Ceremony of Carols

Friday December 6, 2024, 7pm
Saturday December 7, 2024, 4pm

St. Bede’s Episcopal Church
550 W San Mateo, Santa Fe

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Friday Dec 6 7PM concert now!

Listen to George’s interview about Ceremony of Carols with Brent Stevens on KHFM.

Celebration of British Carols by Britten, Rutter, and Chilcott

Ceremony of Carols celebrates the rich tradition of holiday music from Great Britain. In recognition of Bob Chilcott's 70th and John Rutter's 80th birthdays we offer a selection of their most popular carols sung by the Chorale in past seasons including Chilcott’s “Mid-winter” and Rutter’s “The Very Best Time of the Year.” At the center of the concert is Benjamin Britten’s Ceremony of Carols, one of his best-known and most-performed works. It is a brilliantly conceived and dramatic concert work of 11-movements written after Britten’s return from a trip to the U.S. in 1942. Its text consists of an eclectic mix of anonymous medieval texts and later poems rather than familiar carols. Not all the texts are festive, or even about winter!  Originally written for female voices and harp, Britten subsequently published a version for mixed voices which we perform in this concert.

R. Nathaniel Dett

Jubilee

A concert of joy through the voices of America's black composers

Jubilee brings together the powerful voices of America's black composers. The featured work is R. Nathaniel Dett’s spellbinding fantasia-like oratorio, The Chariot Jubilee, thought to be the first-ever symphonic work based solely on African-American spirituals and folklore.  Originally written and performed with orchestra in 1919, the work was forgotten for nearly 80 years before a new performing edition for either orchestra or piano accompaniment brought this exuberant work back to life . To complement Dett’s oratorio, Music Director George Case has chosen a selection of other favorite spirituals and praise songs arranged by William Dawson, Moses Hogan, Udine Smith Moore, and Marques L. A. Garrett.

Saturday, March 8, 2025, 4pm
St. Bede’s Episcopal Church
550 W San Mateo, Santa Fe

Martin Luther

Reformation

Music from the Reformation traditions by J.S. Bach, William Byrd and others

Out of cultural upheaval can come some of the most sublime artistic expressions. The Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century religious, political, and cultural movement that challenged the authority of the Roman Catholic Church and led to the creation of Protestantism. This concert explores the Reformation’s influence on the composers of the times as reflected in two masterworks, one from each side of the divide. Englishman William Byrd worked for Protestant Queen Elizabeth I but secretly favored his Catholic upbringing. His Mass for Four Voices is an example of the Latin church music he composed for private devotions. The great German composer J. S. Bach fully embraced his Protestant spirituality by creating works in the vernacular using new texts and hymn tunes as illustrated in his grand motet Jesus, meine Freude. The Reformation’s wide musical influence extended to music of the Counter-Reformation, which will be illustrated by compositions of Victoria and Palestrina.

Saturday, May 17, 2025, 4pm
St. Bede’s Episcopal Church
550 W San Mateo, Santa Fe

Annelies Marie "Anne" Frank

Annelies

James Whitbourn’s musical setting of the Diary of Anne Frank

This concert features British composer James Whitbourn’s oratorio Annelies with a libretto by Melanie Challenger based on Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl.  This moving work was composed in 2004 and first performed in London in January 2005 as part of the National Holocaust Commemoration.  Annelies Marie "Anne" Frank (1929-1945) was a German-born Jewish girl who kept a diary documenting her life in hiding amid Nazi persecution during the German occupation of the Netherlands. She gained fame posthumously with the publication of her diary in 1947. Annelies will feature soprano soloist Jennifer Perez. The concerts will conclude with Whitbourn’s All Shall Be Amen and Alleluia.

Saturday, October 19, 2024, 4pm
St. Bede’s Episcopal Church
550 W San Mateo, Santa Fe

Sunday, October 20, 2024, 4pm
Temple Beth Shalom
205 East Barcelona, Santa Fe