As a community choir, Humboldt Chorale has singers who remember performing Rutter’s “Gloria” in 1990 with director Ken Hannaford. “It’s nice to bring back a perennial favorite,” said current Chorale director Elisabeth Harrington, “and it is exhilarating to conduct and sing this very energetic and moving work.” This performance will include accompaniment by a brass ensemble conducted by Gil Cline.
“We’ll round out our half of the program with the gentle and soothing ‘Seal Lullaby’ by the popular Eric Whitacre, and finish with the upbeat African chant, ‘I Live and Move,’” Harrington said.
Directed by Rachel Samet, the University Singers begin with incantations from a Celtic Mass, and end with the Kyrie from “St. Francis in the Americas: A Caribbean Mass” by Glenn McClure, with percussion accompaniment.
In between, selections include an African-American spiritual, a psalm from the Italian Renaissance, and a Visyan folk song from the Phillipines featuring soprano Jessie Rawson.
“The Moon is Distant from the Sea” is a setting by David N. Childs of a poem by Emily Dickinson. Eric Whitacre wrote the music for “Water Night,” to a poem by Nobel Prize laureate Octavio Paz.
The two choirs combine to end the concert with a gospel song, “The Storm is Passing Over.” John Chernoff accompanies University Singers on piano, and Larry Pitts plays organ for Humboldt Chorale.
University Singers and Humboldt Chorale perform a shared concert on Sunday May 8 at 8 p.m. in Fulkerson Recital Hall on the HSU campus. Tickets are $8, $5 seniors and children, free to HSU students with ID, from HSU Box Office (826-3928) or at the door. More information: http://HSUMusic.blogspot.com. Produced by HSU Music department.