Our first concert of the season was "O Voluptuous Earth" on November 19th, 2010. Pieces sung at this concert were both sacred & secular in nature (and about nature.) Some songs, like "The World is Too Much" & "Nature's Cry" (which was the world premiere for this piece) reminded us that this world is too precious to squander. We sang the hauntingly beautiful "Smile, O Voluptuous Cool Breathed Earth" and the calming tones of "Waldesnacht du Wunderkuhle."
The finale of the concert was Jean Belmont Ford's "Sand County" based on the work of Aldo Leopold. This challenging 3 movement piece stretched us as a choir and then won us over with its harmonies and inspired us with Leopold's words. It is easy to say that "Sand County" grew to be one of the choir's favorite pieces. We were honored to sing it again on the 5th of March, 2011 at the Madison Sings Leopold event at the UW Arboretum Visitor's Center Auditorium.
| On April 2nd, 2011, we joined with the Stoughton Chamber Singers and a professional orchestra to sing Haydn's masterpiece "The Creation" at the Madison Masonic Center. We enjoyed lifting our voices in this historic building to sing this piece. We would be remiss if we didn't mention our fabulous soloists on that fantastic night: Deanna Horjus-Lang, Brian Leeper, and J. Adam Shelton singing the angel's parts and Michael Roemer as Adam, and WCC member Madeline Olson as Eve. The final concert of the season paid tribute to native cultures and their love for nature and music. On May 20th, 2011 we performed the music of many native american tribes, maori songs, five movements of Dvorak's "In Nature," and as title piece of the night and also the title of our concert "She is One of Us" by Brent Micheal Davids. We were honored to have Mr. Davids perform his piece with us. Other notable guest performers were Karl Levine principle cellist with the Madison Symphony and the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra who honored us as we sang "Sky Loom" another of Jean Belmont Ford's beautiful works, and Tim Fish, a Muscogee Creek dancer who regularly appears in leading roles at Native American events in Wisconsin and beyond. Mr. Fish performed a 10 minute music and dance interlude at the concert that everyone enjoyed. It was a fun and educational night for all of us. It is safe to say that we all had a wonderful season and learned so much, musically and about the world around us. We hope you were able to share this experience with us & will share your thoughts about the season in the comment section. If you like to relive the season a little, videos can be found on our facebook page. Or check out our website. We are now looking ahead to another amazing season with the WCC and hope that you will come along with us on another musical journey! |
*A short apology from our choir blogger. I caught strep throat on the week of our final concert and was unable to finish the blogging for that week. Our new season will be starting in Sept. and then we'll be back better than ever!
