Upcoming concert
When:
Saturday 6 December, 2014 (8pm)
(Note: There is also a Sunday performance December 7, 3:00 pm, at Calvary Presbyterian Church: 4495 Magnolia Avenue, Riverside, CA 92501).
Where:
UCR Arts Building Performance Lab, ARTS 166, University of California Riverside, CA, USA.
Performers:
UCR Chamber Singers (directed by Ruth Charloff) with special guest Daniel Castro Pantoja (Colombian classical guitarist).
Program:
NORTH/SOUTH: Sacred and Christmas Music from the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, featuring music from Russia, Estonia, Canada, Minnesota, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Haiti and Australia.
Tickets:
(951) 827-4331
Entry Charge: $10 General, $8 Students/Seniors, $6 Children
Advance Tickets: University Theatre Fine Arts Ticket Office, Monday-Friday 10am-2pm;
Walk-Up Tickets: Arts Building Ticket Office one hour before the concert.
Ticketmaster: (213) 480-3232, (714) 740-2000, www.ticketmaster.com
More details:
Visit the UCR Events Calendar for more info.
About Nativity
Nativity (for a cappella SATB choir)
Performed by the choir of St John’s Anglican Cathedral, Brisbane, QLD, Australia.
Composer’s Note
This work, a setting of James McAuley’s poem ‘Nativity’, was commissioned by The Oriana Chorale, Canberra, ACT, Australia, for premiere performance at the National Museum of Australia, on Sunday 21 December, 2008.
About “Nativity (for a cappella SATB choir).
McAuley’s ‘Nativity’ is a world of dew drops and spider webs, tender snails’ horns and a bare attentiveness of the heart, a world where everyday things become breathtaking and extraordinary. Guiding us in our observations of these everyday natural wonders, McAuley leads us into a meditative, trance-like state wherein we witness the birth of light.
When setting the text to music, I drew inspiration from the meditative nature of the poem, composing flowing, legato phrases atop a gentle, trance-like arpeggio accompaniment. The soprano and alto voices sing in close harmony and also provide long-held tones which extend like drones across sections of the work. The tenor and bass voices remain rhythmically active throughout the work, sharing their lyrical, rising and falling arpeggio patterns in dove-tail fashion.
*James McAuley, Collected Poems: 1936–1970, Sydney, Angus & Robertson, 1971. Grateful acknowledgement is made of HarperCollins Publishers for granting permission to set this text.
Matthew Orlovich.
Composer.
