Volume 9, Issue 1 | November 2, 2023 | |
At Metro Center | Garage Parking - we recommend Spot Hero | |
Start Your Holiday Season On November 19!
| Kick off your holiday celebrations this year with City Choir’s Magnificent Bach concert at the beginning of Thanksgiving week! Experience Bach’s original Magnificat in E-flat, complete with the four Christmas interpolations, at its 300th anniversary. Held at the lovely and historic Church of the Epiphany in downtown DC, the concert will begin with a set of festive a cappella pieces inspired by the Christmas interpolations to set the mood. | |
City Choir tickets make great stocking stuffers!
Start your holiday shopping here.
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Erin Freeman—and Robert Shaw—on Bach's Magnificat and the True Spirit of the Season
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From age six, Erin Freeman's holiday experience was shaped by the annual "Christmas with Robert Shaw" concerts with the Atlanta Symphony and Chorus. As an audience member, and then a children’s choir singer, and then an official Atlanta Symphony chorus member, the concert represented for her joy, peace, excellence, and time to reflect.
Shaw often featured Bach's Magnificat on the program. Watch the video above to learn what the Magnificat meant to him, and how his reading of the work has inspired Erin Freeman's interpretation. As she notes, "Christmastime was no time to acquire, but rather to give—of spirit, of music, of artistic beauty, of self. That’s what this City Choir concert means to me. While we celebrate the 300th anniversary of this remarkable piece by Bach, we are ultimately using it as a springboard to bring a little bit of beauty and power to this world that needs it so much."
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Sixteen Centuries of Musical Magnificence | |
 |  | From the desk of Erin Freeman: To complement Bach’s E-flat Magnificat, the opening half of the concert takes inspiration from Bach’s four Christmas interpolations, pairing them with a cappella works from around the world. We open with the simple Ett barn är fött på denna dag, a traditional Swedish Christmas carol version of Vom Himmel hoch, first created in 1617, rewritten in 1817, and arranged in the 21st century by Eva Toller. Bach’s jaunty Gloria in Excelsis becomes Jan Sandström’s Gloria, a modern 13-part setting with a more prayerful interpretation of the text. Rachmaninoff’s Bogoroditse Devo connects to Bach’s “Freut euch und Jubiliert” with a shared call to “Rejoice.” City Choir couldn’t let Rachmaninoff’s 150th birthday pass without this most beautiful of odes to the Virgin Mary! Following is Bruckner’s Virga Jesse floruit—bold and organlike in character, it shares with Bach’s setting a joyously rhythmic Alleluia. Concluding the first half of the program is Elaine Hagenberg’s Alleluia, our most modern piece (2020) with the most ancient text (4th/5th century, by St. Augustine).
All in all, this program spans sixteen centuries of artistry. Through ancient texts, modern dissonances, the boldness of Romantic harmonies, and the intricacy of good-old Bachian fugue—this concert celebrates the joy of the season, and the breadth and depth of the human experience. It reminds us that if we take care of each other and always strive to add beauty and wonder to the world, we might just be okay.
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Learn more! Check out Erin's suggested reading list here. | |
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We are thrilled to introduce our guest soloists! From left: Laura Choi Stuart, soprano; Janna Critz, mezzo-soprano; Oliver Mercer, tenor; Justin Harrison, baritone.
Please click here to meet the artists!
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Spotlight on Soprano Laura Choi Stuart | |
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Allegro recently had the opportunity to chat with Laura Choi Stuart, soprano soloist for City Choir’s Bach Magnificat. As our audience will experience on November 19, Laura is a wonderfully sensitive interpreter of Bach, and many of our audience members have likely seen her perform with the Washington Bach Consort, a group she has sung with for over 15 years.
Please click here to learn what Laura had to say about singing Bach, her advice to choral singers (she believes that choral singing is "the best thing that you can do with your life," and says, "I can't imagine a better aim to apply yourself toward!"), and which movement of the Magnificat she describes as "a straight-up Santa Claus aria."
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Erin Freeman (left) & Victoria Gau (right, with Cat) | |
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What’s better than one conductor musing about the Magnificat text and music? Two conductors chatting about the Magnificat text and four different musical settings! Erin Freeman, artistic director of the City Choir of Washington, and Victoria Gau, artistic director of Cantate, sat down over coffee recently and did just that!
With City Choir performing the Magnificat of J.S. Bach on November 19 and Cantate Concert Choir performing settings of the Magnificat by Antonio Vivaldi, Kim Andre Arnesen, and Christine Donkin on December 2 (click here for information), the two conductors will share their insights about this most inspirational text and some of the beautiful music it has engendered. Watch for the video coming to your inbox and social media feeds soon!
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Celebrate with Us!
In addition to our inspiring November 19th concert, the City Choir of Washington invites you to join us for more seasonal festivities.
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On Sunday, November 26, Erin Freeman will again lead the venerable Messiah singalong, now in its 52nd year, at Clarendon United Methodist Church in Arlington, Virginia. Bring your score or borrow one; raise your voice in song or sit back and enjoy the experience, complete with professional soloists and chamber orchestra. Parking on site is free, and the church is a short walk from Clarendon metro station. Free-will donations to the church are appreciated. Learn more here. | |
Giving Tuesday, the international day of giving, is November 28. Please support City Choir's mission by giving the gift of music. This year our theme—in support of June's "An Homage to Music" concert—is For Love of Music. Check out our website for updates, and look for more information coming soon to your inbox and social media feeds.
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Watch the City Choir of Washington on WETA Television's Songs of the Season! The show will premiere on December 11, and air a number of times throughout December. We are honored to have been selected to appear on the program from over 70 applications.
| Celebrate the season with the City Singers! Our annual performances in the lobby of the Willard InterContinental Hotel will be on Saturday, December 23 at 5:30 & 6:45 p.m. Don't miss this holiday tradition, complete with festive music and singalong carols. The performance is free and open to the public. | The City Singers at the Willard Hotel, December 2022 | |
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The City Choir of Washington is very pleased to announce that we have received a grant from the DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities. The grant will support the mission of the City Singers engagement ensemble as it brings upbeat and heartfelt programs of American standards, spirituals, jazz arrangements, holiday favorites, and Broadway tunes to homeless shelters, military retirement homes, government hospitals, and assisted living facilities throughout Washington, DC.
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City Choir + NSO Sound Health Fridays: The City Choir of Washington is excited to continue its partnership with the National Symphony Orchestra in the 2023-2024 season, leading quarterly Friday morning sings as part of the NSO’s Sound Health initiative. In October, an enchanting morning of Italian song—a short program presented by singers from City Choir with remarks by Erin Freeman that preceded an audience singalong—set the stage for the NSO's rousing performance of Ottorino Respighi's Italian Trilogy. Please join us for our next outing, on January 12, 2024 at 10 a.m. at the Kennedy Center's The REACH (pictured above). For more information, please click here.
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Sound Health Friday, October 6, 2023. Photo credit: Rachel Tester | |
National Anthem at the Nationals: On September 1, Erin Freeman led 80 City Choir singers in a rousing performance of the national anthem before the Washington Nationals baseball game. Sadly the Nats lost in overtime, but the singers and their family and friends had a blast. Click on the video below to watch! | |
A Lauded Carmina Burana with the Richmond Ballet, Richmond Symphony & Chorus, and Wolf Trap Opera Soloists: City Choir of Washington singers were thrilled to be invited to participate in the Richmond Ballet's debut at Wolf Trap on August 30. City Choir singers also filled out the chorus when the program reprised at the Dominion Energy Center in Richmond, Virginia, September 22-24.
To read some of the rave reviews, please click here.
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Please Support City Choir | |
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This holiday season, the City Choir of Washington is grateful for our wonderful patrons who are such an appreciative audience; our singers who volunteer their time and energy to bring beauty to the world; and our leader, Erin Freeman, who inspires us every week.
Would you like to give thanks for City Choir? Please consider a tax-deductible donation to support the City Choir of Washington.
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The City Choir of Washington is grateful for your support at any level!
Please click the button below to donate, or visit citychoir.org/support.
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Save the Date: February 24, 2024
The Woman's Club of Chevy Chase, Chevy Chase, MD | 5 - 9 PM
| For more information about the online auction and benefit celebration, please contact David Flaxman, President of the City Choir of Washington, at davidrflaxman@gmail.com. | |
Don't Miss Our Next Concert: | |
The City Choir of Washington is sponsored in part by the DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities | |
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Allegro: The City Choir Newsletter
Editor in Chief: Emily Hantman Tsai
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The City Choir of Washington is a tax exempt organization under section 501(c) (3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Contributions are tax deductible to the full extent provided by law. You may obtain a copy of our financial statement by writing The City Choir of Washington, P.O. Box 9673, Washington DC 20016 or by calling us (202) 495-1613. The financial statement may be obtained from the Virginia Office of Consumer Affairs upon written request and, for the cost of copying and postage, from the Secretary of State of Maryland. | | | | |
