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.

Venetian Vespers
Saturday, May 14, 2011
7:30 pm
The Church of St. John the Divine
2450 River Oaks Boulevard, Houston, TX 77019

Houston Chamber Choir closes its 15th season immersed in the splendor of 17th-century Italian sacred music, guided by Dr. Anne Schnoebelen, (pictured) one of the world’s foremost authorities in the field.

Seventeenth-century Italy was the epicenter of radical new directions in music. Audiences embraced the avant-garde works with experimental methods: florid melodies that included elaborate accompaniments in major and minor keys, dramatic liturgical celebrations, and large-scale works for choir and instruments designed to inspire and enthrall. Pushed aside were the Renaissance strands of equal voices weaving counterpoint in church modes.

It’s fitting that Houston’s renowned professional ensemble, Houston Chamber Choir, presents this boundary-breaking program as the final performance of its 15th Anniversary Season. The Chamber Choir will perform a rich sampling of music from this era with an instrumental ensemble drawn from Houston’s growing corps of early music instrumentalists.

The program for Venetian Vespers includes works by Francesco Cavalli, Maestro di cappella at St. Mark’s, Venice, set against expressive Psalm settings by Alessandro Grandi, Giovanni Bassani and Giovanni Rigatti, other important composers of the time.

Of particular note is a rare complete performance of Messa a Nove Voci Concertata con Stomenti (Mass for Nine Concerted Voices with Instruments) by Giovanni Paolo Colonna edited by Dr. Anne Schnoebelen, Mullen Professor Emerita of Musicology at The Shepherd School of Music, Rice University. Dr. Schnoebelen, the artistic advisor for this concert, has spent her career studying Italian sacred music of the 17th century and she is recognized as the world’s foremost authority on the music of Colonna.

Venetian Vespers will be performed one-night only, Saturday, May 14 at 7:30 p.m. at The Church of St. John the Divine, 2450 River Oaks Blvd, 77019.