December
5 , 2003
Christmas
Vespers to Commence Holiday Season December 7
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Photo: Fred LeBlanc |
Putting together your holiday schedule?
Be sure to include Mount Holyoke’s annual Christmas Vespers,
a concert tradition more than a century old. More than 200
students and faculty will participate in the event, which is
set for Sunday, December 7, with performances at 4 pm and 7:30
pm.
Performing will be the College’s Glee Club and Chamber Singers, directed
by Hammond-Douglass Professor of Music Catharine Melhorn; the Concert Choir and
Orchestra, conducted by visiting instructor in music Mark Bartley; the Vocal
Jazz Ensemble, led by Mark Gionfriddo, director of Jazz Ensembles, instructor,
and Catholic music director; and the English Handbell Choir, led by Lauren Richetti ’05.
College organist and associate professor of music Larry Schipull will also
be featured.
In addition to familiar Congre-gational carols and the candlelight
Gregorian chant processional, the concert will include
seasonal choral works from around the world—from seventeenth-century
French Baroque to African American gospel music. The Concert
Choir’s selections include the Appalachian ballad “I
Wonder as I Wander” and selections by Kuhnau and Rutter. The Chamber
Singers will offer two short a cappella works: one a technically challenging
and dissonant “Ave
Maria” by Pulitzer Prize winner John Harbison, the other a delightful
arrangement of “Silent Night” by Canadian composer Katherine
Dienes. The Vocal Jazz Ensemble will premiere “Wassailin,” commissioned
from Westfield resident Clifton J. Noble Jr. The Glee Club’s set begins
with DuMont’s “Jubilemus” from
the court of Louis XIV, featuring student instrumentalists Courtney Moore ’07
on cello and Jaime Tung ’06 on violin. Following the very lyrical “Lullay
My Liking”
by English composer Andrew Carter, the Glee Club will conclude with Gerald
T. Smith’s “This Is the Day,” a rousing gospel number with
solo improvisations by Amherst native Michelle Brooks ’05. All choirs
will combine to conclude the concert with Eleanor Daley’s “What
Sweeter Music.”
There is no admission charge for the concert, but seating in
Abbey Chapel is limited. Doors
will open 35 minutes prior to each performance.
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