Coro Allegro's Daniel Pinkham Centennial Celebration Culminates With THE WHITE RAVEN

Coro Allegro, Boston's award-winning LGBTQ+ and allied classical chorus, presents the final concert of its centennial celebration of composer Daniel Pinkham with The White Raven / Inspiring Music for Troubled Times on Sunday, May 7, at Sanders Theatre at 3 pm. The concert will be followed by a gala celebration marking 30 years of singing with pride with Artistic Director David Hodgkins at the Cambridge Multicultural Arts Center at 6 pm.

"Daniel's elegant musicianship and deep humanity continue to inspire us and resonate with our mission to build bridges between Boston's diverse communities through music," said David Hodgkins. "Coro Allegro's voices will inspire listeners as we pay tribute to the resilience of the human spirit with Pinkham's The White Raven alongside Haydn's Missa in Angustiis and Dr. Diane White-Clayton's Many Mansions.

The May 7 performance opens with The White Raven, Pinkham's celebration of the exceptional diversity of creation, featuring soprano Dana Varga. Set to the text of neuro-divergent poet Christopher Smart's Jubilate Agno, Pinkham's wonder-filled cantata was commissioned in honor of Coro Allegro's 5th anniversary.

Smart's text pairs exquisitely with Pinkham's music, reflecting on a life outside of the mainstream and claiming the experience proudly. According to David Hodgkins, the composer saw in Smart's opening line, "'For I have seen the White Raven and am myself a greater curiosity," a metaphor for being gay in a straight world. After a soaring introduction, The White Raven sets an introspective tone, inviting the listener to contemplate what it means to be a "greater curiosity."

To complement Pinkham's cantata, Coro Allegro will perform Joseph Haydn's masterpiece Missa in Angustiis (Mass for Troubled Times), a work filled with vocal fireworks. The Mass, written during a time of war, when the composer's homeland was under attack by Napolean, showcases the power of the human voice to transcend adversity. The work features soprano Dana Varga, mezzo-soprano Clare McNamara, tenor Omar Najmi, and baritone Wayne Arthur.

The program will also feature contemporary composer Dr. Diane White-Clayton's Many Mansions, a moving reimagining of Roland Carter's iconic arrangement of the African-American Spiritual "In Bright Mansions Above." Many Mansions was commissioned and premiered by the Boston Landmarks Orchestra with Coro Allegro in the summer of 2022. The powerful work reflects on the losses and struggles of our own troubled times, including the Black Lives Matter movement and the Covid pandemic, while emerging with a resilient reaffirmation of life.

According to the composer: "At one point in the piece, I abbreviated a lyric to say only, "I want to live!" I imagined George Floyd whispering those words as his life ebbed away. I wrote for America. I wrote for those who lost family members, wanting us to use this piece to mourn together." This piece also features vocalists Wayne Arthur and Clare McNamara.

The White Raven / Inspiring Music for Troubled Times comes as part of a series of concerts honoring the late composer Daniel Pinkham. Coro Allegro enjoyed a close relationship with Daniel Pinkham, an out gay man born into the rigid social constraints of the Greatest Generation. The prolific Massachusetts native was a composer, harpsichordist, and organist, a faculty member at New England Conservatory, and the music director of Kings Chapel for over four decades. In 2008, Coro Allegro established the Daniel Pinkham Award in his honor to recognize outstanding contributions to classical choral music and the LGBTQ+ community.

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