The Elgin Master Chorale and Handel's "Dixit Dominus"

The Blizzard Theatre at the ECC Arts Center looked like a west coast recording studio Sunday as the Elgin Master Chorale Children's Chorus took the stage in front of an array of high end microphones.

The Chorus in matching dress performed a four song set (entirely memorized) with unisons, part singing and confident solos. Though the mics picked up a bit too much noise, the 27 voices sounded full and clear through impressive changes in tempo and key, accompanied by piano and cello.

Conductor Matthew Bishop combined material from various genres, wisely including movie music which connects choral practice to contemporary culture. An excellent spokesman and cheerleader, Bishop described the group's aim to become the region's preeminent youth singing program, comparable to the highly respected Elgin Youth Symphony Orchestra.

The accomplished singers of the Elgin Master Chorale (EMC) filled the risers next, behind the 24-piece Bella Voce Sinfonia, to sing the baroque aria Jesu Meines Lebens Leben (ca. 1675) by Dietrich Buxtehude (1637-1707). Except for one clear, beautiful passage in the tenors, it served best as a prelude for the more thoroughly prepared masterpiece that followed.

Best known for Messiah (1741) and other works from his later career in England, Georg Friedrich Handel (1685-1759) produced hundreds of compositions of every kind over a period of more than fifty years. Born German and died an Englishman, he was strongly influenced by Italian composers and wrote music with Latin texts for Roman Catholic worship.

Among the earliest of his large scale works was the eight-part Psalm setting Dixit Dominus (1707), scored for SSATB chorus, string orchestra and continuo. The Sinfonia gave a precise orchestral introduction to the nearly 40-minute piece by 22-year-old Handel, filled with glimpses of melody and rhythmic figures that would distinguish his musical voice for generations.

The choir's tone and Latin diction were transmitted nicely through the hall, but also exposed the challenges of baroque counterpoint which become exaggerated with an ensemble more than double the size of any choir from the original period.

In homophonic sections, the singers blended beautifully, favoring the upper voices and sounding especially divine in softer moments.

Five stalwart soloists handled the inner movements of the piece, managing long and complex melodies on a single vowel with fine breath control, even in passages where young Handel wrote dangerously low or high in the range. Sopranos Hannah de Priest and Henriët Fourie displayed sparkling technique and meshed nicely as a duet in part seven. Mezzo soprano Anna VanDeKerchove and tenor Matthew Dean tackled complex melismas with excellent intonation over quirky Renaissance accidentals.

Year after year, EMC Music Director Andrew Lewis gathers and develops an astonishing amount of talent to take on serious music by important composers in a professionalistic way. These concerts are a rare privilege to experience, and equally amazing is the opportunity to participate in this music making as a singer, board member or volunteer.

Lewis' dedicated artistic leadership and care for this choir's legacy as well as its future is an asset of which Elgin can justifiably boast. If the city continues to evolve into a center for the arts, it is thanks to the critical mass formed by the Elgin Master Chorale and the other superb organizations that make Elgin their home.

Between Worlds: Elgin Master Chorale and Duruflé's Requiem

The last concert of any choir's or orchestra's season is often the best, because the musicians have completed a full eight months of development, individually and together as an ensemble. This was evident Sunday as the Elgin Master Chorale and the EMC Children's Chorus concluded their season at the ECC Arts Center.

The nineteen-voice Children's Chorus showed the courage of a group many times its size in taking on an incredible variety of material, sung in three languages and almost entirely memorized. Sacred and traditional songs were combined with modern tunes arranged with tricky key and meter changes and subtle harmonies. The high point was possibly "Tcho tcho losa," a South African call-and-response folk song delivered with authentic tone and technique — entirely a cappella. 

The quality of the music was matched by the singers' confidence and professionalism. Managing Director Becky Narofsky is an enthusiastic and skilled artist-educator whose work with this group is clearly reflected in their sound and presence on the stage.

Joined by members of the Elgin Symphony Orchestra and guest instrumentalists, the Elgin Master Chorale presented the forty minute Requiem, Op. 9 (1947) by Maurice Duruflé (1902-1986). This impressionistic nine-part Mass for the Dead, well known in the choral repertory, was new to many in the audience and on stage.

Conductor and Music Director Andrew Lewis introduced the composer and the work in opening remarks, in a lecture-recital style that is appearing more and more in the concert hall. But this didn't soften the wonderful surprise of the first few moments of the Mass's Introit. This is very different from other works you've heard bearing the title "Requiem."

Ancient sacred Gregorian chants supplied the modal palette that gives this music its ethereal quality, avoiding the usual emotional interpretations of major or minor keys. The orchestra, augmented by organist David Schrader, produced sounds and textures that defied explanation at times, adding to the experience of being between worlds.

The power of more than one hundred voices was restrained and reverent throughout most of the Mass, but the full-throated delivery of "Hosanna in excelsis" ("Hosanna in the highest") or "judicare saeculum per ignem" ("to judge the world by fire") moved one's spirit in quite a different way.

Always technically on point, the Chorale enunciated the Latin text well enough to be followed easily in the program, and fragile entrances like "Cum sanctis tuis" ("with Thy saints") or "Chorus Angelorum" ("chorus of angels") did not detract from the overall execution.

Soprano soloist Katherine Wells gave a radiant delivery, and in the mezzo range her voice took on a modernistic tone that complemented the piece nicely. Maestro Lewis was clear and confident at the baton and elicited a powerful interpretation from the combined forces of more than 150 musicians.

With each passing season, these Elgin Master Chorale collaborations prove to be more than just a choir concert — they are significant art events. With this score and the voices assembled on the Blizzard Theatre stage, this performance made us forget what city, what century or what plane of existence we were in, and there is truly nothing more that can be asked of any concert.

For more information on the Elgin Master Chorale and the Children's Chorus summer programs, visit elginmasterchorale.org, emcchildrenschorus.org, or call (847) 214-7225.

"Peace and Redemption" Draws an Overflow Audience to Elgin Art Showcase

They needed extra chairs to accommodate all the people who came to hear "A Concert for Peace and Redemption," a program of classical vocal performance with themes that celebrate love, faith and unity. The voices of Soirée Lyrique were joined by the Elgin Master Chorale Children's Chorus and grand piano accompaniment in the spacious eighth floor venue in downtown Elgin.

Tenor Cornelius Johnson displayed his theatrical acumen in delivering Handel's "Comfort Ye My People" with clear meaning as well as art, and left us wanting to hear more solos of such eloquence. At first, the dark, polished tone of mezzo-soprano Jennifer Kosharsky reminds you of exquisite contralto voices from another continent and century, but her strength and control in the upper register of Verdi's "Oh dischiuso è il firmamento" proves she can cover either part with her impressive tessitura.

No one can fill a room with sound and feeling like soprano Solange Sior, whose solos like Bizet's "Je dis que rien ne m'épouvante" are as powerfully emotive as they are gracefully musical. Baritone Aaron Wardell's concert technique was wonderfully on point in cerebral performances like "Pro peccatis" from Rossini's Stabat Mater, whose tense Latin vowels remained vibrant even at low pitch and volume. As always, the piano accompaniment of Chiayi Lee was a learned and vivid interpretation of these great works' orchestral settings — never overpowering, nor too literal.

The singers of Soirée Lyrique and the Elgin Master Chorale Children's Chorus
take a bow after "A Concert of Peace and Redemption" at the Elgin Art Showcase.

Many in the audience had come to see the EMC Children's Chorus, a 19-voice ensemble directed by Becky Narofsky. Their beautiful unisons were enlivened by part-singing, counterpoint and several fine solos. These young singers' excellent coaching was reflected in their focus and very professional bearing.

The Elgin Art Showcase is a fine acoustic space for soft timbres and small ensembles, which favored the soloists and children's choir, but its rectilinear surfaces are not selective enough for greater volumes of sound. Soirée Lyrique's powerful solo quartet from Verdi's Requiem was simply too big for the room with the combined forces of Sior, Kosharsky, Johnson, Wardell and Lee.

But the message of these classics clear. It's the finest qualities of human nature that inspire the most beautiful music, and that is ultimately what audiences want to experience: love, unity and a glimpse of the Divine.