Concert Choir Offers Musical Finale

The York College Concert Choir's annual Spring Works concert will bring together a collection of works and local performers that music lovers in York will not want to miss.

Conductor Dr. Clark Roush has titled the productionA New Beginning. It will be presented Monday, April 25, at 7:30 p.m. in the new Bartholomew Performing Arts Center (10th and McKaig). Dr. Greg Woods will narrate the concert and pianist Kay Magner will accompany.
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This is a free event and no tickets or reservations are needed. All are invited to attend this evening of moving choral artistry.

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The concert will present three works, each in a different language. The first is Antonio Vivaldi’s Gloria, featuring soloists Brianna Smith (soprano) and Dr. Adrienne Dickson (mezzo). The baroque piece will be familiar to many audience members as it is a popular setting of the Gloria in excelsis Deo from the Ordinary of the Mass.

The second piece is Shicksalslied  (“Song of Destiny”) by Johannes Brahms. This piece is a choral setting of a poem by Friedrich Holderlin and is considered to be one of Brahms’ best works. Brahms was reportedly inspired to write the music for Shicksalslied while watching the sea.
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The final piece of the evening is Bashana Haba’ah, arranged by John Leavitt. This traditional Hebrew song looks forward to “next year” and is often sung at Chanukah. Leavitt’s choral arrangement is beautiful and uplifting but also has an undercurrent of sadness, as the choir sings “Next year, when peace will come, we shall return to the simple pleasures of life so long denied us. Thou will see, Thou will see, O how good it will be, next year!”