by Steve Row
October 14, 2007, Greenville, NC: The
Greenville Choral Society will perform songs of harvest, praise, and
thanksgiving
at its opening
concert of the 2007-8
season on Sunday, Oct. 28, at 7:30 p.m., at Peace Presbyterian Church on Old
Tar Road in Greenville. The program will feature music by the full
concert choir
and smaller chamber
chorale. The concert choir will perform “Sing to the Lord of Harvest” by
Healey
Willan, “Give Thanks and Sing” by Lloyd Larson, “Blessed
Be the Name of the Lord” by Dale Grotenhuis, and four 19th-century American
folk hymns arranged by Mark Wilberg, among other works. The choir also will perform
Dale Warland’s setting for “Simple Gifts,” John Ness Beck’s
arrangement of “We Gather Together,” and “The Promise of Living” from
Aaron Copland’s The Tender Land. The chamber chorale will
perform John Rutter’s arrangement of “All
Things Bright and Beautiful” as well as Hugo Distler’s “Praise
to the Lord, the Almighty” and Rutter’s “For the Beauty of
the Earth.”
The Choral Society’s annual year-end holiday concert, which will feature
the Concert Choir, Chamber Chorale, and three children’s and youth groups,
will take place Friday, Dec. 14, at 8 p.m., at Faith and Victory Church,
3950 Victory Lane, Wintervillle, and will be highlighted by a performance
of
18th-century Italian composer Giovanni Battista Pergolesi’s “Magnificat.” This
concert is open to the public at no charge as the Choral Society’s
gift to the community, made possible by a grant from the Mildred Sheffield Wells
Charitable Trust.
The Choral Society’s sixth annual black-tie fund-raiser, “A Night
on the Red Carpet,” will take place Saturday, Feb. 23, at the Hilton Hotel,
with Oscar-winning songs to be performed.
The Choral Society also has tentative plans to sing in Williamston in early March
at a date and place to be announced.
The youth and children’s groups will present their spring concert on Saturday,
April 5, at 7 p.m., at Memorial Baptist Church, and the Chamber Chorale will
present
its spring concert Saturday, May 3, at 7 p.m., at Peace Presbyterian Church.
The season will close on Saturday, May 17, at 7 p.m., with a performance at Oakmont
Baptist Church of Franz Joseph Haydn’s The Creation, an oratorio
for chorus, soloists, and orchestra.
The Greenville Choral Society has been performing for nearly 40 years and has
as its main goal providing fine choral music for residents of Pitt County and
beyond. In all, nearly 200 singers, ranging in age from 8 to 76, perform in the
various groups within the Society. Dan
Bara, head of choral music activities
at East Carolina University, is
Artistic Director of the Greenville Choral Society. For more information on the
choral
society and tickets to performances, call 252/353-5495, or visit http://www.greenvillechoralsociety.com/.
