Concert of Yale Schola Cantorum
Presented by the Yale Institute of Sacred Music
Battell Chapel, Free and Open to the Public
No tickets required.
The Yale Schola Cantorum will present James MAcMillan’s monumentalSeven Last Words from the Cross on Good Friday, April 9 at 7pm in Battell Chapel, New Haven (corner of College and Elm). The Schola Cantorum, directed by Simon Carrington, will be joined by string players from the Yale School of Music. The composer will conduct.
Widely hailed as MacMillan’s masterpiece, the Seven Last Words provides an absorbing and moving concert experience for performers and audience alike. This cantata follows Christ’s final utterances at the Crucifixion, meditating on each to form a dramatic and emotional sequence. Both the vocal and instrumental parts draw on characteristic models: Lutheran baroque techniques for the chorus, and the sophisticated British and Polish 20th-century traditions of writing for the string orchestra. The work was commissioned by BBC Television and broadcast in seven nightly episodes during Holy Week of 1994.
James MacMillan, the preeminent Scottish composer of his generation, will be in residence at the Yale Institute of Sacred Music and the Yale School of Music during the week of April 5 to conduct masterclasses for choral conducting students and composers, and to work with the Institute’s performing groups, including the Yale Camerata as well as the Schola Cantorum. He will also present a seminar to the composers at the Yale School of Music hosted by Ezra Laderman.
The concert and the residency are sponsored by the Yale Institute of Sacred Music.