Harvard Summer Chorus 80th Anniversary Season—Andrew Clark, Conductor and Director of Choral Activities

• ROSS LEE FINNEY: Pilgrim Psalms (1946)
• CARSON COOMAN: Rain Songs (world première)

with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP), Gil Rose, Artistic Director.

Performances:

• Friday July 29, 8pm, Sanders Theatre (free admission)
• Sunday July 31, 3pm, Peterborough Town House, Peterborough NH, as part of the Monadnock Music Festival

Rehearsals: Tuesday and Thursday evenings 7 pm-9:30 pm beginning June 21 at Sanders Theatre, Memorial Hall

This season, the Harvard Summer Chorus explores the Pilgrim Psalms by Pulitzer-Prize winning composer Ross Lee Finney (1906-1997), a choral suite setting fourteen psalm melodies and texts from the Ainsworth Psalter of 1612. During the Second World War, American composers and performers drew inspiration from what scholar Annegret Fauser describes as “sounds from a usable past,” most especially the music of Colonial America. Pilgrim Psalms grew out of the composer’s fascination with America’s folk heritage, creating clever and accessible choral expressions of these tunes. To celebrate the Summer Chorus’s 80th season, we will present the world premiere of composer Carson Cooman’s Rain Songs, a setting of three poems from Mary Austin’s collection The American Rhythm (1923), inspired by the Native American culture that she studied extensively. The chorus will be joined by the world-renowned Boston Modern Orchestra Project for our performance.

Auditions:

• Friday, June 17 6-9p
• Saturday, June 18 2-5p and 6-9p
• Sunday, June 19 2-5p and 6-9p
• Monday, June 20 6-9p

All auditions take place at Holden Chapel, Harvard Yard, Cambridge, MA