Guelph Chamber Choir to Welcome Guest Conductor Charlene Pauls for GLORY

The Guelph Chamber Choir is part-way through a search process for a new permanent Conductor and Artistic Director. Two guest conductors will each have selected, rehearsed and presented a full concert with the choir before a final decision is made. Last fall, Patrick Murray conducted a concert entitled Haven: music of protection and peace. Coming up this month, conductor Charlene Pauls presents Glory: music of light and joy on Saturday, February 16, 2019 at 7:30 pm at St. George's Anglican Church.

Conductor and professional singer Charlene Pauls is active in our local area as Associate Music Director of the Oakville Choir for Children and Youth, Music Director at the Anglican Church of the Incarnation, Oakville, and as the former Artistic Director of Pro Musica Choir in London. In November 2018 Pauls received the Ontario Arts Council Leslie Bell Prize for Choral Conducting, a biennial award to acknowledge excellence in the field whose laureates include the 1978 recipient, Gerald Neufeld.

Joining the choir are talented musicians well known to local audiences: Christopher Dawes on organ, Alison MacNeill on piano, David Robilliard on percussion and Sharlene Wallace on harp.

Charlene has selected music that explores our longing for faith, beauty and acceptance. The first half of the program features Dominick Argento's brilliant and lively Gloria from his opera The Masque of Angels paired with other works of exquisite beauty including Bobby McFerrin's The 23rd Psalm (dedicated to her mother), Morten Lauridsen's Sure on this Shining Night and Gabriel Fauré's beloved Cantique de Jean Racine. The second half of the program opens with the gorgeous Prayer Before Sleep by Sid Robinovitch, followed by two works from the inspired hand of Leonard Bernstein: his remarkable and ebullient three movement Chichester Psalms, which bridges Jewish and Christian traditions, followed by what has become a modern hymn of belonging, Somewhere from his masterpiece of theatre, West Side Story.

Conductor Charlene Pauls noted, "It has been an absolute pleasure working with the GCC as we prepare for this upcoming concert. We have been struck by how each composer richly expresses a common human experience of grappling with one's faith traditions as seen through the lens of one's own moment in time. This has generated a program sung in Hebrew, French and English that ranges from introspective to unrestrained joy. Please join us as we present this music in the beautiful setting of St. George's Anglican Church."

Single tickets for Glory: music of light and joy on Saturday, February 16, 2019 at 7:30 pm at St. George's Anglican Church are now available for only $25 each or 4 for $80. We encourage young adults to attend with $10 tickets for students and those 30 and under, and only $5 for youth 14 and under.

Tickets are available through the River Run Centre Box Office online via http://guelphchamberchoir.ca/home/tickets/ or by calling 519-763-3000.