NEC at Church of the Covenant

Sacred Music for a
Sacred Space

Erica Washburn conducts the NEC Chamber Singers, graduate choral conducting students Suzanne Jalbert and B. Darrel Whidden conduct the NEC Concert Choir, in this return visit to Church of the Covenant in Boston's Back Bay. Thomas Handel of the NEC faculty, who is Covenant's Minister of Music, accompanies on the Welte-Tripp organ.

Of Antonio Vivaldi's various Gloria settings, the version catalogued as RV 588, performed tonight, is one of the less-known. Read an article explaining what's special about this particular Gloria.

Georg Friederich Handel's Ode for the Birthday of Queen Anne is also known by its evocative opening line of text, "Eternal source of light divine." Written almost exactly three hundred years ago, it celebrated England's accomplishment of the Treaty of Utrecht, which christened a new politics of balance of power among European empires.

Benjamin Britten's Festival Te Deum, Op. 32, is the composer's 1944 setting of this text, and is completely different from his previous setting of 1933. This performance heralds the upcoming Britten centenary.

Tonight's program:

Concert Choir and Chamber Ensemble

Vivaldi Introduction and Gloria, RV 639 and RV 588
Suzanne Jalbert ’13, '15 M.M., conductor
Laura Soto-Bayomi, soprano
Min Sang Kim, countertenor
Jeong-ok Cheon, soprano
Michael Alexander González, tenor

Handel Ode for the Birthday of Queen Anne
Darrel Whidden M.M. ’13, conductor
soloists include: Arielle Armstrong, Stephen D’Amico, Corey Gaudreau, Zachary Johnson, John Marano, Joseph Smith, Erica Petrocelli & Rebecca Wright

NEC Chamber Singers
Erica J. Washburn, conductor

Britten Festival Te Deum, Op. 32
Brahms Geistliches Lied
Parry Dear Lord and Father of Mankind
Sandler Laus Trinitati
Philip Wilby If ye love me

portrait of Queen Anne by Michael Dahl, 1705