The St. Charles Singers Continue 'Mozart Journey' and More for 2015-16 Season

St. Charles, IL -- The St. Charles Singers, a professional chamber choir dedicated to choral music in all its forms, has announced details of its 2015-2016 concert season.

For its 32nd season, the mixed-voice choir, conducted by founder and music director Jeffrey Hunt, will present three different concert programs.

The season will open tonight, September 11, in Elgin, Ill., and September 13 in St. Charles, Ill., with the tenth installment of the St. Charles Singers' ambitious Mozart Journey, a multi-year initiative to perform the complete sacred choral music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

This will be the St. Charles Singers' first-ever concert in Elgin. The choir, accompanied by the Metropolis Chamber Orchestra, will offer Elgin choral music lovers a Mozart Journey concert in 2015, 2016, and 2017, thanks to a three-year, $5,000 annual grant from the Florence B. and Cornelia A. Palmer Foundation. The foundation supports the visual and performing arts in Elgin.

The choir's traditional "Candlelight Carols" Christmas program in December, an audience favorite, will offer some traditional carols along with an intriguing array of off-the-beaten-path songs of the season.

"Choral Eclectic," the St. Charles Singers' season-finale program in April, will present a panorama of choral music spanning the 15th to the 21st centuries, including an unusual English Renaissance work that's rarely performed because of its difficulty, Hunt says.

New Chamber Organ Takes Bow

Throughout the season, the St. Charles Singers will introduce audiences to its new Klop positiv organ. Built in the Netherlands in 2015 and costing more than $40,000, it was recently acquired through a memorial gift from two of the choir's long-time supporters.

The portable pipe organ is ideal for choral concerts because of its compact size, bright clear sound, and the warm tone of its all-wood pipes, Hunt says. "It has a gentle tone that carries its own amid the choir and other instruments. It will be an integral voice in the music making."

Mozart and More

The St. Charles Singers, with the Metropolis Chamber Orchestra, will present "Mozart Journey X: This Is Our Joy" at 7:30 p.m. on September 11, 2015, at Saint Thomas More Catholic Church, 215 Thomas More Drive, Elgin, Ill, and at 3 p.m. on September 13 at Baker Memorial United Methodist Church, 307 Cedar Ave., St. Charles, Ill. The program will include Mozart's Miserere in A minor, K.85, for organ and choir; Te Deum in C major, K.141, for orchestra and choir; and Mass in C major, K. 167, for orchestra and choir, plus sacred works by other composers, specially chosen to complement Mozart's music.

The concert's title, "This Is Our Joy," is a twist on the opening words of Johann Ludwig Bach's magnificent motet for choir and organ "Das ist meine Freude," meaning "This is my joy," which will be heard during the performance. Hunt says the concert title "perfectly captures the sentiment of the St. Charles Singers and its fans."

Christmas Concert with a Twist

The St. Charles Singers' 2015 "Candlelight Carols" concert will offer 20 carols by 20 composers, including a "Magnificat" by Johann Pachelbel, best known for his popular Canon in D major, and "In the Bleak Midwinter" by Gustav Holst, best known for "The Planets." The program will be heard at 7:30 p.m. Friday, December 4, at Baker Memorial United Methodist Church, 307 Cedar Ave., St. Charles; 7:30 p.m. Saturday, December 5, at Fourth Presbyterian Church, 126 E. Chestnut St., Chicago; and 3 p.m. Sunday, December 6, at Baker Church in St. Charles.

Among the unusual offerings is contemporary British composer Jonathan Dove's "Run, shepherds, run!," written for unaccompanied choir with audience participation. The carol has a part written expressly for the audience, whom Hunt will coach to sing it. Dove is known as a master at word-painting: bringing words to life through music. A reviewer once wrote that "Run, shepherds, run!" gives the listener "an almost palpable feeling of heading over the hills in double time trying to keep up with the sheep."

Seven Centuries of Song

The St. Charles Singers will perform choral works from every century from the 1400s to the 2000s in its "Choral Eclectic" concerts 7:30 p.m. Saturday, April 16, 2016, at Grace Lutheran Church, 7300 Division St., River Forest, Ill.; and 3 p.m. Sunday, April 17, at Baker Memorial United Methodist Church, 307 Cedar Ave., St. Charles, Ill. "Seven centuries of song in 90 minutes" is how choirmaster Hunt describes the program of secular and sacred gems.

A highlight will be Thomas Tallis's rarely heard Renaissance motet "Spem in alium," with 40 individual vocal parts, expressing man's hope and trust in the Lord. England's The Guardian newspaper called it "one of English music's most extraordinary compositions" and "a surging tapestry of sound." This deeply devotional work recently found a mass audience through its unlikely role in the best-selling adult novel "Fifty Shades of Grey."

Single tickets for St. Charles Singers concerts are $35 adult general admission, $30 for seniors 65 and older, and $10 for students. Tickets and general information about the St. Charles Singers are available at www.stcharlessingers.com or by calling (630) 513-5272. Tickets are also available at Townhouse Books, 105 N. Second Ave., St. Charles (checks or cash only at this ticket venue). Tickets may also be purchased at the door on the day of the concert, depending on availability. Group discounts are available.

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