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Phone: (320) 252-1710 Paynesville, MN Phone: (320) 251-6700 Phone: (320) 258-3613
Phone: (320) 243-3767
For Information on Auditioning for the Minnesota Center Chorale, please send email to minnesotacenterchorale@gmail.com.
The Minnesota Center Chorale (MCC) begins its 36th season in the fall of 2008. Normally comprised of eighty singers, the MCC draws members throughout Central Minnesota. As a regional community chorus, all its members are volunteers.
The MCC performs a mixture of classical and contemporary music, often with orchestral accompaniment. Works performed in past seasons include requiems by Brahms and Verdi; masses by Ethel Smyth, Mozart, and Amy Beach; Paul McCartney's Liverpool Oratorio; and programs entitled Music by Asians & Asian Americans, Space Music and Rhythm & Song. MCC commissioned Korean American composer Yung-wha Son to write Song of Diaspora for our concert in May 2006, and she was in residency with the MCC for the premiere and the week leading up to the performance. This spring, Judith Shatin completed a residency with MCC, which culminated with the premiere of the MCC commission of a new orchestrated version of Songs of War and Peace.
Past residencies include English composer David Fanshawe and a performance of his African Sanctus, and Mary McAuliffe from Ireland for a performance of her Return to Old Ireland.
The Minnesota Center Chorale is a member of United Arts of Central Minnesota.
Minnesota Center Chorale 2008/2009 Season Concert Season:
Minnesota - Our Home
In honor of Minnesota's sesquicentennial celebration, each MCC concert will include works by Minnesota composers, music of old and new immigrant groups and Minnesota themes.
Home in a New Land - St. John's University: Great Hall, Collegeville
November 2, 2008 @ 3:00 p.m.
This concert focuses on the largest immigrant population that calls Minnesota home and features works drawn from Minnesota's rich German heritage, including J.S. Bach's Magnificat. To connect Minnesota's past and present immigrants, Somali students from Technical High School in St. Cloud will perform cultural dances. Several choral works with dance roots will be performed: "The Promise of Living" and "Stomp Your Foot" from Aaron Copland's The Tender Land along with Libby Larsen's The Settling Years, which sets pioneer texts and offers a barn dance. Liebeslieder Polkas by P.D.Q. Bach, Johann Sebastian's "last and least offspring," gathers together the various threads of this program and adds a touch of humor.
Cabaret 2008: A Minnesota Winter - St. John's University: Great Hall, Collegeville
December 12 & 13, 2008 @ 6:30 p.m.
Holiday Music ~ Gourmet Dinner
A multi-course gourmet dinner and an array of lively holiday music performed in the resplendently bedecked Great Hall makes this annual series a favorite seasonal celebration. An opportunity to hear a wide variety of music by Minnesota composers.
Minnesota Legend and Lore - Bethlehem Lutheran Church, St. Cloud
March 22, 2009 @ 3:00 p.m.
Minnesota is a land of legend and lore. The music of this concert will tell of these legends, from folk songs to selections from Benjamin Britten's Paul Bunyan. This concert will include songs from Minnesota's French Canadian connections, e.g., voyageurs, logging, canoeing, and fur trapping. Guest: Native American storyteller. Collaboration with St. John's Boys' Choir, André-Louis Heywood (artistic director).
Returning Home - Salem Lutheran Church, St. Cloud
May 17, 2009 @ 3:00 p.m.
Home is a word that resonates with meaning, and the music of this concert expresses home and its varied impact in our lives. We sing about experiences by Irish and Swedish immigrants, a set of American ballads and songs about home, and works by Minnesota composers, including “The Road Home” by Stephen Paulus.
Hear works by Minnesota composers of Chinese heritage and our special guest, The Minhua Chorus, an ensemble from the Twin Cities whose mission is to maintain and enhance the cultural heritage and identity of the Chinese community and to promote cultural exchange and understanding between people of different ethnic backgrounds. Minhua Chorus and a pipa performer (Chinese lute) perform “Coming of Spring” by Gao Hong. MCC presents “A Spring Morning” by Zhang Ying, who will perform with the chorale and as a soloist on hulusi (Chinese wind instrument). The Choruses join together in a performance of a familiar Chinese folksong, "Jasmine Flower" (Mo Li Hua) sung in English translation.
Ticket Information -
Single tickets are available for each performance. Tickets can be purchased in advance or at the door (excluding Cabaret). Single ticket prices are $15 Adult; $13 Senior; $5 Student. Cabaret tickets are available by advance purchase only.
For Ticket or General Information regarding upcoming concerts, please contact - mcc.coordinator@gmail.com or call (320) 257-0603
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J. Michele Edwards, professor of music at Macalester College in St. Paul from 1974 until her retirement in 2001, has significant experience with repertoire ranging from medieval chant to large, contemporary choral-orchestral works. She was founder/conductor of Harmonia Mundi, a professional double woodwind quintet and piano ensemble for over 20 years and music director for Calliope Women’s Chorus from 2000-2006. She has seven years experience as the conductor of the Macalester Festival Chorale, a group about the size of the MCC.
Throughout her career, she has programmed everything from the standard, canonic works to the more innovative. She has an active, academic life of numerous and significant publications, and she has broad experience working with excellent musicians and musical groups. Her professional history speaks to an intensity of effort as well as a sensitivity to the importance of relationship and interaction within a community of musicians.
Special Thanks to:
United Arts Central Minnesota Arts Miller Weller Heiser Target
Board Certified Public Accountants
Minnesota Center Chorale
PO Box 471