Sunday’s GMChorale Music Dedicated to Victims of French Tragedy

The GMChorale has announced that it will dedicate the centerpiece of its concert of French music this Sunday, November 22, to the people of France and to those anywhere in the world who have suffered such tragic attacks on humanity.

Gabriel Fauré’s luminous Requiem, the concert’s featured work, will be presented as a memorial to those affected by recent events and as an opportunity for compassion and healing. Comfort and peace are found in this glowing music’s every measure and the Requiem has become one of the best-loved masterpieces of choral music.  France’s major composer in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Fauré’s musical form greatly influenced subsequent French composers.

Soloists for the Fauré “Requiem” are Julie Duggan, Soprano, of Rocky Hill and Nathanael Dickinson of Naugatuck. Other French music presented in the concert will include vibrant compositions by Louis Vierne, Maurice Duruflé and a setting of a French poem by American composer Morten Lauridsen.

GMChorale Artistic Director Joseph D’Eugenio will conduct the Chorale and the New Haven Symphony Orchestra in Sunday’s tribute.  GMChorale Accompanist, Allan Conway, who is on the University of Connecticut staff, will also be featured on the organ.  The musical event takes place at the Bethany Covenant Church on Mill Street (Rte. 372) in Berlin, Connecticut, at 4 P.M.  For more information and tickets.  

The GMChorale is the region’s preeminent choral group, based in Middletown, whose eighty auditioned singers represent some 33 Connecticut towns.  Its 2015-2016 season focuses on choral masterworks and will continue in May with music of Haydn and Bernstein.

The GMChorale is supported by many generous patrons and by funding from the Middletown Commission on the Arts, the Community Foundation of Middlesex County, the DECD/Connecticut Office of the Arts.  Corporate funders include Aetna, McPhee Electric, MiddleOak, Pfizer, Travelers and Unilever.