Boston Harmony World Music Choir Performances
February 20-21, 2010
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Boston Harmony, the unique Boston area world music choir led by Patty Cuyler and Larry Gordon, presents concerts on Saturday, February 20 at 7:30 PM in Cambridge at First Church, Mason and Garden Streets, and Sunday, February 21 at 3:30 PM in Amherst at Grace Episcopal Church, on the Green. Admission, at the door, is $12, $8 for students and seniors. For further information call (978) 371-7317 or visit www.villageharmony.org
The concert program presents South African songs and dances, traditional sacred and secular music from Caucasus Georgia, Bulgaria and Corsica, a short mass by Antonio Lotti, and American shape-note and gospel songs. Now in its fifth season, the choir has expanded to 60 voices, evenly divided between teens and adults. The group is particularly notable for its ability to radically change its sound as it ranges through these different genres: from the dark and sonorous Georgian timbre to the ultra-bright Bulgarian hard-voice, from straight-ahead shape note singing to the rich and mellifluous South African sound.
Directors Gordon and Cuyler are also the directors of the larger organization Village Harmony, which sponsors singing camps and workshops throughout the world that study traditional polyphonic singing styles first hand. Many of the Boston Harmony singers have participated in these camps. Cuyler says, “In all the work we do we strive to reach the essence of the musical traditions we study and perform; not just the melodies and the harmonies, but the distinctive singing timbres, the body language, the sound of the language itself, and the place of the music within the culture. In most cases we have sung these songs alongside native singers in these countries, and we try to share this visceral understanding of the music in our teaching.”
Gordon adds, “We are really excited by the strength of the group this year, with a good balance among all the parts. It is a very adventurous and plucky bunch of singers, completely unafraid to try new sounds and new ways of using their voices.”
Boston Harmony is open to new members in all voice parts for their next season beginning in September. More information is available at the concerts or at www.villageharmony.org.