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Press Release

Cantemus’ “At the Turning of the Year” concert explores where heaven and earth meet

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(Nov. 4, 2015) —“According to Celtic tradition,” explains Cantemus Artistic Director Jane Ring Frank, “in the physical landscape we find ‘thin places’ where heaven and earth meet, giving us the chance to pierce the veil and perceive what lies at the end of all our waiting. This is especially true at the turning of the new year.” 

The Cantemus Chamber Chorus will celebrate this beautiful notion when they present their 2015 winter concert, “At the Turning of the Year,” at 7:30 PM on December 5 at Christ Church of Hamilton-Wenham and December 6 at 4 PM at Central Congregational Church, Newburyport.

Frank notes: “What marks a ‘thin place’ is not how dramatic it is, but how quiet it makes us and how it invites us to pause and pay attention; how it opens our hearts to the dynamic and moving nature of reality, in which life, like sacred mercies, is new every morning.”

At the center of the program is 18th-century composer Francesco Durante’s rendering of “Magnificat,” which Frank calls “both a hymn of joy and thanksgiving.” This and other works on the program will be accompanied by Cantemus keyboardist Jeffrey Mead and a guest string ensemble.

Also featured are American composer Eric Whitacre’s “Five Hebrew Love Songs,” five poetic movements that Frank says are, “by turn, lyrical, romantic, sensitive, warm, rhythmic, and dance-like.”  

Young Norwegian composer Ola Gjeilo is represented prominently, as well, with performances of his “Tundra,” “Across the Vast, Eternal Sky,” and “Ubi Caritas” (Sacred Heart), three pieces “designed to bring heaven and earth together in one vast space.”

Phil Mattson’s jazz arrangements of familiar holiday carols are “marked by a warm and brilliant shift in harmonic language and color.”

Christ Church is located at 149 Asbury Street in Wenham; Central Congregational Church is at 14 Titcomb Street, Newburyport. Tickets are available in advance at locations around the North Shore. Thanks to the generosity of the Hamilton-Wenham Local Cultural Council and the Hamilton-Wenham Public Library, some free tickets will be available at the library. Call toll-free 1-888-CHORUS 1, or visit www.cantemus.org for more concert details and complete ticket information.

Cantemus gratefully acknowledges funding support from the Massachusetts Cultural Council and the Hamilton-Wenham Cultural Council. 

Cantemus is a member of Chorus America, and of the Greater Boston Choral Consortium, a cooperative association of diverse choral groups in Boston and the surrounding area.   

Cantemus’ 47 members come from 25 communities on the North Shore, Boston, Cambridge and New Hampshire:

Amesbury: Ron Pressler. Cambridge: Artistic Director Jane Ring Frank. Danvers: Kelsey Atwater. Manchester-by-the-Sea: Isabella Bates. Beverly: Dick Church, Scott Hufford, Paul Kelly, Ali Lipman, Pamela Morris, Richard Salandrea, Jeremy Satchell, Rachel Small. Bradford: Mern Ebinger. Byfield: Doug Guy. Essex: Betsy Vicksell. Georgetown: Patty Clark. Gloucester: Ed Mowrey. Hamilton: Donna Gale, Marcy Homer, Peggy Russell. Ipswich: Gary Freeman, Bill Holloway, Anne Maguire, Hugh McCall, Stephen Miles, Dorothy Monnelly, Chris Reif, Sr. Pat Rolinger, Debby Twining. Lynnfield: Priscilla March. Marblehead: Debra Basile, Tanya Tupper. Melrose: Accompanist Jeffrey Mead. Newbury: Nancy Weinberg. Newburyport: Richard Blumenscheid, Claire Cayot, Gary Lubarsky. Peabody: Marjorie Short. Prides Crossing: Stephen Pletcher. Roslindale: Deborah Lemont. Salem: Aria Nevin. Shirley: Cheryl Hayden. Wenham: Elizabeth Lebel. West Newbury: Jamie Cabot, Michael Fosburg, Susan Nash. Durham, NH: Sydney van Asselt.

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For more information contact:
Gary Lubarsky, Publicity
978-465-1895 

CANTEMUS
P.O. Box 784
Ipswich, MA 01938
 
Our name is pronounced:
“Can-TAME-us”
(Latin for “Let us sing”)
 
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