We suggest you visit the groups website for ticket information, directions, health guidelines during the ongoing pandemic, and possible changes.
Towns listed are in Massachusetts, unless otherwise noted.
Singers interested in joining groups to sing in these concerts can look at Open Rehearsals, or the individual member group websites for information about open rehearsals or auditions.
Events are updated during the season, so check back again for any updates.
Keep the Music Coming!
August
August 22, 2022 7:30 p.m.
Assabet Valley Mastersingers, Dr. Robert P. Eaton, Artistic Director
Congregation B’nai Shalom, Westborough
Summer Sing, with soloists
Excerpts from Elijah by Mendelssohn. Bring your music score or borrow one. Erin Smith, soprano; Natalia Sticco, Mezzo Soprano; Christopher Eaglin, tenor, Anthony Garza, bass; accompanist Mark Bartlett.
www.AVMsingers.org
August 24, 2022 6:00 p.m.
Master Singers of Worcester, Ed Tyler, Artistic Director
Salem Covenant Church, Worcester
Master Singers of Worcester’s 8th Annual Summer Sing-Along
The Master Singers of Worcester welcome everyone, from the professional to the curious, to sing or listen to Highlights from Fauré Requiem.
Doors open 6:00
Rehearsal 6:30
Ice Cream 8:00
Bring your own score or borrow one from us. We will sing in the sanctuary to practice social distancing
www.mswma.org
September
October
October 2, 2022 4:30-6:00 p.m.
Shir Joy Chorus, Nan AK Gibbons, Director
Congregation B’nai Shalom, Westborough
Community Sing Along
Please arrive 15 minutes early.
www.ShirJoyChorus.com
November
November 4, 2022 8:00 p.m.
November 6, 2022 4:00 p.m.
Nashoba Valley Chorale, Anne Watson Born, Music Director
Durgin Hall, U. Mass Lowell, Lowell (November 4)
Kresge Auditorium, MIT, Cambridge (November 6)
Requiem, Guiseppe Verdi
This concert is a collaboration with Jonathan Richter and the UMass Lowell choir and the Cambridge Symphony Orchestra, Cynthia Woods, Conductor.
www.nashobachorale.org
November 19, 2022 7:00 p.m.
Master Singers of Worcester, Ed Tyler, Artistic Director
Salem Covenant Church, Worcester
Protest, Affirmation, Hope
We live in a time in desperate need of understanding and healing. We need our voices and our stories to be heard, and to bring them all together to reforge our community in song. Join us as we offer up music that will challenge, uplift, and heal. We will be featuring works by Craig Hella Johnson, Rosephanye Powell, Alexandra Olsavsky, and Ola Gjeilo. Join us – bring an open mind and an open heart, and let us lighten your burden and lift your spirits.
www.mswma.org
November 20 2022 2:00 p.m.
Sounds of Stow Chorus and Orchestra Barbara Jones, Artistic Director
Littleton High School auditorium, Littleton
Dona Nobis Pacem: Four Visions
The program repeats the Sounds of Stow’s 2003 response to 9/11 and is equally timely today. This most heartfelt of texts concludes the traditional mass setting, and the program compares and contrasts those final settings in four great works, composed in different artistic eras and representing very different philosophical approaches to the text.
www.soundsofstow.org
November 20, 2022 3:30 p.m.
Assabet Valley Mastersingers, Dr. Robert P. Eaton, Artistic Director
Robert. R. Jay Performing Arts Center, Saint John’s High School, Shrewsbury, MA
Celebrate Peace
The Assabet Valley Mastersingers will present Celebrate Peace, a collection of four pieces of work entitled Dona Nobis Pacem from four different composers, with soloists Soprano Mary Johnston Letellier and Baritone Philip Lima, along with the orchestra and ensemble.
The traditional Dona Nobis Pacem, often attributed to Palestrina or Mozart, is a short prayer for peace from the Agnus Dei of the Latin Mass. In the round for three parts, it is sung twice in every line. The melody has been passed orally. Keane Southard’s setting is a short unaccompanied work written in 2014. The composer indicates the primary themes evolved over the several years and only upon completion did he realize that the opening and closing sections are in the form of a canon as is the traditional. Latvian composer, Pietris Vasks, incorporates elements of Latvian folk music into a contemporary idiom. The emotional content of his setting is reflected in his masterful use of color and texture which holds our attention on this one single phrase, Dona Nobis Pacem, for 12 minutes. R. Vaughan Williams had witnessed war in France 1914-1918. This powerful work, his setting of Dona Nobis Pacem, vividly proclaims the harshness and cruelty of war, the intense and somber burial of a father and son, the anguished cry for peace, and a final message of good will and peace toward men. Dona Nobis Pacem. Give Us Peace.
www.AVMsingers.org
December
December 11, 2022 3:00 p.m.
Greater Gardner Community Choir, Diane Cushing, Music Director
Bethany Baptist Church, Gardner.
Light Beyond Shadow: A Christmas Celebration
Join the Greater Gardner Community Choir as they celebrate this holiday season with performances of Camille Saint-Saëns’ Christmas Oratorio, “Light Beyond Shadow” by Dan Forrest, and other seasonal pieces both new and familiar.
www.ggcchoir.com
December 11, 2022 3:30 p.m.
Assabet Valley Mastersingers, Dr. Robert P. Eaton, Artistic Director
First Church Congregational, Marlborough, MA
Messiah Sing
COME! SING! LISTEN! A joyful opportunity to participate in singing MESSIAH. The Christmas portion of Handel’s oratorio in addition to the “Hallelujah Chorus” will be sung. Dr. Robert Eaton, Founder and Artistic Director of the Assabet Valley Mastersingers will direct soloists Kelly Hollis, Soprano, Vanessa Moya-,Mezzo Soprano, Francesco Logozzo, Tenor, Thomas Valle-Hoag, Baritone, the chorus and audience with organ accompaniment by Brett Maguire. A limited number of scores will be available to share if participants do not have their own.
www.AVMsingers.org
December 17, 2022 4:00 p.m.
Nashoba Valley Chorale, Anne Watson Born, Music Director
Mechanics Hall, Worcester
The Nashoba Valley Chorale will sing George Frideric Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus and Adeste Fideles in the Worcester Youth Orchestra’s Holiday Concert, conducted by Jonathan Brennand.
www.nashobachorale.org
January
February
February 4, 2023 Time TBD
February 5, 2023 Time TBD
Nashoba Valley Chorale, Anne Watson Born, Music Director
Acton Congregational Church, Acton (February 4)
Performing Arts Center at Middle School South, Groton (February 5)
Nashoba Valley Chorale Concert, featuring composers from historically marginalized communities: Wake Up, My Spirit, by Adolphus Hailstork, Missa Abreviada, by Jose Maria Nunes Garcia, Psalm 61, by Zanaida Robles, Chariot Jubilee, by Nathaniel Dett.
www.nashobachorale.org
February 11, 2023 7:00 p.m.
Snow Date: February 12, 2023 4:00 p.m.
Master Singers of Worcester, Ed Tyler, Artistic Director
Salem Covenant Church, Worcester
A Night At The Opera
Our February concerts are usually lighter fare, but that doesn’t mean we can’t also dust off our finest tail coats and ball gowns and GO TO THE OPERA! Not only will we present some of the greatest choral movements from the operatic world, but we will also hear from several of our soloists in featured arias. We will be joined by guest artists from the Opera Program at the Hartt School of Music! Join us for some powerful performances!
www.mswma.org
February 11, 2023 Time TBD
Shir Joy Chorus, Nan AK Gibbons, Director
Congregation B’nai Shalom, Westborough
Winter Concert
www.ShirJoyChorus.com
March
March 5, 2023 3:00 p.m.
Nashoba Valley Chorale, Anne Watson Born, Music Director
Immaculate Conception Church, Nashua, New Hampshire
Requiem, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, in collaboration with the Nashua Choral Society and Symphony New Hampshire Orchestra, conducted by Roger Kalia.
www.nashobachorale.org
March 12, 2023 3:30 p.m.
Assabet Valley Chambersingers (Assabet Valley Mastersingers), Dr. Robert P. Eaton, Artistic Director
Harris Auditorium, Fay School, Southborough
Turn the World Around – Songs of Hope and Laughter
Assabet Valley Chambersingers present Turn the World Around, a choral concert of short works and solos including madrigals, folk songs from many cultures, Vocal Jazz, and contemporary settings of great texts. There will be songs of love and laughter, intended to delight, encourage, and bring us all together. The program will focus on the theme song “Turn the World Around” which was made popular by Belafonte and the Muppets. The song tells us to understand our relationship with the earth, with each other, and with ourselves. “Breaths,” written in the African American folk tradition and made popular by the group Sweet Honey in the Rocks, also tells us to be aware of the world around us. Other songs will include cultural folk songs, musical settings of great poetry, and lighthearted songs intended to entertain.
www.AVMsingers.org
March 26, 2023 3:30 p.m.
Assabet Valley Mastersingers, Dr. Robert P. Eaton, Artistic Director
Algonquin Regional High School, Northborough
Coronation Celebration
Dr. Robert P. Eaton, Artistic Director and Founder will conduct the orchestra, soloists soprano Erin Smith, mezzo soprano Catherine Hedberg, tenor Charley Blandy, baritone John Salvi ,and the choral ensemble.
Herbert Howell’s “Behold, O God, Our Defender” was composed for Queen Elizabeth’s 1953 coronation and performed at her jubilee and her funeral. Handel’s “Coronation Anthems” were commissioned for the coronation of George ll of Great Britain in 1752 and “Zadok the Priest” has been performed at numerous coronations since. Mozart’s popular “Coronation Mass” was first performed in 1792 at the coronation of Francis Il, the last king of the Holy Roman Empire..
www.AVMsingers.org
April
April 2 2023 3:00 p.m.
Sounds of Stow Chorus and Orchestra, Barbara Jones, Artistic Director
Hale Middle School, Stow
Joyous Voices – Winsome Winds
Come celebrate Spring with one of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s most delightful compositions, the Sinfonia Concertante for Four Winds, followed by the joyous innovative Harmoniemesse, Joseph Haydn’s final choral work. Performed with full orchestra and outstanding soloists.
www.soundsofstow.org
April 28, 2023 8:00 p.m.
Worcester Chorus, Dr. Christopher Shepard, Artistic Director and Conductor
Mechanics Hall, Worcester
The Worcester Chorus’ final performance of our 2022-2023 Season brings Duke Ellington’s “Sacred Concert” to historic Mechanics Hall on Friday, April 28 at 8PM. Join us to experience the piece Ellington called “the most important thing I’ve ever done” in live performance with swing orchestra.
www.musicworcester.org
May
May 13, 2022 7:00 p.m.
Master Singers of Worcester, Ed Tyler, Artistic Director
Salem Covenant Church, Worcester
Gabriel Fauré – “Requiem” and the premiere of “Le Lac” by Stephan Barnicle
We close our season with a mainstay of the choral repertoire, Gabriel Fauré’s healing “Requiem.” This sumptuous work, now one of the most popular of our time, was a departure from the traditional Requiem Masses, with their depictions of a fiery Judgment Day. Instead, Fauré wanted his Mass to be a time for reflection, healing, and peace. We pair this work with the premiere of a new piece by MSW member Stephan Barnicle, a setting of “Le Lac,” by Alphonse de Lamartine.
www.mswma.org
May 20 2023 7:30 p.m.
Nashoba Valley Chorale, Anne Watson Born, Music Director
Sounds of Stow Chorus and Orchestra Barbara Jones, Artistic Director
Groton Hill Music Center, Groton
The voices of Lyricora, Nashoba Valley Chorale, and Sounds of Stow, plus children’s choruses, and soloists Liz Baldwin and Philip Lima will combine with the Vista Philharmonic Orchestra (formerly the Orchestra of Indian Hill) to perform Te Deum, by Antonin Dvorak, and On Music’s Wings, by Peter Boyer. We will be conducted by Bruce Hangen in the new 1,000 seat concert hall that will open in January in the orchestra’s new home in Groton.
www.nashobachorale.org
www.soundsofstow.org
June
June 25, 2023 Time TBD
Shir Joy Chorus, Nan AK Gibbons, Director
Congregation B’nai Shalom, Westborough
Spring Concert
www.ShirJoyChorus.com