Schedule

The Dessoff Choirs ushers in the winter solstice with a concert of seasonal repertoire and contemporary arrangements of carols. The concert opens with Gregg Smith’s motet Alleluia: Von Himmel Hoch, a setting of the chorale tune of the same name. Brahms’s romantic and lush trilogy, Drei geistliche Chöre is performed by the sopranos and altos of the choir followed by the full choir singing three motets by living composers Ned Rorem, Nancy Wertsch, and James Bassi. We also celebrate Hanukkah with Simchu Nu, by Leonard Bernstein. A set of popular carols will complete the concert including a candlelit rendition of Silent Night for all to sing. Welcome Yule! is the perfect way to shepherd us into the holiday spirit.

The Dessoff Choirs presents David Lang’s the little match girl passion, a work that evokes passion through stasis, repetition, and the unexpected combination of percussion instruments with voices. The composer describes his inspiration for setting the text:

What drew me to The Little Match Girl is that the strength of the story lies not in its plot but in the fact that the horror and the beauty are constantly suffused with their opposites. Andersen tells this story as a kind of parable, drawing a religious and moral equivalency between the suffering of the poor girl and the suffering of Jesus.

In addition, Dessoff performs J.S. Bach’s Komm Jesu, komm, the fourth installment (over three seasons) of Bach’s six motets and as part of our Bernstein tribute, “II. Adonai, roi, lo ehsar” from Chichester Psalms.