Germantown’s Donald Nally will conduct the three-time Grammy Award-winning professional chamber choir, The Crossing, in a concert featuring a world and a North American premiere. The performance will be Friday, Feb. 7, at 7 p.m. in the Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill, 8855 Germantown Ave.
The world premiere is Sebastian Currier’s “Mysterium;” the North American premiere is Linda Catlin Smith’s “Folio.” The program also will include selections from Robert Convery’s “Voyages.”
“Mysterium” is a …
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Germantown’s Donald Nally will conduct the three-time Grammy Award-winning professional chamber choir, The Crossing, in a concert featuring a world and a North American premiere. The performance will be Friday, Feb. 7, at 7 p.m. in the Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill, 8855 Germantown Ave.
The world premiere is Sebastian Currier’s “Mysterium;” the North American premiere is Linda Catlin Smith’s “Folio.” The program also will include selections from Robert Convery’s “Voyages.”
“Mysterium” is a 35-minute work for choir and electronics graced by a solo soprano. Its text explores the connections and disconnections between the cosmos and our human experiences as felt through the juxtaposed words of the score, which were written by Robbert Dijkgraaf and Pia de Jong. The former’s lyrics focus on tenets of modern cosmology – the concept that the further out into space that we look, the further back in time we see. The latter’s text is the more intimate of the two. De Jong presents a particular moment of reflection, inspired by her having discovered a photograph of when she and Dijkgraaf first met.
In “Folio,” Smith uses texts from works by Emily Dickinson: “The Gorgeous Nothings” and “Open Folios.” The first comes from a collection of fragments Dickinson wrote on envelopes while the second is based on facsimiles of some of her late writings. Smith has noted that these fragments appear to be something of a roadmap for Dickinson as she made her way to completing a poem. “Folio” was composed for the Chamber Choir of Ireland, which premiered it in 2023 at the Louth Contemporary Music Festival.
Nally and The Crossing premiered Convery’s 2018 Grammy-nominated album, “Voyages.” The Feb. 7 concert will feature several selections from the album.
Although many ensembles have pulled back and retrenched in the years following the Covid lockdown, The Crossing isn’t one of them. Donald Nally established the choir to promote challenging new music. He has never wavered in that mission and has given classical music lovers some of the most rewarding contemporary choral music in the repertoire.
For ticket information visit crossingchoir.org.
Joint ‘Lessons and Carols’
The choirs of three local Episcopal parishes – St. Paul’s in Chestnut Hill, St. Thomas in Whitemarsh, and Church of the Redeemer in Bryn Mawr – will join forces to present a “Lessons and Carols” to celebrate the ancient Feast of “Candlemas” (the Feast of the Presentation and the Feast of the Purification) Sunday, Feb. 2, at 5 p.m.
In the words of the Catholic Church’s Traditional Missal, the Feast of Candlemas marks the end of those included in the Christmas cycle of the liturgy. It is, perhaps, the most ancient festival devoted to the Blessed Virgin Mary. It derives its origin from the local observances in Jerusalem. It commemorates Mary’s adherence to the Mosaic Law by her journey to Jerusalem 40 days after the birth of Jesus for the Purification. It also marks the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple. Its procession is marked by the blessing and distribution of candles, hence its name as “Candlemas” – the “Mass of the Candles.”
Andrew Kotylo, director of music at St. Paul’s Church, detailed the musical program – Robert Lehman’s “Christmas Responsory,” Gustav Holst’s “Nunc Dimittis,” Stephen Jackson’s arrangement of “Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silent,” Johannes Eccard’s “When to the Temple Mary Went,” and Kathleen Thomerson’s “I Want to Walk as a Child of the Light.”
Kotylo added, “Andrew Senn (of Redeemer), Michael Smith (of St. Thomas) and I are going to be ‘tag-teaming it’ on conducting and playing.”
“Lessons and Carols” for “Candlemas” will be celebrated at the Church of the Redeemer, 230 Pennswood Ave. in Bryn Mawr.
Tempesta’s Ostinato
Tempesta di Mare, Philadelphia Baroque Orchestra, will present “Ostinato” Sunday, Feb. 2, at 4 p.m. in the Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill. The program will explore the structural use of “ostinato” – a recurrent bass line used throughout music history – by focusing on two work’s – Dave Brubeck’s “Take Five” and Johann Pachelbel’s “Canon,” here to be performed by three violins.
For ticket information call 215-755-8776 or visit tempestadimare.org.
‘Swan Lake’
The Philadelphia Ballet returns to the stage of the historic Academy of Music March 6-16 with a full production of Peter Ilych Tchaikovsky’s “Swan Lake.” The mounting’s choreography is by artistic director Angel Corella, based on Marius Petipa’s original. For ticket information visit philadelphiaballet.org.
You can contact NOTEWORTHY at Michael-caruso@comcast.net.