang Together, Carmina Burana, and Unearthed, have been highly praised and received extensive radio exposure. The Company has recorded soundtracks for Public Television (Death: the Trip of a Lifetime) and NBC (Crime and Punishment and Noah's Ark), and its recordings have been used in at least a dozen Hollywood movie trailers.
The Seattle Choral Company has become a valued collaborator with other performing arts organizations in the region. It has appeared on stage with the Pacific Northwest Ballet many times, including several mountings of Kent Stowell's staging of Orff's Carmina Burana, and Hail to the Conquering Hero, featuring choruses by Handel. In 2010, the SCC appeared with the Seattle Youth Symphony in Mahler's Symphony No. 2 ("Resurrection") at Benaroya Hall. The SCC has appeared with the Seattle Symphony on many occasions, including Those Glorious MGM Movie Musicals, Gershwin's Porgy and Bess, Holiday Pops with Doc Severinsen, Holiday Pops with Marvin Hamlisch, New Year's Eve with the Seattle Symphony, and most recently The Matrix Live In Concert. On four occasions, they have appeared at the Paramount Theater in the touring production of Video Games Live, and members of the Company sang in both the Seattle and Portland productions of Star Wars In Concert. The SCC is partnered with the Northwest Sinfonietta, and is an artist-in-residence at Saint Mark's Episcopal Cathedral.
http://www.seattlechoralcompany.orgAbout Jennifer Bromagen, soprano
Hailed by the Tacoma News Tribune for her "shining coloratura and brilliant high notes," soprano Jennifer Bromagen enjoys performing on opera and concert stages throughout the Pacific Northwest. She has performed as La Contessa di Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro with Bellevue City Opera, with Puget Sound Concert Opera as the title role in Donizetti's Anna Bolena, and as the soprano soloist in Golijov's She Was Here with the Northwest Sinfonietta. Recently, Ms. Bromagen performed as the title role in Puget Sound Concert Opera's production of Manon, as well as The Queen of the Night in Vashon Opera's The Magic Flute, and with the Pacific Northwest Opera as Violetta in Verdi's La Traviata.
Ms. Bromagen was an Associate Artist in Residence with Cleveland Opera and performed on their main stage as the First Handmaiden in Turandot, Kate Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly, and as Edith in The Pirates of Penzance. She has also been seen in such roles as Fiorilla in Il Turco in Italia, Mimi in La Bohème, and Countess Adele in Le Comte Ory. She has been a featured soloist in concert halls, temples, and cathedrals throughout the U.S., performing classic solo concert works from Beethoven's 9th Symphony, Handel's Messiah, Mozart's Coronation Mass, Mendelssohn's Elijah, and Verdi's Requiem, as well as such contemporary works as Jenkins' Cantata Memoria and Arnesen's Wound in the Water. In the 2022-23 season, engagements include a return to Puget Sound Concert Opera as Amina in Bellini's La Sonnambula, as well as a return to Pacific Northwest Opera to perform Desdemona inVerdi's Otello.
https://jenniferbromagen.com/