Bridging the gap between young and old, veteran and newcomer, can often be a daunting task. Here in the capital city, the Concord Chorale, an 83-member vocal ensemble, has come together with a shared love of music to master this chore and form a community.
“The people are just so fun,” said marketing and communications chairman Doug Phelan. “We’ve got folks from college all the way up to people in their 90s and everyone there just shares a similar love for this; everybody’s always laughing.”
The Concord Chorale held their first concert May 9, 1969, at St. Paul’s school to an audience of mostly friends and family. Since that performance of only 35 members, the group has grown in popularity.
“In my eight years, the group has continued to grow as an artistic organization, a community partner, and a warm home for its singers,” said Johnson.
Deb Yeager, who has sung with the group for 17-years, notices this growth as well.
“The material that I’ve seen since I started has become more challenging and as the numbers grow and as we become more robust a chorus, were able to sing greater works,” she said.
Yeager has fond memories from being a part of the ensemble, traveling on European tours, performing Beethoven in an Austrian palace, and seeing the fellow members join together when another is in need.
“Many of my friends are in the Chorale, it’s like a family, really. If something happens to someone in the Chorale, we tend to rally around them,” said Yeager.
She recalls a recent tragedy when a member, and book fanatic, lost everything she had to a house fire. To show support, the group came up with an idea.
“We partnered with Gibson’s Bookstore and they gave us a discount and kept lists of books at their desk that she wanted to replace. We replaced hundreds of her books,” Yeager said.
The bond between this community rarely dulls, which Phelan says became immediately evident to him when he first moved to the area.
He was looking to get back into performing music when fellow Concord Hospital co-worker and current member of the chorale, BJ Entwisle, suggested he come out for an open sing.
“I’d gone to professional concerts of this type of music or accompanied them with an orchestra or on piano, but I had never got to sing Mozart, sing Bach, sing Brahms,” said Phelan. “It was a new way to enjoy that music and a new challenge for someone who’s musical but not necessarily educated vocally.”
Discussing celebratory dinners and events the group comes together for following concerts Phelan said, “The social dynamic becomes just as uplifting as the vocal challenge.”
Embarking on it’s 50th year, the fun-loving group will continue to join generations together and celebrate the significant anniversary, beginning this weekend with a pair of concerts.
In collaboration with the concert choir and chamber orchestra of Phillips Exeter Academy, the Chorale will present performances featuring the great works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
“The choir is full of committed musicians who work very hard to perform at a high level while creating connections within the choir and in the city of Concord,” said director Kristofer Johnson, currently in his eighth year with the Chorale.
“Mozart’s ‘Great Mass’ in C minor is one of the great monuments of the choral and orchestral literature, uses double chorus, gorgeous solo writing for our professional soloists, and has a grand and celebratory character,” Johnson said.
Students and professionals of the orchestra will also perform Mozart’s “Paris” Symphony alongside the mass, Johnson added.
“This is an equal opportunity for students as well as the audience. A really important and meaningful piece, done with a high degree of artistry, it’s really great for anyone to hear,” said Peter Shultz, conductor of Phillips Exeter Academy Chamber Orchestra.
“For the students, they have had the opportunity to learn more about music, working with an ensemble, learn more about their self and skills as a musician,” he added.
Rohan Smith will join Shultz as conductor of the academy’s orchestra. Soloists joining for this performance will be sopranos Erin Smith and Annamarie Zmolek, tenor Matthew Corcoran, and bass Mark Andrew Cleveland.
The Concord concert will be held at the Capitol Center for the Arts on Sunday at 3 p.m.
In addition to the performance in Concord on Sunday, the Chorale will host a pre-concert talk with Sylvia Berry, Mozart expert and renowned Boston-area harpsichordist. The discussion will begin at 2:15 p.m., and anyone with a ticket may attend.
On Saturday at 7 p.m., a performance will be held at the Forrestal-Bowld Music Center at Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter.
Tickets for both shows are $25 for general admission, and students are free. Concord tickets may be purchased from Chorale members, from the Capitol Center for the Arts, or at Gibson’s Bookstore and Merrimack County Savings Bank in Concord. Tickets for the Exeter show may be purchased from Chorale members, online at concordchorale.org, and at Water Street Bookstore in Exeter.
And the 50-year celebration won’t end here. In addition to the Mozart project being performed this weekend, the choir will present a concert of American music from four centuries, along with pieces from the Baltic region, which will then go on tour in Estonia, Latvia and St. Petersburg during the summer months. To cap off the anniversary year, the Chorale commissioned a major work for mixed choir, instrumental ensemble, tenor and mezzo-soprano from local composer Nicholas White, said Johnson. This work will be performed January 2019.
“I’d say that the choir is healthy, ambitious, and ready to move into its next 50 years,” Johnson said.
For more information on the Concord Chorale, visit concordchorale.org.