Written by Richard Knox Hope is the theme of the New Hampshire Master Chorale’s spring concerts, on June 15 in Concord and June 16 in Plymouth – why we need to hope, how dark and despairing life is without it. Master Chorale director Dan Perkins says the concert program was inspired by Hope On, a recent composition by Polish-American Martin Sedek that the composer calls “socially conscious music.” “Sedek challenges us to maintain hope in today’s social, economic, environmenta

A Meditation on Time and Human Existence Time is the ocean we all swim in…infinite, invisible as air. We spend lifetimes trying to find our bearings in the unpredictable currents of this vast ocean. In one way and another, this concert is a meditation on time and human existence. It’s a radically different take on the human condition from the one offered in last spring’s Master Chorale concert, From Time to Time, a rollicking voyage from the tender hope of infancy to the lust

All living things are connected. This bond, whatever its identity, known by whatever name you choose, is undeniable, omnipotent, expressed by powerful emotion. For our upcoming concerts, Dan has chosen music which reflects our universal commonality. The centerpiece, The Wound in the Water, is by Norwegian composer Kim André Arnesen, with texts by European poet Euan Tait. As is often true of poetry, meaningful but curious ambiguity leaves room for interpretation. But there i

The theme of this fall’s New Hampshire Master Chorale two-concert series is “The Heart of the Singer.” That’s also the title of the concluding section of the concerts’ centerpiece, The Wound in the Water, a new work for chorus and chamber orchestra that laments our damaged environment, humanity’s anxious and wounded psyche, and the redemptive power of music. The work is a collaboration between the rising young Norwegian composer Kim André Arnesen and Welsh librettist Euan Tai

The New Hampshire Master Chorale’s spring concerts, on June 17 in Concord and June 18 in Plymouth, embrace life’s gamut. The program, titled From Time to Time, ranges from the innocent hope embodied in a newborn baby to the funk and lustiness of youth, and from the dawning sense of life’s limitations in middle age to the poignancy of failing health and memory in the twilight years. The centerpiece is a new commissioned work provocatively entitled Smoking, Drinking, Messing Ar

Boston-based composer Oliver Caplan chose three poems of Ruth Kessler’s for his new choral work, Eve Absinthe Alice, commissioned by the New Hampshire Master Chorale for premiere performances on November 19 and 20, 2016. The poems are among 17 depicting women from myth, art and literature, published under the title Fire Ashes Wings. Eve – the mother of us all, Genesis tells us – tastes a forbidden fruit that awakens a world of knowledge. Addressing Posterity, she rues the bla

The three poems set by composer Oliver Caplan as Eve, Absinthe, Alice - commissioned by the New Hampshire Master Chorale and to be premiered by the group in November 2016 – are from a cycle of 17 poems by Ruth Kessler, published under the title Fire Ashes Wings. They are part of a larger project giving voice to women in myths, art and literature. Kessler is a Polish-born poet who grew up in Israel and now lives in New York City. Caplan selected the three poems for his composi

The opening program of the New Hampshire Master Chorale’s 14th season is all about women. There are choral settings of poems written from a woman’s point of view; songs about mythical, fictional and historical women; and pieces by female composers. The program is called “Eve, Absinthe, Alice” after its centerpiece – a new choral work commissioned by the Master Chorale that will receive its world premiere on November 19 at 8 p.m. at the Eagle Square Atrium in Concord and Novem

The fifth annual New Hampshire Master Chorale Children’s Chorus Festival brought more than 60 young singers to Plymouth on October 15 for a day of musical fun, learning, and performance. “It went super-well,” says Lisa Cooper, who led this year’s festival, which is sponsored by the New Hampshire Master Chorale. “The students had great energy throughout the entire day. They were very focused throughout the whole rehearsal process, and the results were really special.” Cooper i