BETHLEHEM, Pa. — Starting next month, a handful of the Lehigh Valley’s choral groups will take the stage at New York City’s Carnegie Hall.
Five Lehigh Valley groups in all will perform in the hall’s Stern Auditorium: the Lehigh Valley Chorale, the Emmaus High School Chorale, Concord Chamber Singers, the Lehigh Valley Charter High School for the Arts Touring Choir, and the Bangor Area High School Slater Chorale.
Each group, alongside other choral ensembles from around the U.S., will perform one or two choral works ranging from Handel’s coronation anthems to contemporary works composed in the past couple of years.
The combined choruses will each appear under the baton of a guest conductor. Most of the Lehigh Valley’s participating ensembles will perform at least one piece conducted by its composer.
The concerts are part of a series put on by MidAmerica Productions, a New York-based company that brings high-level amateur ensembles to one of North America’s most famous concert halls.
Ahead of their respective concerts, each group will spend five days in New York City rehearsing and sightseeing.
The Lehigh Valley Chorale will appear first among the Lehigh Valley’s singers in the concert series, performing Morten Lauridsen’s “Lux Aeterna” with the Atlanta Gay Men’s Chorus and the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Atlanta Choir on May 11.
Emmaus High School Chorale, joined by ensembles from Lansdale, Pennsylvania as well as Connecticut, Kansas and New Orleans, will perform “Missa Festiva” by John Leavitt and “Three Memories” by Daniel McDavitt on May 26.
Bethlehem’s two participating groups, Concord Chamber Singers and the Charter Arts touring choir, will take the stage on May 26 with ensembles from six other states, presenting John Rutter’s “Requiem.”
The Bangor Area High School Slater Chorale, appearing on June 15 with choruses from Texas, Arkansas, and Alberta, Canada, will perform Handel’s “Let Thy Hand Be Strengthened” and “The King Shall Rejoice,” followed by a medley of “Walk With Me Lord” and “Lift Every Voice and Sing” arranged by Christopher Cross.
