Paul Hillier Leads Houston Chamber Choir in 'BALTIC SEA CHANGE' Tonight

World-renowned conductor Paul Hillier makes his Houston debut leading the Houston Chamber Choir in passionate music from the Baltic Sea. In the late 1980s, the world watched in admiration as three little Baltic countries overthrew their oppressive Soviet regimes. Throughout their struggle for freedom the Baltic peoples gathered by the thousands to draw strength from choral music in what became known as "The Singing Revolution." We pay tribute to their courage and resolve in a concert of music by Arvo Pärt and his fellow composers from Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.

Baltic Sea Change | Music of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania
With guest conductor Paul Hillier
Tonight, February 21, 2015, 7:30 pm
South Main Baptist Church
4100 Main Street, Houston, TX 77002

Paul Hillier is a world-renowned and award-winning choral director at the forefront of both early and new music, often combining the two with highly inventive programming across musical periods and cultures. In addition, Mr. Hillier is also an arranger, author, entrepreneur, and an educator. Since the 1970s, Mr. Hillier has built a catalogue of over 100 recordings, released on Harmonia Mundi, ECM, EMI, Finlandia, and Hyperion. Paul Hillier has won two GRAMMY Awards for recordings of Arvo Pärt's Da Pacem (2006) and David Lang's The Little Match Girl Passion (2009).

Composers on this program not only represent each of the three Baltic nations, but have also been celebrated as being amongst the finest choral composers in the world. Highlights of the program include pieces spanning 20 years of Arvo Pärt's career, including his celebrated 1989 setting of the Magnificat; Three Poems by P?teris Vasks, which sets text by Polish-émigré and Nobel prize-winning poet Czes?aw Mi?osz; and "The Stomping Bride" by Vaclovas Augustinas, which calls for members of the ensemble to perform interlocking percussive patterns on various instruments of their own choice. Also on the program are works by Veljo Tormis, Galina Grigorjeva, Rytis Mazulis, and Algirdas Martinaitis. Many of the works presented on the concert have been commercially recorded by Paul Hillier.

TICKETS: Purchase tickets online at www.houstonchamberchoir.org or by calling (713) 224-5566. General admission tickets to this concert are $40 for Adults, $36 for Seniors (65+), and $10 for students (with valid ID).

ABOUT HOUSTON CHAMBER CHOIR: Led by Artistic Director Robert Simpson, Houston Chamber Choir is a professional ensemble at the forefront of choral music in the United States. The ensemble has collaborated with leading artists of our day, including Dave Brubeck, Peter Schickele (a.k.a. P.D.Q. Bach), Bill McGlaughlin, Joseph Flummerfelt, Peter Phillips, Reinbert de Leeuw and Jamie Bernstein. A champion of contemporary music, the choir has commissioned new works from Christopher Theofanidis, David Ashley White, Dominick DiOrio, and Jocelyn Hagen. Houston Chamber Choir has toured internationally from Mexico to Wales and appeared nationally at conventions held by The American Choral Directors Association, Chorus America, and most recently at Trinity Wall Street in New York and Yale University. The choir's recording of 19th and 20th century Russian secular choral music, Ravishingly Russian, was greeted with glowing reviews: "Ravishing is right" (Gramophone) and "The singing is top-of-the-line" (American Record Guide). In 2012, the ensemble released the world premiere recording of Psalmi ad Vesperas by late 17th century Italian composer Giovanni Paolo Colonna, and was hailed by Fanfare Magazine as "one recording that Baroque music lovers will need in their collection."

ABOUT PAUL HILLIER: Paul Hillier is currently Artistic Director of Chamber Choir Ireland and Theatre of Voices, as well as Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of Ars Nova Copenhagen. He has also served as Artistic director of the Coro Casa da Música in Porto and Principal Conductor of the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir. As an educator, Mr. Hillier has taught as a visiting professor at the University of California-Santa Cruz, Professor of Music at the University of California-Davis, and was Director of the prestigious Early Music Institute at Indiana University. He also received recognition as Honorary Professor in Music at the University of Copenhagen.

In addition to two GRAMMY Awards, Mr. Hillier has also received two Edison Prizes (Holland), the German Critics Prize, the Caecilia Prize (Belgium), and the Gramophone Early Music Record of the Year (UK), the Estonian Cultural Prize, the Order of the British Empire (OBE) award for his services to choral music, the Order of the White Star for his activities in Estonian music life, and the Order of Dannebrog (the Danish knighthood) by Her Majesty, Queen Margaret of Denmark, for his contributions to the arts.

As an ensemble leader, Mr. Hillier founded the Hilliard Ensemble in 1973 and formed the Theatre of Voices in 1990. Published under Oxford University Press, he has authored a biography of Arvo Pärt, edited collected essays and writings by Steve Reich, and catalogued numerous anthologies of choral music. Mr. Hillier is represented worldwide by Konzertdirektion Hörtnagel, Berlin.

Photo by Ditte Capion

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