Premieres and Encores Syracuse Vocal Ensemble (Cazenovia)
The Syracuse Vocal Ensemble and Society for New Music are collaborating on a concert called “Premieres and Encores” on May 16th and 17th. The program will feature choral and instrumental pieces by current and former CNY composers. The repertoire includes a piece commissioned by the vocal ensemble by Syracuse University composer and Professor Emeritus, Earl George, who set several Shakespeare texts in a collection called “Weather Reports and Other News.” “Four Romantic Songs” by Crystal LaPoint features texts by Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley in a lush harmonic language. WNCY Manager and host, Diane Jones composed a piece for chorus that sets her own text for the winter solstice when nature waits to reemerge in the Spring. Composer Mark Olivieri, on the music faculty at Hobart-William Smith, composed “The Night Stars All Our Souls” for the college’s choirs, and the piece will receive its second performance at these concerts. It is a dramatic and haunting piece that revisits the arrival of slavery in Geneva, NY. We will also present one song from the amazing song cycle by Kurt Erickson, Each Moment Radiant. The work, which premiered in October 2024 on the SU Malmgren series, commemorates the tragic Pan Am 103 disaster which took the lives of 35 Syracuse University students returning home from a semester abroad in 1988. Sar Shalom Strong will present new work by newly retired Hamilton College professor, Doc Woods. This is a piano solo full of whimsy that perfectly captures the extraordinary talent of the soloist.
Dates & Locations
Saturday 5/16 starting at 7:30pm @ Erwin First United Methodist Church, Syracuse
Sunday 5/17 starting at 3:00pm @ Cazenovia Presbyterian Church
