Autumn Winds
The Chamber Choir of Yale Camerata
Marguerite L. Brooks, conductor
with Sospiro Winds
St. Michael’s Church, 25 South Street, Litchfield, CT
The Chamber Choir of Yale Camerata, conducted by Marguerite L. Brooks, will be joined by Sospiro Winds in a concert entitled Autumn Winds on Sunday, October 26 at 4 pm at St. Michael’s Church in Litchfield (25 South St.). The concert will feature works by Gian Carlo Menotti and Carl Nielsen.
The Unicorn, the Gorgon, and the Manticore, or The Three Sundays of a Poet by Gian Carlo Menotti (1911-2007) is a “madrigal fable” scored for chamber chorus, instrumental ensemble. The work, an allegory for the different stages of a poet’s creative inspiration, tells the story of a man in a castle and his three pets. The unicorn, which represents the poet’s youth, is beautiful and innocent, yet foolish; the gorgon—his middle years—is successful, but proud and cocky; and the manticore—his old age—is shy and somewhat prickly.
Founded in 1985, the Camerata and its Chamber Choir are sponsored by the Yale Institute of Sacred Music. The chamber choir is drawn from the Camerata’s approximately sixty singers, who are Yale graduate and undergraduate students, faculty, staff, and experienced singers from the New Haven community. The Chamber Choir of the Yale Camerata has performed at the Yale Center for British Art and at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall. They have traveled to Germany to perform the Berlioz Requiemwith choruses from all over the world, and, in 2001, spent a week in residence at Saint Paul’s Cathedral in London, England.
Hailed a “superb ensemble” by New Music Connoisseur, New York-based Sospiro Winds is quickly establishing itself as an exciting new force on the chamber music scene. Originally formed in 2004, Sospiro has received several prizes as it continues its efforts to bring the wind quintet repertoire to many varied audiences throughout the United States. In Litchfield, they will perform Carl Nielsen’s Quintet Op. 43.
For more information, call 860-567-9465.