Christmas in July 2019

This week on Going Beyond Words and ACDA Radio/ChoralNet, host Stan Schmidt invites you his Christmas in July.

You will be introduced to a new masterful choral ensemble from Sioux Falls, South Dakota, called Transept.  You will hear six tracks from a live concert that took place just last December. Transept is a vocal ensemble of elite professional consort singers and select local musicians. Dr. Timothy J. Campbell, the founder and artistic director, is assistant professor of music at the University of South Dakota in Vermillion, where he conducts the concert choir, and men’s and women’s chorus, and well as teaching courses in choral literature. As a singer, he performed with Conspirare, the Rose Ensemble, the Singers, VocalEssence, and more. The Transept ensemble will be heard doing “Rorate Caeli Plainchant,” arranged by Caldwell and Ivory; “Die Könige” by Peter Cornelius; “Away in a Manger” arranged by Ola Gjeilo; a great arrangement of “In the Bleak Midwinter” by Abbie Betinis, and the stunning setting of “In Dulci Jubilo” by Matthew Cullotin.

Also on the program is a selection by Craig Hella Johnson, “Will There Really Be a Morning?”  The US Air Force Concert Band, with vocalist MSgt Angela Williams, presents a song of peace called “Grown Up Christmas List.”  You will also taste an interesting combination of two songs arranged by Craig Hella Johnson.

His Conspirare singers will offer “Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming” while guest artist, the original and soulful jazz singer on the Clarion Label, Camille Schmidt, sings “Some Say Love It Is A Razor,” taken from the North Central ACDA concert in Omaha in 2006.  

The Chapel Choir of the Royal Hospital of Chelsea in England presents the “Cherry Tree Carol” and “Come Love We God,” both works were penned by Ralph Vaughan Williams in 1941.  Flor Peeters is represented by the Roger Wagner Chorale from an original LP with “A Flemish Christmas.” Robert Shaw and the Atlanta Orchestra and Chorus will sing some of the carols from “The Many Moods of Christmas.”

For a look at the CDs used and a complete list of music heard, go to WWW.goingbeyondwords.com show 2535.