MHS Singers Join GMChorale for Fauré Requiem Concert, November 22nd

From Joyce Kirkpatrick, Chair, Development Committee, The Greater Middletown Chorale, Inc.
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GMChorale, the Middletown area’s auditioned, 80-voice choral group, is fortunate to have several
young singers, former and current Middletown High School music students, singing this season.  They will appear with the Chorale on Sunday, November 22 in a program of French music that features Gabriel Fauré’s Requiem.  The festive concert will be accompanied by the New Haven Symphony Orchestra with GMChorale Artistic Director, Joseph D’Eugenio, conducting.

The Requiem is perhaps the final and best-loved work that Fauré composed. He once wrote about this music, " (It) is dominated from beginning to end by a very human feeling of faith in eternal rest."

Experienced singers of varying ages lend their voices to GMChorale, giving a wonderful color to the sound. According to GMChorale Artistic Director, Joseph D’Eugenio, “The younger voices are generally brighter than the more mature voices.  Therefore, they add a certain focus and center to their respective overall sectional sound. It's wonderful to watch young people engage in choral music with such enthusiasm.  Watching the expressions on their faces as the music takes hold in their minds and hearts is priceless!”

The Middletown High School music students and alumni are Brittany Harris, Benjamin Henderson and Allison Lindsay.  Having sung with the GMChorale while in high school, Harris is a recent Mt Holyoke graduate with a major in music. She is also the soprano section leader for the choir at First Congregational Church in Cheshire. Another MHS graduate, Allison Lindsay, holds a Masters degree in voice performance from the Boston Conservatory and is the new Minister of Music at Middletown’s Holy Trinity Church.

Ben Henderson, currently a senior at MHS, is not only a singer but also a talented pianist and organist. He is currently applying to schools of music with a future career in mind as an organist. In May, he was an organ soloist and also accompanied the MHS choruses for “MHS goes to the Symphony” with the New Haven Symphony Orchestra at Bushnell Memorial Hall in Hartford. In addition to singing tenor with GMChorale, he has been enlisted to be a substitute accompanist for the group.

D’Eugenio adds, “The fact that young people are inspired by singing the great masterworks is evidence that classical music is timeless in that it speaks to every generation. I particularly love to watch our younger singers sing and perform with an orchestra for the first time.  I know it will have an impact on them that will last a lifetime.”

Please join Brittany, Allison, Ben and GMChorale on Sunday, November 22, at 4 pm for their inspired performance of Gabriel Fauré’s beautiful Requiem at Bethany Covenant Church, 785 Mill St., Berlin, CT. Under the baton of Artistic Director Joseph D’Eugenio, the Chorale will be accompanied by the New Haven Symphony Orchestra. Among other pieces included in the program will be Fauré’s Cantique de Jean Racine, Louis Vierne’s “Kyrie eleison” from the Messe solonnelle, Morton Lauridsen’s Dirait-on, and three pieces by Maurice Duruflé.

The Greater MIddletown Chorale is supported in part by the Community Foundation of Middlesex County, DECD/Connecticut Office of the Arts and the Middletown Commission on the Arts.

Here is tickets and further information.