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Psalms for All the Saints
The St. James’ Compostela Choir
Davis Wortman, Conductor
Thursday, November 1, 2007
6:30 p.m.
Free Admission

Schein: Israelis Brünnlein (The Fountains of Israel)

One of Bach’s most gifted predecessors at St. Thomas’ Church in Leipzig, Johann Hermann Schein (1586-1630), was a master at blending the liturgical and secular musical styles of his time. Israelis Brünnlein (The Fountains of Israel) is a choral tour de force, fitting German sacred texts to music in the Italian madrigal style. Schein used the psalms and his own lyric poetry to create a perfect fusion of Italian madrigal with Lutheran gravity. The St. James’ Compostela Choir will perform this work accompanied by continuo in the manner of the period.

The American Boychoir
Fernando Malvar-Ruiz, Director
Sunday, December 9, 2007
3:00 p.m.
Admission: $30 adults; $15 seniors and students

This will be the American Boychoir’s third visit to St. James’, in what has become an annual holiday treat.

The American Boychoir’s rich sonorities, musical sophistication, expressive power and innovative programming have established its reputation as the United States’ premier concert boychoir and one of the finest boychoirs in the world.  Under Fernando Malvar-Ruiz, the Litton-Lodal Music Director, these boys in grades five through eight are selected from around the country to pursue a rigorous academic and musical curriculum at The American Boychoir School, the only non-sectarian boys’ choir school in the country.

Advance ticket sales will be offered on Sundays, November 25 and December 2 (the two Sundays preceding the concert) following the 9:15 a.m. and 11:15 a.m. worship services.

Exclusively at St. James’: A Carnegie Hall Preview
Augustin Hadelich, Violinist
Monday, January 28, 2008
6:30 p.m.
Admission: $25 adults; $15 seniors and students

Augustin Hadelich is a rising international star, having just claimed the 2006 gold medal of the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis. His recital at St. James’ immediately precedes his Carnegie Hall orchestral and solo debuts, and further recitals at major venues around the world. This season also marks Mr. Hadelich’s professional recording debut with four CD’s in the works.

Be one of the first to hear this amazingly talented young violinist, who plays with “effortless brilliance and unassuming musicality,” just before he becomes a well-known star in the classical music world around the globe.

Airs, Prayers, and Fireworks
The St. James’ Compostela Choir and Orchestra
Davis Wortman, Conductor
Sunday, February 24, 2008
3:00 p.m.
Admission: $25 adults; $15 seniors and students

Handel: Zadok the Priest, HWV 258
              Music for the Royal Fireworks, HWV 351
Mozart: Vesperae solennes de confessore, K.339
Respighi: Ancient Airs and Dances, Suite 3

Music for prayer, music for praise, music for celebration and music for contemplation: this winter concert of orchestral and choral gems will offer music of three great composers.

Handel’s music is always highly spirited, as in his choral work, Zadok the Priest, or his well-known Fireworks music. Mozart explores many moods of spiritual expression in his Vespers service, which includes the beloved, “Laudate Dominum,” which will be heard with the full orchestral setting as he wrote it. Respighi, a twentieth-century composer, turned to the lute songs of the renaissance and baroque periods for inspiration for his third suite of Ancient Airs and Dances. Their contemplative nature is enhanced by the sonorities of just the string sections of the orchestra playing this sensitive and thought-provoking music.

Good Friday Musical MeditationA>
Barbara Lynne Jamison, Soprano
Friday, March 21, 2008
7:30 p.m.
Free Admission

This year’s Good Friday Meditation offers a diverse collection of music—from the French Baroque to the present. Soprano Barbara Lynne Jamison will lead us in a musical meditation through poetry and prayers, as we reflect on Christ’s sacrifice and the implications of this sacrifice on our personal spiritual journeys.

Festive Choral Evensong
The Cantabile Singers
Barbara Lynne Jamison, Director
Sunday, May 4, 2008
3:00 p.m.
Free Admission

The service of Evensong has been a fundamental element of Anglican worship for centuries. Drawn from the sevenfold monastic cycle of prayer, this service combines the two offices of Vespers and Compline. In Choral Evensong words and music combine, each enriching the other, in order that our senses and our intellects, our hearts and our minds, may help us to draw closer to God.
 
The St. James’ Cantabile Singers, under the direction of Barbara Lynne Jamison, will culminate their 2007-08 program year with a Festival Choral Evensong. Components such as the Versicles and Responses, the Psalms, the Magnificat (Song of Mary) and the Nunc dimittis (Song of Simeon)—which combine to serve as the basic structure of Evensong—will all sung by the choir, framed by glorious anthems drawn from the traditional and contemporary cathedral music of the Anglican tradition.