Culture
LancasterChorale Brings Spiritual Works to Lancaster Festival July 21
< < Back toLancasterChorale, central Ohio’s all-professional chamber choir, will perform a variety of American Folk Hymns, Folk Songs, Spirituals, and Contemporary Works on Sunday, July 21. The concert is an affiliate performance of the Lancaster Festival, which runs July 17-27.
“The American experience is a mosaic of imported and complementary cultures and traditions, and the music that pieces together the song of that story is as varied and colorful as the people who sing it,” said LancasterChorale Artistic Director Stephen Caracciolo [car-ah-CHO-low], when asked to describe the program.
The centerpiece of the performance will be selections from The Sacred Harp, a collection of mountain hymn tunes first published in 1844. Well-known compositions from The Sacred Harp such as Wayfaring Stranger will be performed in both their traditional form and in an updated arrangement by Caracciolo.
Selections of American concert works will include LancasterChorale favorites such as Daniel Gawthrop’s Sing Me to Heaven. Three American folksongs are programmed, including the rollicking Sourwood Mountain by John Rutter. Choral arrangements of George Gershwin’s Love Walked In and Leonard Bernstein’s timeless melody, Somewhere from West Side Story, are programmed from the classic popular-song tradition. The concert will close with three American spirituals. Throughout the performance, several arrangements by Stephen Caracciolo will be featured. The program includes harpist Jeanne Norton and flutist Lori Akins.
The selections “piece together an image of what it means to hear the music of America,” Caracciolo added. The genre-spanning performance will take place at 4:30 p.m. on Sunday, July 21 at the First Presbyterian Church, 222 North Broad Street, in Lancaster.
Adult tickets at the door are $30.00 for LancasterChorale performances, with senior tickets at $25.00. Tickets for students and active-duty military personnel in uniform are free. For reduced price tickets, order online at LancasterChorale.com/tickets-online/. Phone orders may be made by calling 740-687-5855 or e-mailing Officemanager@LancasterChorale.com.