"The Southern Cross" - A Concert Celebrating The Great Southern Constellation of Stars

Overview

To close the choral concert season, the 100 + voices of The Worcester Chorus ring out in a remarkable offering celebrating that great constellation of stars visible from the southern hemisphere.  Works from that half of the globe will be performed - music from South Africa, Argentina and Australia.  Included will be several American premieres of Australian choral works and three new works commissioned especially for The Worcester Chorus. 

Tickets:  $25, students $18 - $15 at door

Program

FROM AUSTRALIA:

Richard Charlton:          Four Blake Songs

Richard Charlton:          A commissioned piece TBD

Philip Jameson:             Night Journey

Philip Jameson:             Commissioned piece

Anna Jacobs:               Commissioned piece

Paul Jarman:                Pemulwuy

FROM SOUTH AFRICA:

arr. Mike Brewer:          Four African Songs

FROM SOUTH AMERICA:

Ariel Ramirez:               Misa Criolla

About the Artists

Christopher Shepard, Conductor

In recent years, conductor Chris Shepard has been most associated with the choral music of Johann Sebastian Bach. He founded the Sydneian Bach Choir and Orchestra in Sydney, Australia, and was the music director of BACH 2010, a project to perform all of Bach’s choral cantatas. Under his direction, the ensemble performed over seventy-five cantatas, as well as the two Passions, B Minor Mass, and Christmas Oratorio. A Sydney reviewer wrote of the cantata series that “these well-attended events, using a fine choir and perceptive soloists, are high points in our musical terrain.”

In addition to the music of J.S. Bach, Chris has conducted many staples of the choral-orchestral repertoire, and he has commissioned and premiered a number of new choral works in both Australia and America. Chris was recently named Music Director of the Dessoff Choirs, one of New York City’s most venerable choral organizations. They perform regularly with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, and have long had a commitment to new music. Since returning to America, Chris has also been a guest conductor at Emmanuel Church in Boston, a church renowned for its three-decade Bach cantata project. He currently serves as Music Director of the First Congregational Church in Watertown, CT. He has conducted avocational choirs for more than two decades, including the Stamford MasterSingers, Greater Middletown Chorale and Waterbury Chorale in Connecticut.

Resident in Sydney from 1996 to 2008, Chris served as Director of Music at Sydney Grammar School, one of Australia’s most prominent high schools. Music education has been a major focus of his career; before moving to Sydney, Chris led the choral program at the Taft School in Connecticut, where his Collegium Musicum appeared at the 1994 ACDA Eastern Division convention. The Litchfield County Children’s Choir, which he founded in 1990, continues to thrive after nearly two decades. Since 2004, Chris has been Music Director of the Hotchkiss Summer Portals Chamber Music Program, an intensive chamber music program for advanced young players and singers from around the world. He conducts the chamber orchestra and choir, serving on the faculty alongside such guest ensembles as the Shanghai Quartet, the Brentano String Quartet and Cantus. Over the last two decades, Chris has given several presentations for the American Choral Directors’ Association and has conducted several high school regional festival choirs in New England.

With SBS-TV, an Australian national public television network, Chris presented two documentaries: Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms and From Mozart to Morrison with eminent Australian jazz musician James Morrison. The Melbourne Age recommended the Mozart documentary as a “novel, thoughtfully produced hour”. In 2000, Chris was chorusmaster with the Sydney Philharmonia Choirs for their performance in the Olympics Opening Ceremony. Throughout his years in Sydney, Chris worked with a wide range of school and community choirs as conductor and clinician.

Chris holds degrees from the Hartt School and the Yale School of Music, where he studied choral conducting with Marguerite Brooks. He is currently completing his PhD in Musicology at the University of Sydney, researching the performance history of Bach’s B Minor Mass in 20th century America.

updated June 2010

The Worcester Chorus, under the sponsorship of Music Worcester Inc., has the unique distinction of being one of the most outstanding ongoing choral groups in the United States having been founded in 1858 for the purpose of performing in the first annual Worcester Music Festival held in the newly built Mechanics Hall. During its rich history, the Chorus has performed with a variety symphony orchestras, including appearances with the Prague Symphony in Carnegie Hall (1985), the Hartford Symphony (1994) and, most recently (2006), a performance of the Verdi Requiem with the Springfield Symphony Orchestra. The Chorus has toured internationally as well, including:Mexico and the Oaxaca Spring Festival (1983), The British Isles and the Strathclyde Festival (1986), Switzerland, Italy and Yugoslavia (1990), Austria for the Salzburg Music Festival (1994), St. Petersburg and Pushkin, and Scandinavia (1998).

 The Chorus traditionally performs four concerts each year as part of the Worcester Music Festival, including Messiah in December. Repertoire includes the greatest choral masterpieces, as well as works by contemporary composers and arrangements of American folk songs and classics from the musical theater.

The Worcester Chorus includes both amateur and professional musicians with the primary mission to foster the choral arts and enhance the cultural life of Worcester and the surrounding area. We endeavor to provide the highest level of musicianship and artistry, resulting in an enriching and emotional experience for both the audience and singers.