May Festival honors choral director with – what else?

Written by Janelle Gelfand

 

Robert Porco, May Festival choral director, rehearsing with the chorus last week. He is in his 20th year as director and on Friday will conduct music commissioned in his honor.

 

When the members of the May Festival Chorus were brainstorming how to honor Robert Porco’s 20 years as director of choruses, an etched bowl would not do. Commissioning a new choral piece for him was “a no-brainer.”

 

“We’re with Bob all year, and most of us have been with Bob for many years. There’s an attachment, a bond, a closeness there” says Lawrence Coleman, 53, of Kennedy Heights, a bass-baritone. “Although Bob is a strict taskmaster, the backside of that is what happens on performance night, which we’ve all come to appreciate. So, years of that, coupled with Bob’s accomplishments connected with the chorus, made it easy.”

 

On Friday, Porco will conduct the world premiere of “Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking” by American composer Ian Krouse to words by Walt Whitman, commissioned by the May Festival Chorus. Porco’s celebratory concert will feature some of his favorite works, including William Walton’s “Belshazzar’s Feast” and Leonard Bernstein’s “Chichester Psalms.” The festival ends on Saturday in Music Hall.

 

Porco had a flood of emotion when the chorus told him they planned to commission a piece in his honor.

 

“It’s a very special relationship. It’s far more than musical,” Porco says. “This is unlike any other group I’ve had. It really is, for me and for many of them, a strong sense of family … we see each other so much in May.