From the Board of Directors
Greetings from the Board of Directors. We wish each of you a season full of musical highs and discoveries. That's what The Spectrum Singers strive to bring to their audiences with each concert. Richard Buell's highly complimentary Boston Globe review of our May 30th concert last spring indicates that we are on target: "No dumbing down from these folks. The Spectrum Singers were paying their audience the ultimate compliment. They took it for granted that the audience had come to listen - really listen."
The Spectrum Singers is now in its 19th season. The group's artistic quality under the baton of its inspired and demanding Music Director, John W. Ehrlich, is well established. All singers are auditioned annually, and we were heartened to see in our September auditions many top-notch candidates.
However, much beyond fine music making has to happen to support and promote our artistic endeavors. As the artistic professionalism of the group has evolved, so must the skills of its leadership within the Board of Directors. It is incumbent upon this highly energetic ensemble to continue to expand the management skills available to it and thereby assure growing visibility and sound funding sources.
We are making the transition from a board composed entirely of Spectrum singers to one with a good mix of singers and nonsingers. We are proud to have on our Board of Directors two highly skilled and effective attorneys - one a Senior Partner at Hill and Barlow and a resident of Cambridge and the other a Senior Partner at Robinson and Cole and a resident of Boston. Another Board member is a professional consultant/fundraiser to nonprofit organizations and a resident of Harvard, MA. Our goal is to add members from the community we serve who would be interested in the challenges and rewards of working to sustain and grow The Spectrum Singers. We ask each of you, Friends of Spectrum, to consider if you or anyone you know might have experience and/or skills that would help us to continue to build the future of The Spectrum Singers. I can tell you from my own experience that it is as rewarding as it is challenging, and deeply gratifying to work to promote this fine organization.
I hope you will contemplate accepting this invitation or perhaps you may know of an associate who might be interested in considering working with us. Please contact me at (617) 492-8902.
Again, we on the Board wish you a rewarding season of enjoying and supporting The Spectrum Singers.
For the Board of Directors
Christopher M. Keppelman
Music Director's Notes
I am often asked how I plan the music for our concerts. Let's use the upcoming December 12 concert as an illustration.
I believe that the individual work should resonate with the others on the program in some way. Once I choose a core composition, I search for works that complement it or contrast with it. Our December program will feature Charpentier's Midnight Mass, which dates from about 1690. I wavered between making the entire program Renaissance music or adding 20th century compositions. It was a hard choice, but adding the contemporary music is what we will do. So, in addition to the Charpentier, the chorus will sing a selection of eleven 20th century sacred and secular seasonal works. So that is one aspect.
A unifying theme in this concert is text. We'll perform three excerpts from Benjamin Britten's A Boy was Born including his setting of the text by Christina Rosetti, "In the Bleak Mid-Winter." We'll also perform the same text as set by Gustav Holst. I thought, "Here is an interesting resonance: two composers drawn to the same text, but whose music is totally different because of who they are and how each chose to illuminate the verse." This is the type of conjunction which, I believe, provides interest and character to programming
John W. Ehrlich, Music Director
And The Winner Is ....
Last year, we asked for suggestions for naming The Spectrum Singers' newsletter. Thanks to all who replied, and especially to Megan Holt for giving us the winning name -- The Full Spectrum. Megan was a Spectrum Singer until she moved to California. Her reward will be a recording of our May 1998 concert.
Last May's Concert Was a Hit!
If you missed our final concert last season, you missed an outstanding event. The Boston Globe's Richard Buell headlined his review, "First-class Flight from Spectrum Singers." You can read the review on our web site, www.spectrumsingers.org. WGBH radio taped the concert for future broadcast, so don't be surprised if you hear Spectrum singing the Stravinsky Mass and Haydn Harmoniemesse on WGBH. Richard Knisely has already broadcast Stravinsky's Octet from this concert.
Here is an interesting story related by a member of the audience, who until recently had been a Spectrum Singer. She was sitting next to two young men who seemed to be not accustomed to attending classical music concerts. Though reasonably attentive through the Stravinsky works, the two men debated at intermission whether they should leave or stay. They finally decided to stay for the second half. The first piece of the second half was Haydn's Trumpet Concerto, featuring Paul Perfetti, trumpet. Paul came on stage and began his concerto. Both young men were immediately, totally captivated, and one, especially, listened open-mouthed. At the finish of the Trumpet Concerto, our friend asked the young man next to her, "Did you like that?" He said, "That was so beautiful, I almost cried." He went on to say that he had come (and paid for his friend's ticket) because he really believed in The Hospice of Cambridge and what they were doing. But, he'll never forget the Trumpet Concerto. The two young men stayed to enjoy the Harmoniemesse.
The Full Spectrum interviews John W. Ehrlich
TFS: John, you are known for performing unknown or little-known music by well-known composers. How do you find such music?
JWE: As an example, I'll give a case that could be considered pure luck - our giving the U.S. premiere performance of Gustav Holst's "Come To Me," in 1990. I had purchased what looked like an interesting CD of British music, with the Bavarian songs of Elgar; I thought it interesting that a British composer would write songs in Bavarian dialect. I didn't even notice that there were Holst part-songs on the CD.
I wasn't paying a lot of attention to the CD after I heard the first few selections, because the Elgar songs weren't works that really spoke to me right then. But soon a whole different music came on, and I thought, "Hmmm. This is interesting! It doesn't sound like Elgar at all." I discovered that it was, indeed, a Holst part song. Then all of a sudden a song started to play that was clearly by Holst because of where it was programmed on the CD, but sounded totally different. It was completely riveting. I had never heard it before.
How did I find the score of this piece? I found out that particular work had never been published but was scheduled to be published, "sometime," by Faber Music of England. I telephoned London, reached their editor of music, and asked if it were possible to get scores. When he replied, "We haven't published it yet," I asked whether I could have copies of the draft scores used to make the recording. The answer: "Well, I suppose. Why not? No one has ever asked us this before." The editor soon verified that the Spectrum Singers' performance of this beautiful song would indeed be its U.S. premiere performance.
1998-1999 Season
A Spectrum Singers Christmas Celebration
Saturday, December 12, 1998 at 8:00 p.m.
| Charpentier: |
Midnight Mass |
| Britten: |
A Boy Was Born (excerpts) |
| Holst: |
In the Bleak Mid-winter
This Have I Done for My True Love |
| Poston: |
Jesus Christ, The Apple Tree |
| Kodály: |
Veni, Veni Emmanuel |
With a consort of recorders, organ, and strings
An American Sampler
The Sixth Annual Benefit for Musicians in the Care of
The Hospice of Cambridge
Saturday, March 27, 1999 at 8:00 p.m.
Light and serious music from several of the Americas,
including works by Copland, Porter, Ives, Gershwin, Fine,
Bernstein, Fussell, Romero, Weill, Barber, and others
Mostly Mozart
with Luellen Best, soprano;
Gloria Raymond, mezzo-soprano;
Mark Risinger, bass; and with orchestra
Saturday, May 22, 1999 at 8:00 p.m.
Mozart:Requiem, K.V. 626
All concerts take place at First Church Congregational
11 Garden Street, Cambridge
Subscriptions are now available: 3 concerts for $55.
Single tickets: Concerts 1 and 2, $20, concert 3, $28.
A very limited number of "rush seats" located at the side of the stage will be available
at the door for each concert. Call (617) 492-8902 for details.
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