LEWISTON – The L/A Children’s Chorus is planning a Christmas concert featuring some current and former members of the DaPonte String Quartet.
The 31-member Children’s Chorus has 24 girls and 7 boys ranging from 7 to 14.
The young singers will present their annual holiday program at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 12, in the concert hall of Olin Arts Center at Bates College. Festive holiday songs and Christmas carols arranged for treble voices and handbells will be featured, along with some unusual classical masterpieces for chamber ensemble.
Chorus members will open with an unaccompanied Gregorian chant for Christmas sung in Latin as they process to the stage, “Hodie Christus Natus Est” proclaiming that Christ is born today.
Italian composer Claudio Monteverdi’s “Angelus Ad Pastores Ait” (Then the angel said unto the shepherds) is scored for three-part unaccompanied treble voices.
The well-known German chorale “Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming” by Michael Praetorius follows and will be sung in two parts.
To complement the Praetorius piece, Arnold Schonberg composed “Weihnachtsmusik” in December 1921 for the musicians in his family. It is scored for two violins, cello, harmonium and piano, and combines “Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming” with “Silent Night” in a lush, C major setting.
Joining Brian Franck, Ph.D., the chorus’ music director, will be distinguished past and present members of the DaPonte quartet, including Dean Stein, Sha Xaio Tsao and Myles Jordan.
Bates College faculty member John Corrie will play the harmonium part on an American-built Estey reed organ brought in for this occasion.
The children will offer English composer and conductor John Rutter’s three-part arrangement of “The Holly and the Ivy.” A Tyrolean carol, “Cradle Song,” has been effectively arranged by Lionel Lethbridge for three-part treble voices.
The handbell ensemble will take center stage for a performance of Mykola Leontovich’s “Carol of the Bells,” arranged by Cathy Moklebust.
Benjamin Britten is always at his best when writing for children’s voices, Franck said. One of the most challenging works he wrote for treble chorus is “A Ceremony of Carols.”
Molly Hahn, harpist from Westport, will join the young singers for selections from this work.
Audience participation will conclude the first half of the concert with the singing of “O Come, All Ye Faithful” with appropriate descants sung by the chorus.
In the second half, the concert will feature a rather unusual piece of music, Sir Edward Elgar’s “The Snow,” a hauntingly beautiful piece for three-part treble chorus accompanied by two violins and piano.
This half also will include the children singing the “Zither Carol” and “Little Drummer Boy,” which choral arranger Katherine Davis has set for two-part treble voices. The Charlie Brown Christmas special features a jazz-styled arrangement of “Christmastime is Here,” which the chorus will sing.
The handbell ensemble will perform a humorous arrangement of “Up on the Housetop” followed by the Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas” in a wonderful two-octave setting by Cynthia Dobrinski, a former college classmate of Franck.
Second halves of L/A Children’s Chorus concerts traditionally offer more lighter fare for immediate audience appeal and recognition. This one will include the popular “I’ll Be Home for Christmas.”
The chorus recorded a CD in 1997.
Admission will be $10 at the door. Tickets can be purchased in advance for a discounted price of $8 at both Lewiston and Auburn Hannaford supermarkets.
All children and students age 18 and under are admitted free of charge.
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