Master Chorale

Announces Concert Season

DANBURY — The Connecticut Master Chorale, under the direction of Tina Johns Heidrich, has announced its 2007-08 concert season.

On November 18, the Chorale will present its annual Holiday Prelude Concert at St. Mary Church in Bethel.

The program will feature Conrad Susa’s “Christmas Garland,” a glittering tapestry blending creative arrangements of beloved carols into a joyous celebration of Christmas. The Chorale will also present a new arrangement of “The Twelve Days of Christmas” by Bob Chilcott of the King’s Singers. This is vibrant and fresh setting in which the “five gold rings” refrain is re-written each time to appear in an array of innovative and amazing guises.

Also on the program is music with steel drums, brass ensemble, spirituals, gospel, lullabies and multi-cultural numbers.

On March 9, the Chorale will present John Rutter’s new Winchester Te Deum, a glorious work with a great sense of ceremony; Charles Gounod’s St. Cecilia Mass, about which Saint-Saëns wrote “first dazzled, then charmed, then conquered”; and the stirring Ben Hur Choral Suite by one of Hollywood’s best-known composers for classic epic films, Miklos Rozsa.

Their May program will feature Carl Orff’s magnificent and thrilling masterwork Carmina Burana. First performed in 1937, it was an instant artistic and public success and it remains one of the 20th Century’s most widely performed and enthusiastically received works for chorus and orchestra.

The March and May concerts will both be at St Rose of Lima in Newtown and accompanied by the Connecticut Master Chorale Orchestra.

The Connecticut Master Chorale, founded by Ms Heidrich in 1999, is an ensemble of 55 high-caliber vocalists in western Connecticut. In addition to its regular three-concert season, the chorale has performed by invitation at the White House, Carnegie Hall three times, Madison Square Garden and West Point Military Academy. Additionally the Chorale was featured on ABC TV and their recordings are frequently heard on WMNR Fine Arts Radio.

Newtown residents in the Master Chorale are Judy Bolduc, Ginnie Carey, Lisa Cedergren, Wendy Fong, Pastor Greg Wismar, and Dan Yee.

Tickets for each concert are $20 in advance and $25 at the door.

For tickets and information, call 203-743-0473 or visit CMChorale.org.