HWS News
12 November 2024 • Arts HWS Vocal Ensembles to Present Concerts of Hope and Reflection
Featuring music since the Renaissance, “Splendor of Eternal Light” and “Peace Be Within Thy Walls” will be held on Nov. 16 and Nov. 21.
The Hobart and William Smith Chorale and Cantori and the Community Chorus will offer two upcoming performances exploring themes of hope, introspection and peace. These concerts, free and open to the public, bring together pieces from the Renaissance to modern times, and will be accompanied by poetry and prose.
On Saturday, Nov. 16, the HWS Chorale and Cantori will perform “Splendor of Eternal Light,” a concert of a cappella and accompanied works. Featuring Meg Heaton on the piano, the concert includes works by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, Rosephanye Powell and James MacMacmillan and texts ranging from Elizabeth Bishop and Langston Hughes to the “Psalms.”
The program “spans many different styles of musical expression with the hope that the singers and audience members will find music that enlivens, prompts reflection, and may be received simply as beauty,” says Jonathan Mott, the director of HWS Chorale and Cantori and the Community Chorus, who is a Doctor of Musical Arts candidate in choral conducting at the Eastman School of Music.
“Splendor of Eternal Light” will be held at 7:30 p.m. in St. John’s Chapel, 300 Pulteney St., Geneva, N.Y.
On Thursday, Nov. 21, the Community Chorus will present “Peace Be Within Thy Walls,” featuring the works of Felix Mendelssohn, Joseph Haydn and Herbert Howells. “Peace Be Within” begins with Haydn’s “Te Deum,” which offers grand, unbridled joy, followed by Mendelssohn’s “Psalm 42,” depicting nuanced images of both longing and relief. The evening closes with Howells’s “O Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem,” a work that turns colorful, expansive melodies into a warm supplication for peace. This concert features soloists Abi Liebegott, Jack Leslie, Elijah Gebers, Daniel McInerney and Anders Namestnik of the Eastman School of Music. Heaton joins on piano, along with Aaron Tan, a piano instructor at HWS.
“Peace Be Within” will be held at 7:30 p.m. in the Presbyterian Church, 24 Park Pl., Geneva, N.Y.
Both concerts are presented by the HWS Music Department.
The Chorale and Cantori is a mixed ensemble comprising the finest student vocal talent on campus. The Community Chorus comprises students, faculty and staff, as well as members from the surrounding community.
Mott previously served as the resident conductor and teaching assistant of the Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium Musicum and as the interim music director of the Back Bay Chorale. He holds a bachelor’s degree in music composition from Boston College and a master’s degree in choral conducting from Boston University.
