OUR SINGERS

BROOKDALE CONCORDIA CHORALE Yuri Albertao, Pete Arnold, Andrew Bogdan, Cionna Buckley, Casie Connolly, Mary Ann Connolly, Paul Dawson, Heidi Dieker, Carol Fishberg, David Fishberg, Brad Gates, Christina Gonzales, Henry Green, Valerie Guerrero, Laura Itzkovitz, Nicholas Kellogg, Belle Koblentz, Lili Koblentz, Joan Kugelmann, Lisa Lancaster, Bob Lightburn, Rob List, Brianna Lombino, Terri Mann, Mary Meagher, Nancy Medrow, Christine Scanlon, Chaya Schneider, Bill Schroeter, Will Schruba, Tina Schruba, Robert Smith, A.J. Solomon, Arun Th angaraj, Elizabeth Th angaraj, Irene Tsakiris, Robin Wang, Gordon Wu, Hiu-Ling Wu Brookdale students: Ashley Andrade, Joshua Bailey, Alyssa Brownell, Lyne Cormier, Jessica THE BROOKDALE Dorf, Jade Glab, Holly Jones, Gabrielle Luca, Emily Maser, Ashley McKinley, Nora Molnar, Don Redondo, Shaun Rivera, Russell Rosal, Caterina Russo, Alexandra Serebennikov, Rushae Watson Concordia

CONCORDIA YOUTH CHORALE Chorale Angelina Amara, Sophie Barabas, Chrysana Cabrera, Scarlett Conroy, Sierra Conroy, Addie Cope, Catherine Creed, Cara D’Agostino, Trinity Dalmazio, Mary Kate Fedak, Sarah Fedak, John & Cynthia Balme, Directors Megan Haddad, Hanna Hale, Alexandra Hsueh, Kyriaki Kiafoulis, Mehr Kotval, Tinaz Kotval, Meghan Kryscnski, Courtney Kushnir, Brianna Lombino, Madalena Lombino, Collen McLoughlin, Kathryn Medrow, Cape Miele, Camille Pugliese, Kirra Riley, Mya Riley, Lauren Sherlock, Emma Singleton, Nora Stewart, Shannon Trollan, Samantha Ust, Amy Wang, Sara Welsh, Skylar Yanello

OUR DIRECTORS Husband and wife directorial team John & Cynthia Balme, are the founding directors of the Mass of the Children Concordia Chorales. John has served as General Director of Boston Lyric Opera and the Lake George Opera John Rutter Festival. As a pianist, he has accompanied international singing stars Carlo Bergonzi, Christina Deutekom, Nicolai Gedda, Jerome Hines and Deborah Voigt in concert among other singers. John is known for his producing and conducting of the complete Ring Cycle of Richard Wagner for Boston Lyric Opera in Boston and New York City in 1982 and 1983. John has guest conducted for opera companies in San Diego, Honolulu, Atlanta, Syracuse, Rochester NY, Fort Frostiana Worth, among others. John was an associate conductor under the directorship of the legendary Sarah Caldwell in Boston. John has also taught at University of Texas, Austin, New England Randall Th ompson Conservatory and the University of Connecticut. Cynthia has sung 12 leading Verdi soprano roles for companies ranging from Boston Lyric Opera to New York Grand Opera including her Carnegie Hall debut as Helene in Verdi’s Jerusalem. Other Verdi roles include Violetta (La Traviata), Desdemona (Otello), Amelia (Un Ballo in Maschera), Abigaille (Nabucco) and Aida. Among many other leading roles Cynthia has sung Tosca, Magda (La Rondine) Daphne, Helena (both by R. Strauss), Senta, Helmwige, Donna Anna, Leonore (Fidelio), the title roles in La Gioconda, Suor Angelica and Norma. Aft er her operatic career, under the tutelage of world renowned teacher Armen Boyajian, Cynthia has continued her study of vocal science and old-world singing techniques with internationally recognized expert David L. Jones who has endorsed her as a teacher promoting healthy singing. Sunday, December 10, 2017 at 7 PM John and Cynthia are both Adjunct Professors in Music and the Humanities at Brookdale Community College. Brookdale Performing Arts Center Brookdale Community College BROOKDALE CONCORDIA CHORALE FROSTIANA Randall Th ompson John & Cynthia Balme, Directors “Seven Country Songs” – Settings of poems by Robert Frost

Th e Road Not Taken (SATB) Th e Pasture (TTB) MASS OF THE CHILDREN John Rutter Come In (SSA)

Mass of the Children was written in response to an invitation to compose a new work for a concert Th e Telephone (SATB) given in Carnegie Hall during the American Choral Directors Association’s national convention A Girl’s Garden (SSA) in New York in February 2003. Rutter’s larger-scale choral works have been relatively few – the Gloria, the Requiem and the Magnifi cat are the most oft en performed – but each one has a Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening (TTB) distinct character. Th e Mass of the Children represents something new in the composer’s work Choose Something Like a Star (SATB) insofar as it was conceived with an integral role for a children’s choir alongside an adult mixed choir, two soloists, and orchestra. Th e role of the children’s choir is to add a further dimension to the traditional Latin Mass sung by the adult choir, sometimes commenting, sometimes amplifying the meaning and mood. Th e Mass itself (a Missa Brevis, that is to say a Mass without a Credo Frostiana: Seven Country Songs is a famous and popular work for mixed chorus and piano section) is mainly sung by the adult choir or the soloists. Th e children sometimes sing the Latin composed in 1959 by Randall Th ompson. It premiered on October 18, 1959, in Amherst, or Greek – for example at the Christe eleison, the opening of the Gloria and at the Benedictus Massachusetts. Th ompson later scored the piece for chamber orchestra and chorus; this version – but elsewhere they and the two soloists sing specially chosen English texts which in some way was fi rst performed on April 23, 1965. refl ect upon or illuminate the Latin. Th e work opens with two verses from Bishop Th omas Ken’s morning hymn for the Scholars of Winchester College, and it closes with the children singing his Th ompson was commissioned by the town of Amherst to write a piece commemorating its evening hymn with Tallis’ timeless melody, as the adults intone the traditional Dona nobis pacem, bicentennial in 1959. Th e town was known for its association with Robert Frost, who had a prayer for peace. Th is creates a framework (from waking to sleeping) within which other texts lived there for some years. Frost had known Th ompson for some time, and admired his music; and moods appear in kaleidoscopic succession, like events in a day or landmarks in a life. accordingly, it was decided that the commemorative work would be a setting of some of Frost’s –Louise Luegner poetry. Th e town suggested “Th e Gift Outright”; Th ompson, however, feared that the text was inappropriate for the occasion, and asked to be allowed to choose his own texts. In the end, the composer selected seven poems, with which he constructed a seven-movement suite of choral art Kyrie songs. Gloria Cynthia Balme, Sanctus & Benedictus conductor John Balme, accompanist Agnus Dei Finale (Dona nobis pacem)

Brianna Lombino, soprano Donald Boos, baritone

Cynthia Balme, conductor John Balme, accompanist

INTERMISSION