We welcome all who love to sing to join in rehearsals at the start of a new season, as we prepare music for our spring concerts in early May.  You’ll have an opportunity to explore uplifting music that celebrates the wonder of star-filled nights and an awakening to new possibilities, from a rarely heard song by Beethoven to traditional African music and breathtaking new works by contemporary American composers.

Community members and College staff and faculty rehearse in Mead Chapel

College faculty, staff, students, alumni, and community members rehearse together on Sunday and Tuesday evenings, 7-8:30 p.m. We begin on Feb. 5, 7 & 12 in Mahaney Center for the Arts (room 221); on and after Feb. 14 rehearsals move to Mead Chapel.
Concerts are slated for Saturday evening, May 6 (Brandon Town Hall) and Sunday afternoon, May 7 (Robison Hall, Mahaney Center for the Arts). We ask singers to join no later than February 21 and to attend at least one rehearsal each week.

Here’s a preview of the program:

• Two beautifully crafted classical works that speak of hope in the midst of grief: Elegischer Gesang by Ludwig van Beethoven and Let nothing ever grieve thee by Johannes Brahms.
• Inspired by the legend of the phoenix, contemporary Norwegian-American composer Ola Gjeilo and poet Charles Silvestri recently wrote Across the vast, eternal sky, scored for piano and string quartet. ‘This is my grace, to be restored, born again, in flame; do not despair that I am gone away; I will appear again when the sunset paints flames across the vast eternal sky.’
• The traditional song Shosholoza originated among migrant works traveling from Zimbabwe to work in South African mines. Featured in the movie Invictus, its meaning may come from a combination of both Ndebele and Zulu words meaning to push forward, endeavor, or strive.
• American composer Randall Thompson creates a stirring setting of Robert Frost’s poem Choose something like a star. ‘It asks of us a certain height, so when at times the mob is swayed to carry praise or blame too far, we may choose something like a star to stay our minds on and be staid.’
• Thirty-year-old composer Daniel Elder recently completed an energetic arrangement of Sara Teasdale’s poem May Night. ‘The spring is fresh and fearless and every leaf is new… Here in the moving shadows I catch my breath and sing—My heart is fresh and fearless and over-brimmed with spring.’
• Two settings of a James Agee text, entitled Sure on this Shining Night: one by 20^th-century American composer Samuel Barber and the second, an expressive arrangement by award-winning contemporary composer Morten Lauridsen. ‘Sure on this shining night of star made shadows round, kindness must watch for me this side the ground…’
• The Awakening, with words and music by pianist-composer Joseph M. Martin. He portrays a dream in which no choir remains ‘to sing to change the world, only silence…’ But then we ‘Awake! All voices join as one! Let music live!’

Contact conductor Jeff Rehbach (rehbach@middlebury.edu) or 802.989.7355 with any questions, and check out the Chorus and its history at go.middlebury.edu/communitychorus.