Cathedral of the Madeleine choir celebrates 20th season
SALT LAKE CITY — Noteworthy anniversaries for both the Cathedral of the Madeleine and its choir have led to a selection of treasured sacred music for the annual concert season. Anton Bruckner’s Te Deum will open The Choir of the Cathedral of the Madeleine’s 20th annual concert season, which corresponds with the Cathedral’s centennial celebration. Described by many as Bruckner’s greatest choral work, the Te Deum "incorporates a large orchestral ensemble with choir and soloists, opening with strong arpeggio figures punctuated with brass and choral declamations of the text," said Gregory Glenn, founder and pastoral administrator of The Madeleine Choir School. "It is an invigorating setting to say the least." Choristers from the school’s St. Cecilia and St. Gregory performing choirs, which are comprised of students in grades 5 to 8, will join the Cathedral choir in the opening concert on Sunday. An alumnus of the school, Evan Shinners, who now is a graduate student in piano performance at The Julliard School, will be the piano soloist. The Choir of the Cathedral of the Madeleine performs an average of nine concerts a year and reaches about 7,000 concertgoers, said Joanna R. Wheelton, director of advancement for the Madeleine Choir School. "This is an opportunity for us to bring choral music and liturgical music to Salt Lake City," she said. Attending a concert is "an otherworldly experience," she added. "The students’ voices are angelic and the acoustics in the Cathedral are marvelous. It transports you to another place. People are engulfed by music." Preparation for a concert season requires careful consideration of major sacred music choral works as well as pertinent historic occasions, Glenn said. "This treasury is enormous - we have only begun to scratch the surface in the performances which have made up the last 19 years and the beginning of the concert series." Because 2009 is the 200th anniversary of the birth of Felix Mendelssohn, and Pope Benedict had declared a year in honor of St. Paul, the choir will perform Mendelssohn’s Paulus, an oratorio on the life of St. Paul, Glenn said. Among the upcoming highlights will be Benjamin Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols, a tradition for the Christmas season. "It is something the children look forward to each year, and our alumni return in great numbers to hear it as well," Glenn said. During the Christmas Carol Services, music by Morales, Sweelinck and Grier will be performed. Benjamin Britten’s work also will be featured during the Founder’s Day concert in March. For the Good Friday performance, the choir will perform Stabat mater by G.B. da Pergolesi. The season’s closing concert will highlight sacred music by Antonio Vivaldi, Charles Ives, Ralph Vaughan Williams and Zoltan Kodaly. All the concerts are open and free to the public, but concertgoers are requested to call for concert information and seating, especially for the Christmas performances. "We do sell out," Wheelton said.
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