Pilgrim Festival Chorus (PFC), the region’s principal community chorus, presents its spring season concert, Ferns and Forest, on Saturday, April 7 at 7:30 pm, and Sunday, April 8 at 7:30 pm, at St. Bonaventure Parish, 803 State Road, Plymouth. The chorus is conducted by Co-Artistic Director William B. Richter and accompanied by Co-Artistic Director Elizabeth Chapman Reilly on organ with a professional 18-instrument orchestra.
A celebration of the life’s many transitions, Ferns and ForestView more
Pilgrim Festival Chorus (PFC), the region’s principal community chorus, presents its spring season concert, Ferns and Forest, on Saturday, April 7 at 7:30 pm, and Sunday, April 8 at 7:30 pm, at St. Bonaventure Parish, 803 State Road, Plymouth. The chorus is conducted by Co-Artistic Director William B. Richter and accompanied by Co-Artistic Director Elizabeth Chapman Reilly on organ with a professional 18-instrument orchestra.
A celebration of the life’s many transitions, Ferns and Forest features John Corigliano’s work Fern Hill and Dan Forrest’s sublime Requiem for the Living. These diverse modern works offer grand, sweeping atmospheric arrangements that conjure images of living nature.
Fern Hill, based on the 1945 poem by Dylan Thomas, looks back on the author’s “young and easy” childhood summers spent on a farm in Wales, singing joyously of youth. His musical language evokes some of America’s greatest composers, Copland, Barber, and Bernstein, and captures the joy and pain of looking back on the happy times of childhood. The work was first performed at The Kennedy Center in Washington, DC.
Traditionally a mass for those at rest, Dan Forrest chose to pen his Requiem with emphasis on the living. His work highlights life’s struggles with pain and sorrow, while honoring those who have passed. The traditional Requiem form of five movements forms a narrative, shifting from pleas from rest and mercy to peace and hope. Forrest delineates The Sanctus as offering “three glimpses of the heavens and earth”, developed from the common musical motive of images of space, a distant view of humanity. The work culminates in hopeful inspiration and broad emotional range, leading this work to become one of the composer’s best-known to date.
Since 1999, PFC has delighted South Shore audiences with classical programming. More than 70 vocalists of all adult ages fill out the ensemble, dedicated to authentic choral singing. In addition to the spring concert, PFC presents a holiday season concert each winter, an annual Messiah Sing in December, and summer concerts featuring pops-style programming.
Tickets are $20 for adults, $18 for senior citizens and $15 for students over 14. Children age 14 and under are admitted for free. Advance tickets may be purchased online at www.pilgrimfestivalchorus.org; and from PFC members. To reserve tickets by phone, please call Gail at (781) 826-8416.
For more information, please visit www.pilgrimfestivalchorus.org, or follow Pilgrim Festival Chorus on Facebook.
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