"Prayer for Ukraine"
Composed by Mikola Lysenko
Lyrics by Oleksandr Konysky

How It All Began

“Now Is the Month of Maying” 
Thomas Morley (1557-1602)
Conducted by Gerry Prody

“The Silver Swan”
Orlando Gibbons (1583-1625)
Conducted by Gerry Prody

“Cantate Domino”
Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643)

“Domine Fili unigenite” from Gloria in D major,
RV 589
Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741)

Chorale prelude to "Jesu meine Freude" BWV 227 
J. S. Bach (1685-1750)

Classical Era

“Zadok the Priest,”
Coronation Anthems  
George Frideric Handel
(1685-1759)

“Ave Verum Corpus,” K. 618 
W. A. Mozart (1756-1791)

“Psalm 23,” D. 706 
Franz Schubert (1797-1828)

American Contemporary

“Under the Light, yet under,” from Heavenly Hurt 
Alice Parker (b. 1925)

“Great Day!”
Hal Hopson (b. 1933)
Jen Weeks, oboe
Kim Markworth, soprano soloist

“Dirait-on” from Les Chansons de Roses 
Morten Lauridsen (b. 1943 )

Feliz Navidad

“Como Busca el Tierno Infante” 
from Three Venezuelan Christmas Carols
Bruce Trinkley (b. 1945)
Kay Reilly, marimba

“En Belén Tocan a Fuego” from Carols and Lullabies 
Conrad Susa (1935-2013)
Kay Reilly, marimba
Kasey Potzler, Nancy Goldfogel, Joanna Wiebe, soloists

“Los Reyes Magos” from Navidad Nuestra 
Ariel Ramirez (1921-2010)
Kay Reilly, marimba, percussion
Jason Parker, tenor 1 soloist
Eric Morgan, tenor 2 soloist

“A King Is Born”
Sy Gorieb (b. 1951) and Tim Hosman (b. 1952),
arr. Tim Sarsany (b. 1966)
Kay Reilly, marimba, percussion
Sage Reilly, percussion
Scott Henderson, piano
Connor Bennion, tenor soloist

INTERMISSION

This afternoon Whatcom Chorale celebrates fifty years of gathering in song. We’re excited to present a concert filled with gratitude and dedicated to you, our enduring audience, and to all those who have supported our love of creating music through the years. We offer up a retrospective choral journey with selections from many of our favorite composers. Prepare to enjoy a polyphonic collection of the classic and the contemporary, the sacred and the secular, with powerful influences from diverse parts of the global community. To sing is deeply satisfying on both a personal and communal level, and we thank you profoundly for this and every opportunity to share our voices.

Our concert begins just as Chorale began, with the madrigals beloved by WWU professor David Clarke, who arrived in Bellingham toting a suitcase full of sheet music and invited a few colleagues to sing in his living room. Soon the tightly knit group expanded its repertoire and its membership, then recruited Dr. Robert Scandrett, Choral Director of WWU’s Music Department, to help form a community choir. The New Whatcom Choral Society was born, and its more formalized leadership inspired vocalists to present challenging baroque and classical works, including those of Monteverdi, Vivaldi, Bach, Handel, Mozart, and Schumann.

The joy of song is infectious, and by the mid-eighties membership had swelled to over one hundred voices, with singers dedicating two and a half hours each Tuesday night to rigorous rehearsal. The music was demanding, but the rewards of singing together proved even greater, as vocalists found fulfillment and friendship in their weekly commitment. Moreover, the Bellingham community discovered this local treasure, and concert attendance became a highly anticipated ritual for many.

Recognizing the group’s increasing impact within a wider community, choir leadership simplified the name to Whatcom Chorale and expanded its outreach, offering works from American contemporary composers. In addition to performing traditional holiday selections such as Handel’s Messiah, Chorale delighted audiences with the stirring rhythms and poignant melodies of Latin American works.

Vibrations naturally travel outward, and Chorale magnified its own ripple effect by taking the show on the road, organizing European tours in 1986 and 1998. Audiences in England, Germany, Austria, and the Czech Republic welcomed the spirited voices of Chorale, while members reveled in the acoustic resonance of stone cathedrals and elaborate concert halls. Musicians united across oceans and international boundaries as Chorale joined with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Choir to deliver both European masterworks and the fresh sound of Americana.

In keeping with its commitment to community, Chorale has recently embraced opportunities to promote local composers and artists. Many are surprised by the depth of Whatcom County’s musical talent, and Chorale has been fortunate to collaborate with Scott Henderson to premier his insightful works Ordinary Prayers, The Feast of Lights, and The Thrush in Winter. The spring 2022 concert featured an astonishing and virtuosic rendition of Beethoven’s Chorale Fantasy by pianist and composer Henry From, named by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation as one of the Top 30 Classical Musicians under 30 in 2019. Chorale also premiered Sarah Mattox’s profoundly moving and historically significant Heart Mountain Suite, based on the diary of a young woman who endured the WWII incarceration of Japanese Americans in a Wyoming concentration camp. We consider it a great privilege to work with such gifted musicians and to have shared the stage with the Bellingham Symphony to perform Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. To recognize her leadership in Bellingham’s musical community, Artistic Director Deborah Brown was awarded the Bellingham Mayor’s Arts Award in 2022.

Fifty years is indeed a milestone that inspires celebration and gratitude. However, as we conclude this retrospective journey, the music itself compels us to look forward. The desire to sing and to share the gift of harmony is embedded within every Chorale member. The solo voice can be stunning, but it is the intricate layering of notes and varied tonal qualities that continues to engage and enrapture. Even during the Covid pandemic, Chorale members joined via Zoom and could not keep from singing. As we embrace the next fifty years, Chorale is buoyed by your continued support and the glorious music that sustains us.  It remains always the irrepressible joy of song that keeps us firmly “Anchored in the Classics; Focused on the Future.”