A spring concert by the combined Glee Clubs of Mount Holyoke College and Harvard University will be held Sunday, April 27, at 2:30 PM in Abbey Chapel at Mount Holyoke College. Featured artist will be Vaughan Williams Dona Nobis Pacem with the Valley Festival Orchestra and soloists Mara Bonde, soprano, and David McFerrin Lemly, baritone; conducted by Catharine Melhorn and Kevin Leong.
Unreserved seating at $10 (general), $7 (seniors) and $5 (students). Tickets are available at the door or by calling 538-2306.

First performed in 1936, Ralph Vaughan Williams Dona Nobis Pacem most definitely speaks to our own time. This 40-minute cantata for mixed choir, large orchestra, and two soloists provides powerful music for impassioned texts which describe the carnage and confusion of war and the worlds hope for reconciliation and peace. Himself a veteran of World War I and an early advocate for a federated Europe, English composer Vaughan Williams chooses three Walt Whitman post-Civil War poems as the centerpiece of this work. Among them is the poignant Dirge for Two Veterans, about a father and son, killed in the same battle. The ancient Biblical warning Nation shall not lift up sword against nation and other, more hopeful texts resound in the final movement, while a fragment of the Latin Mass Dona Nobis Pacem (Give us Peace)weaves throughout the work.

Mount Holyokes Choral Director Catharine Melhorn will conduct the combined Glee Clubs of Harvard University (Kevin Leong, Assistant Conductor) and Mount Holyoke College, accompanied by the Valley Festival Orchestra comprised of local student and professional players. Featured in the Dona Nobis Pacem are soprano Mara Bonde and baritone David McFerrin Lemly, both native to the Five College area. A frequent guest artist with the Boston Pops, Ms. Bonde has performed with Utah Opera and the Utah Symphony, Bostons Handel & Haydn Society, San Diego Symphony, the National Opera Company (Raleigh) and Lake George Opera Festival. A National Semi-Finalist in the 2002 Metropolitan Opera Auditions, Ms. Bonde will be in residence with Glimmerglass Opera this summer. Mr. Lemly is currently completing a Masters in Voice at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, where he recently appeared as Aeneas in Purcells Dido and Aeneas. Other roles include Claudio in Handels Agrippina (Opera Festival of Lucca, Italy) and Jesus in Bachs St. John Passion (Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra). This summer Mr. Lemly will be in residence at Central City Opera in Colorado.

Founded in 1858, the Harvard Glee Club is the oldest college chorus in America, and one of the worlds outstanding male choruses.

In the past twenty years under director Jameson Marvin, the Glee Club has been featured at five American Choral Directors Association conventions, has appeared with major orchestras at the Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center and Bostons Symphony Hall, and has recently toured Utah and California, as well as Australia and the Pacific Northwest. Assistant Conductor Kevin Leong, currently a doctoral student in conducting at Boston University, will conduct the Harvard Glee Club in a variety of works, many composed especially for the Glee Club.

Hammond-Douglass Professor Catharine Melhorn will lead Mount Holyokes critically acclaimed Glee Club, recently returned from performances in Atlanta, GA, in works for womens voices. Included are Franz Schuberts beloved Psalm 23 and Vittorio Gianninis Passionate Shepherd to His Love (featuring student oboist Audrey MacDougall 05).