MUSIC

The internationally acclaimed Houston Chamber Choir presents its 15th concert season. Hailed as one of the country’s leading choirs, the Houston Chamber Choir is an ensemble of 28 highly trained professional singers whose touching and engrossing performances entertain audiences around the world.

Artistic Director Robert Simpson founded the Houston Chamber Choir in 1995 with the goal of increasing the awareness and appreciation of choral music. Each year audiences eagerly anticipate the group’s delightful performances, and this season is no different.

Manfred Cordes, (pictured) a world authority on the works of Heinrich Schütz, will lead the Houston Chamber Choir and period instrumentalist ensemble in the performance of Heinrich Schütz – The Master of Baroque Dresden on Saturday, November 20, 2010 at 7:30 pm at First Evangelical Lutheran Church, 1311 Holman Street, Houston, TX 77004.

Houston audiences will have the opportunity to experience the breadth of Schütz’s genius from expressive works for one and two voices to dramatic antiphonal settings for three choirs in a historic and intimate setting.

An additional performance of the Schütz concert will be performed on Sunday, November 21, 2010 at 4:00 pm at the Round Top Festival Concert Hall, 248 Jaster Road, Round Top, Texas 78954.

“The Chamber Choir and I eagerly anticipate bringing the music of Heinrich Schütz to Houston audiences under the leadership of the renowned German scholar and conductor, Manfred Cordes, “ said Robert Simpson, Artistic Director of the Houston Chamber Choir. “Schütz was the first to combine the brilliance of the Venetian choral tradition of Giovanni Gabrieli with the detailed counterpoint of his native Germany. The results are breathtaking.”

Joining the Houston Chamber Choir for these special performances are noted early music string and brass instrumentalists from around the country. Baroque violinist Alan Austin and viola de gamba specialist Barrett Sills blend their exquisite sound with The Whole Noyse, to delight Houston audiences with the distinctive sounds of their cornettos and sackbuts, the forerunners of the modern trumpet and trombone. The convergence of the choral masterworks of Schütz, Manfred Cordes, Houston Chamber Choir and these early music instrumentalists will make for a memorable evening of Baroque music.

Heinrich Schütz is widely regarded as the greatest German composer before Johann Sebastian Bach and one of the most important composers of the 17th century. Schütz’s works follow in the grand Italian polychoral tradition of his teacher, Giovanni Gabrieli. Schütz returned to Germany infusing his work with these revelatory techniques to assist in the development of the Baroque style of music.

Robert Simpson, Founder and Artistic Director of the internationally renowned Houston Chamber Choir, was honored by Chorus America with the Michael Korn Founders Award for Development of the Professional Choral Art at its national conference in June. Throughout his illustrious career, Simpson has worked tirelessly to cultivate America’s passion for choral music.

The programming of the 15th Anniversary Season, A Bridge Across Time, captures the vocal clarity and grace of the Houston Chamber Choir and showcases its brilliance. As noted by Gramophone magazine, the world’s authority on classical recordings, Houston Chamber Choir’s recent release, Ravishingly Russian, is highlighted by “exquisite harmonic illustration and enriched by an outpouring of graceful melody and restrained sentiment.”