Chamber Singers and Orchestra

The Denison University Orchestra, under the direction of Andrew Glendening, and the Denison Chamber Singers, conducted by Stephen Caracciolo, join hands for their first performances of the season, Saturday, October 25 at 8pm in Swasey Chapel. The concert will begin with a 20th century orchestral work by American composer, Virgil Thomson. His music for Pare Lorentz's documentary film The Plow that Broke the Plains (1936) was a milestone in American composition. The piece shares many characteristics of Copland's ballet suites of the late 30's and 40's, namely in its use of cowboy songs, western folk tunes, and pentatonic melodies. The score, with its rich orchestration and expressive content, would also serve as a model for many other 20th century film composers. A film created by Mike Berlin, a senior cinema major at Denison, as influenced by Pare Lorentz's original work will accompany Denison's performance.

The second half of the concert features exuberant choral-orchestral masterworks by George Frideric Handel, the celebrated composer of 18th century London. The Denison Chamber Singers, Denison's select vocal ensemble of 24 singers, will perform My heart is inditing, one from Handel's set of four anthems commissioned for the coronation of George II of England in cooperation with the orchestra. The evening will end with two well-known choruses from Handel's oratorio "Judas Maccabaeus", See, the conqu'ring hero comes, and Sing Unto God.

The concert is free and open to the public.