May 2 - May 3, 2026
Presented By: North Country Chorus
Presented by: North Country Chorus, Halcyon Chorale, Sr. Johnsbury Academy Hilltones
Saturday, May 2, 7:00 pm
Sunday, May 3, 3:00 pm
Location:
United Community Church (formerly North Church)
1325 Main St.
St. Johnsbury, VT
Admission: by donation
“Shared Voices” is a collaborative concert bringing together the North Country Chorus, Halcyon Chorale, and St. Johnsbury Academy Hilltones to present music by 20th century composers. The concert will be performed at the United Community Church in St. Johnsbury on Saturday, May 2, at 7 pm and again on Sunday, May 3, at 3 pm.
Director Alan Rowe notes that “the North Country Chorus has been a vanguard for choral music for nearly 80 years. This season, I wanted to join forces with these two area choral groups who share in this mission to elevate the choral art form. As a result, we have an eclectic program of mostly contemporary works from creators who have established themselves as either rising stars or prolific composers of new staples of the repertoire.”
The program journeys through a broad range of musical landscapes. The North Country Chorus will open with the Misa Criolla by Argentine composer Ariel Ramírez. This celebrated 1964 Spanish language folk mass was one of the first masses written in the vernacular rather than Latin. The work blends Catholic liturgy with traditional Andean rhythms and folk instruments, creating music that is both exuberant and deeply rooted in Latin American tradition.
The Chorus other work, “A Silence Haunts Me,” is composer Jake Runestadt’s dramatic choral setting of poet Todd Boss’s meditation on Beethoven’s grief over his loss of hearing.
The Academy Hilltones’ set includes Eric Whitacre’s take on Robert Frost’s familiar “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.” In her contemporary work, In “They Are Mother,” Jennifer Lucy Cook captures the mystery and grandeur of the divine creating force. The select student chorus offer lighter fare with Tracy Chapman’s pop song, “Fast Car” and “Kızılcıklar,” a lively Turkish folk song.
Halcyon Chorale will sing two evocative works for unaccompanied choir. Eric Whitacre’s “Leonardo Dreams of His Flying Machine” is a setting of Charles Anthony Silvestri’s whimsical, profound, intense, and at times onomatopoeic depiction of the great genius asleep, but with a mind no less active than in his waking life. The “Agnus Dei” is Samuel Barber’s own choral arrangement of his “Adagio for Strings,” a masterpiece of the string repertoire.
The finale of “Shared Voices” will bring all three ensembles together. The tenor and bass voices trace one man’s reflection on “The River” of his boyhood. Sopranos and altos shine in a setting of E. E. Cummings’s poem “I Thank You God.” All 80 voices will share two songs: Langston Hughes poem “To Sit and Dream,” invites listeners into a place of stillness and quiet beauty. The gospel song, “Unclouded Day,” looks beyond present troubles to a hopeful future.
Admission is by donation.
Saturday, May 2, 7:00 pm
Sunday, May 3, 3:00 pm
Location:
United Community Church (formerly North Church)
1325 Main St.
St. Johnsbury, VT
Admission: by donation
“Shared Voices” is a collaborative concert bringing together the North Country Chorus, Halcyon Chorale, and St. Johnsbury Academy Hilltones to present music by 20th century composers. The concert will be performed at the United Community Church in St. Johnsbury on Saturday, May 2, at 7 pm and again on Sunday, May 3, at 3 pm.
Director Alan Rowe notes that “the North Country Chorus has been a vanguard for choral music for nearly 80 years. This season, I wanted to join forces with these two area choral groups who share in this mission to elevate the choral art form. As a result, we have an eclectic program of mostly contemporary works from creators who have established themselves as either rising stars or prolific composers of new staples of the repertoire.”
The program journeys through a broad range of musical landscapes. The North Country Chorus will open with the Misa Criolla by Argentine composer Ariel Ramírez. This celebrated 1964 Spanish language folk mass was one of the first masses written in the vernacular rather than Latin. The work blends Catholic liturgy with traditional Andean rhythms and folk instruments, creating music that is both exuberant and deeply rooted in Latin American tradition.
The Chorus other work, “A Silence Haunts Me,” is composer Jake Runestadt’s dramatic choral setting of poet Todd Boss’s meditation on Beethoven’s grief over his loss of hearing.
The Academy Hilltones’ set includes Eric Whitacre’s take on Robert Frost’s familiar “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.” In her contemporary work, In “They Are Mother,” Jennifer Lucy Cook captures the mystery and grandeur of the divine creating force. The select student chorus offer lighter fare with Tracy Chapman’s pop song, “Fast Car” and “Kızılcıklar,” a lively Turkish folk song.
Halcyon Chorale will sing two evocative works for unaccompanied choir. Eric Whitacre’s “Leonardo Dreams of His Flying Machine” is a setting of Charles Anthony Silvestri’s whimsical, profound, intense, and at times onomatopoeic depiction of the great genius asleep, but with a mind no less active than in his waking life. The “Agnus Dei” is Samuel Barber’s own choral arrangement of his “Adagio for Strings,” a masterpiece of the string repertoire.
The finale of “Shared Voices” will bring all three ensembles together. The tenor and bass voices trace one man’s reflection on “The River” of his boyhood. Sopranos and altos shine in a setting of E. E. Cummings’s poem “I Thank You God.” All 80 voices will share two songs: Langston Hughes poem “To Sit and Dream,” invites listeners into a place of stillness and quiet beauty. The gospel song, “Unclouded Day,” looks beyond present troubles to a hopeful future.
Admission is by donation.