2004 - 2005 Season
The Pro Arte Singers and Music Director Arthur
Sjögren will celebrate their 32nd season with four concerts of great
music and a very special visit.
Highlights of the 2004-2005 season include
music by Bach, Brahms, Liszt and Britten. In December, Pro
Arte will host the TUKS Camerata, an internationally renowned choir
from the University of Pretoria, South Africa. The choir
performed in the area to great acclaim in 2002 and their joint concert
with Pro Arte is sure to be a memorable one.
Artistic Director Sjögren and a small group of
professional singers who shared his dream of performing the world’s
finest choral music formed the Pro Arte Singers in 1973. Each
year since, they have grown in artistic achievement and critical
acclaim through their annual concert series, professional recordings,
appearances around the state in classical concert series, and the
regular commission of new works by rising American composers.
Today they continue to be distinguished as the only fully professional
chorus in the Fairfield/ Westchester area.
In 1994 the Pro Arte Singers made a major
commitment to an ever-expanding repertoire with the formation of the
24-voice Pro Arte Festival Chorus, a group of experienced volunteers
who complement the Pro Arte Singers to perform some of the larger
choral works. They will appear together in two concerts this season.
| Sunday, October 31, 3:30pm
at St. John’s Catholic Church, 279 Atlantic Street, Stamford |
This Pro Arte Singers and Festival
Chorus program will
have an English flavor, with works by Benjamin Britten, Gustav Holst,
Herbert Howells and Adrian Batten. Music by Schütz, Arvo Pärt and the
contemporary Chinese composer Zhou Long, among others, will also be
featured on this most varied and attractive program.
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| Sunday, December 12, 3:30 p.m. at St. John’s in
Stamford |
The combined forces of Pro Arte and the
TUKS
Camerata will present their very special concert, with orchestra. The
great Bach Magnificat will be on the program as well as A Carol
Cantata, a newly-commissioned work by the South African composer
Hendrik Hofmeyr. |
| Sunday,
February 6, 3:30 p.m. at the First Presbyterian Church, 1101
Bedford
Street in Stamford. |
The Pro Arte Male Chorus will perform
Liszt’s Requiem,
Saint-Saens’ Hymne au Printemps and works by Holst and Hugo Wolf.
God Protect Us From War by the Estonian composer Veljo Tormis, whose
work has been very popular with Pro Arte audiences, will round out the
program. |
| Sunday, May 1, 3:30 p.m. at the
First Presbyterian Church in Stamford |
The final concert with the Pro Arte
Singers
and Festival Chorus will feature songs by Brahms,
Ives’ Psalm 90, motets by Francis Poulenc. An old Pro Arte favorite,
Jean Absil’s witty Zoo, will return from a long hiatus to delight our
new generation of listeners. |
Series subscriptions for the four concerts are
$90, or $65 for seniors and students; single concert tickets are $25
($30 for the December concert), or $20 for seniors and students.
On Saturday, January 29, at 6 p.m. the Board
and Friends of the Pro Arte Singers will again stage a Benefit Dinner,
Musical Revue and Benefit Auction, at the Carriage Barn &
Powerhouse Theater, Waveny Park, New Canaan. The program will be
announced at a later date.
The Pro Arte Singers are a non-profit
ensemble, supported in part by private contributions and public grants
including from the Connecticut Commission on the Arts and the Stamford
Cultural Development Corporation. For series subscriptions or
more information call (203) 322-5970, write the Pro Arte Singers, P.O.
Box 4251, Stamford, CT 06907-0251, or visit our
subscription page.
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