Cantata Singers 2016-17 Season Opens with US Premiere

Cantata Singers' 2016-2017 season opens on October 15th at NEC's Jordan Hall with a concert featuring two Bach cantatas, and the virtuosic "Laetatus sum" for solo voices by Czech Baroque composer Jan Dismas Zelenka. Bach's Cantata 109, "Ich glaube, lieber Herr, hilf meinem Unglauben," examines the inner conflict between doubt and faith with deeply engaging, intricately woven music. The fiery finale sets one of the most famous of Lutheran hymns, "Durch Adams Fall," to music. The radiant and richly expressive Cantata 147, "Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben," features what has become some of Bach's most famous music (known colloquially as "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring").

Cantata Singers will also present the United States premiere of Zelenka's dazzling and virtuosic "Laetatus Sum" for soprano, mezzo-soprano, and orchestra, featuring soloists Karyl Ryczek, soprano, and Emily Marvosh, mezzo-soprano. Scott Allen Jarrett, Director of Music at Marsh Chapel and Music Director of the Back Bay Chorale, will give the pre-concert talk. Additional soloists featured on this program include William Hite, tenor, and Cantata Singers members Lisa Lynch, soprano; Kimberly Leeds and Lynn Torgove, alto; Eric Christopher Perry, tenor; and Mark Andrew Cleveland, bass.

In December 2016, Cantata Singers will present A Seasonal Celebration holiday concert, first at Cary Hall in Lexington and then at St. Paul Church in Cambridge. This will be the first of two programs that Cantata Singers will present in Cary Hall during the 2016-2017 season. "Boston does not have a large number of fine venues for classical music. It is our hope to find unexpected places where our audiences are comfortable, the musicians are happy, and the sound is beautiful, and Cary Hall may be coming into its own on that front," said Music Director David Hoose. The program for December's concert features Hugo Distler's sublime choral variations on "Es ist ein Ros' entsprungen," Arnold Schoenberg's uplifting "Friede auf Erden," two motets by Heinrich Schütz, and two Claudio Monteverdi works, "Laetatus sum" and "Gloria a 7," both for pairs of soloists, chorus, 2 violins, bassoon, trombones, and continuo.

In February of 2017, Cantata Singers will return to a piece which continues to be a touchstone for the organization: Bach's great Mass in B minor. Two performances of this iconic work will be held on Friday, February 24th at NEC's Jordan Hall and on Sunday, February 26th at Cary Hall in Lexington. New England Conservatory musicologist Ellen Exner will give both pre-concert talks. Soloists include Cantata Singers members Karyl Ryczek, soprano; Kimberly Leeds, Lynn Torgove, and Jennifer Webb, alto; Eric Christopher Perry, tenor; and Mark Andrew Cleveland and Dana Whiteside, bass.

The season concludes with Arthur Honegger's King David paired with music by Yehudi Wyner, and his father Lazar Wyner. King David is a colorful mini-oratorio possessing a masterful fusion of styles and influences, including ancient music, Baroque music, and jazz. Cantata Singers will present the piece in the original French. The program will also include a Torah service by Yehudi Wyner for chorus, cantor, and small brass ensemble, and songs and choral music of Yehudi's father, Lazar Weiner. The elder Weiner (1897-1982) was a talented composer of Yiddish art song, synagogue services, and cantatas, and the longtime music director at Central Synagogue in New York City. In lieu of a pre-concert talk, a Kabbalat Shabbat service held prior to the concert will contextualize the evening's program.

Cantata Singers will continue what has been a successful inaugural partnership with the Academy of Arts and Sciences in Cambridge, and will return to present a second three-concert Chamber Series season in residence at the Academy. This three concert season will continue to feature music that complements the composers Cantata Singers will explore on its mainstage series.

The first concert on Friday, November 18, 2016, "Entartete Musik," will feature music by Schoenberg, Hindemith, Goldschmidt, Korngold, Weill, and others labeled "degenerate" composers by the Nazis. Highlights of the program include Schoenberg's Wanderlied, Hindemith's 3 Hymnen, and Weill's Berlin im Licht.

The second program on Friday, January 20, 2017, will feature Jewish-American composer Lazar Weiner, and German composer Kurt Weill. Born only three years apart, Weiner and Weill both immigrated to the United States, where they made their mark on twentieth-century music. Featured on the program are a collection of beautiful Yiddish art songs by Weiner, and Weill's Abendlied and Four Walt Whitman Songs, among others.

The Chamber Series will end on Friday, March 31, 2017, with music by "Les Six," early 20th century French avant-garde composers. The group, led by writer Jean Cocteau, was comprised of six composers, Arthur Honegger, Georges Auric, Louis Durey, Darius Milhaud, Francis Poulenc, and Germaine Tailleferre, and were given the collective name "Les Six" by music critic Henri Collet. While the six composers have been grouped together since the start of their careers, their musical languages vary, as demonstrated on this program with Milhaud's Trois Poèmes de Jean Cocteau and Auric's Huit poèmes de Jean Cocteau, Poulenc's Quatre Poèmes de Guillaume Apollinaire and Honegger's Six Poèmes d'Apollinaire, and Milhaud's Suite for violin, clarinet, and piano, op. 157b.

53rd Season subscriptions-which start at just $85 for the full season- are on sale now, and can be purchased online at www.cantatasingers.org, or by calling 617.868.5885. Single tickets will go on sale on September 6, 2016, and range in price from $25-$69.

For more information, contact Cantata Singers at 617.868.5885, or visit our website, www.cantatasingers.org.

About Cantata Singers

A singular desire to bring to Boston's listeners music that isn't being heard anywhere else has inspired Cantata Singers' programming for 52 years.

In 1964, that music included the cantatas of J.S. Bach. Today, it may be hard for us to believe, but when Cantata Singers was founded in 1964, live performances of Bach cantatas were quite a rarity. In fact, Cantata Singers' early concerts featured the first Boston performances of many of the cantatas.

Bach's music, from the cantatas to the B-minor Mass to the Passions, remains an essential part of Cantata Singers' repertoire. However, the ensemble's repertoire has expanded to include music from the 17th century to today. Cantata Singers has commissioned 14 works for choir and orchestra-including one that was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in Music-and has presented more than fifty Boston premieres of music both old and new.

Many of Boston's most talented musicians perform regularly with Cantata Singers. The chorus is made up of singers who have careers as musicians, educators, doctors, and architects. Many of these members appear as soloists with Cantata Singers, as well as with other highly respected organizations; some conduct other choruses and orchestras in the area. Although many of our musicians perform actively as solo singers, they choose to sing with Cantata Singers because of the reward they find in performing music of the choral canon at the highest possible level.

Cantata Singers has always focused on the music-be it by Bach, Verdi, Harbison, or Pärt-and its audiences do, too. Our audiences return year after year to hear fresh visions of iconic music, or an intriguing unfamiliar work that is-in fact-quite approachable. Each Cantata Singers concert is often surprising, sometimes challenging, always beautiful, and ultimately inspiring.