Sweet lovers love the spring, and the Chester River Chorale, joined by actors from Shore Shakespeare Company and the Chester River Youth Choir, will welcome that glorious season in early April with Shakespeare’s Songbook, a concert celebrating the Bard’s words with music.
Two performances, sponsored by the Washington College Department of Music and Washington College Concert Series, will be presented. The first is at 8 p.m. Saturday, April 2nd, and the second at 1 p.m. Sunday, April 3rd. Both will be held in Decker Theatre in the college’s Gibson Center for the Arts. In addition, Professor Kathryn Moncrief will give a pre-concert talk before Saturday’s performance at 7 p.m. in Hotchkiss Recital Hall.
Tickets are $15, with students showing ID and children free. They may be purchased at www.chesterriverchorale.org, and picked up at the will-call table in the Gibson Center lobby beginning at 6:30 p.m. on April 2 and at noon on April 3. Remaining tickets may be purchased at the door.
The concert commemorates Shakespeare’s genius on the 400th anniversary of his death. The program’s format, which alternates actors dramatizing the words of Shakespeare with singers presenting contemporary musical settings of his work, is a first for the Chorale.
“This unique program will appeal to people who, like me, have little or no experience in the formal study of Shakespeare, and also appeal as well to true aficionados,” said Douglas. D. Cox, the chorale’s artistic director.
“The highly gifted actors of Shore Shakespeare Company are masters of this material. In their hands it springs to life with immediate understanding and recognition for the audience. Chris Rogers and Shelagh Grasso, the managing directors of SSC, have been marvelous mentors in this collaboration, and Julie Lawrence, director of the Chester River Youth Choir, a valued partner in choosing the repertoire,” Cox continued.
A speech from Twelfth Night will open the show. It will be followed by the world premiere of a work commissioned by the Chester River Chorale, “How Sweet the Moonlight,” by Baltimore composer Michael Rickelton. The song uses words from the last act of The Merchant of Venice to set a tone of love and longing.
Guest conductor Michelle Sensenig will lead three songs from the jester Feste in Twelfth Night, bringing both levity and melodrama to the program, and the Chester River Youth Choir will charm the audience as woodland fairies in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and chill as witches in Macbeth.
The Chorale’s accompanist, Sam Marshall, will be joined by cellist William Myers and jazz bassist, Michael Buccino. Soprano Molly Grace Young and tenor Jason Ryland will be featured as soloists.
The joyful comedies A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Much Ado About Nothing get their due. Romeo and Juliet are a must, of course, and a musical adaptation of their balcony scene will be bracketed by songs from West Side Story, Leonard Bernstein’s Broadway take on the tragic lovers.
The Chester Chamber Singers have the enviable task of presenting a sequence of songs with words from the plays and sonnets with the program subtitle of “Shakespeare on Love.”
Chorale members are amateur singers drawn mainly from Kent and Queen Anne’s counties. If you love to sing, come join us. No audition is required.
The Chester River Chorale is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization funded in part by the Kent County Arts Council and by an operating grant from the Maryland State Arts Council, an agency dedicated to cultivating a vibrant cultural community where the arts thrive.
The CRC’s Mission is to provide opportunity and inspiration for amateur singers to strive for artistic excellence. CRC performances entertain diverse audiences and enrich the cultural life of the community. For more information, or to reserve tickets, visit www.chesterriverchorale.org.
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