CHRISTMAS WITH HARP AND VOICE

I Cantori Presents

                             CHRISTMAS WITH HARP AND VOICE

I Cantori, Savannah’s Professional Chamber Choir of twenty four auditioned singers, will perform it’s 21^st season of Christmas Concerts on Friday, December 2, 201, at St Peter’s Episcopal Church on Skidaway Island and on Saturday, December 3, 2011, at   St. Paul’s Episcopal church,  Abercorn and 34^th St.. Both concerts will start at 7:30 PM.

I Cantori  was founded in 1991 by its present conductor, Dr. Robert L. Harris.  Currently, Dr. Harris is also Director of Choral Studies at Armstrong Atlantic State University and Director of Music for St. Paul’s Greek Orthodox Church on Bull Street in Savannah.

A highlight of this year’s concert will be the outstanding harpist from Atlanta, Patricia Anderson.  Pat’s’credits are vast and varied.  She has been principal harpist for orchestras from Minnesota to Atlanta, Charleston, Hilton Head and Spoleto and now performs regularly with the Savannah Philharmonic and the Greenville and Augusta Symphony Orchestras. She will accompany the entire  program.

 In the first half, the women sing the Benjamin Britten’s beautiful harp and voice  composition, “Ceremony of Carols” which is an SSA piece with a new approach to texts that are more than 500 years old. Soloists for this work will include singers from the chamber choir. Patricia Anderson will also accompany the second half of the program, Jackson Berkley’s “Anniversary Carols,” which is a delightful medley of favorite Christmas carols.

Conductor Roberts Harris indicates  that he has been looking forward for many years to return to the Britten “Ceremony of Carols.””I first performed it more than 40 years ago, but it is still as fresh as the day it came off Britten’s pen.  It is one of those works which just continues to draw one back for another opportunity to share wonderful music.”

“A Ceremony of Carols” was written by Benjamin Britten as he crossed the Atlantic from the United States to the UK in 1943.  The eleven Christmas Carols were written “to relieve the boredom of the passage,” according to Britten. “A Ceremony of Carols” received its first performance in Norwich Castle in December 1943 using the harp as the only accompaniment for the three part women’s voices. It is amazing to hear the beauty of this work when one realizes it was created crossing the Atlantic in a Swedish cargo vessel and the waters were ridden with German U boats. Britten wrote these beautiful carols and harp parts while composing in a miserably small cabin where the heat and smells where intolerable and people seemed “to whistle up and down the corridor all day.”

The second half of the program includes the entire 24 voice choir in a new work by Jackson Berkley called “Anniversary Carols.”  This work has been written in the style of the traditional English “Lessons and Carols” with a definite modern twist to each piece presented.  Familiar carols in brand new exciting settings will definitely keep the audience on the edge of their seats. Jackson Berkley’s arrangements are as unusual as they are familiar.  His surprises in rhythm, meter, voicing and harmonies brings a refreshing sparkle to the familiar melodies, presenting audiences with songs that are at once dear and traditional, yet delightfully new again! “ Each selection presents a challenge for the singers to make it sound easy and a treat for the audience to experience.  We are excited about performing this unique work,” says Dr. Harris

Included in  “Anniversary Carols” are “O, Come, All Ye Faithful,” “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen,” “Silent Night,” “Joy to the World,” “Jesu, Son Most Sweet and Dear,” “The Silent Word,” “Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus,” “A Day in the Manger,” “ Angels We Have Heard on High,” and “Il est ne le divin enfant”.

Tickets will be available at the door or by calling 925-7866.  They are $15 for adults and $10 for students.