In our opening workshop this season, there was some discussion about which pieces singers have done before, or which pieces have been sung by Consort. So I put on my self-described “Consort Historian” hat and did some research.
… by Jon Curtis
Gabriel’s Oboe, Ennio Morricone
Consort itself has not sung Gabriel’s Oboe before, but it was part of the Allan Pertker Chorale’s tour of Argentina in 2017. Every three years Consort members have joined in with Allan’s two other choruses (the Santa Clarita Master Chorale and the Cancioneros Master Chorale) to tour internationally. At the time of this writing, they are currently on tour in Spain!
A unique feature of the 2017 tour was that each concert began with a 20 minute introductory concert by a local chorus. Not only did it enrich our interactions with local singers, but also guaranteed us a good audience for each performance. Our first performance was outside of Cordoba, at the Alta Gracia Mission.
It was the Alta Gracia Adult Chorale who sang an arrangement of Gabriel’s Oboe with lyrics. It ended up being the first song in the Argentina tour’s full-length movie. We did not include the local choruses in our posted YouTube Argentina Tour playlist, but below you can view a clip from the movie featuring the Alta Gracia chorus. In this clip you will also see our own Alexandra Amati’s (Consort member: 2013-2019) introduction. What made her introductions even better, was that she speaks Spanish with an Argentinian accent!
The name of the song was not listed in the movie credits, as I was unable to figure out what it was in time to include it. It was not until a year later, while watching the 2018 Winter Olympics, that I noticed that German skater, Nicole Schott, was using Nella Fantasia, another arrangement of Gabriel’s Oboe, for her short form. The music title was shown at the beginning of her performance.
Kyrie and Hosanna, Ariel Quintanna
The first performance I was aware of was its Northern California debut when David Irvine directed Quintanna’s “Mass from Two Worlds” in June of 2006 at St. Andrew Presbyterian Church in Sonoma. The following year the mass was performed by Consort in Opus 14. Unfortunately I do not have recordings of either performance.
The Kyrie and Hosanna were performed by themselves on the Allan Petker Chorale’s 2017 tour of Argentina. It is that performance that is included in our Youtube rehearsal playlist for this year. You can also find the same recording in the APC Argentina Tour playlist. This video includes the flight from Buenos Aires and our gathering at the Catedral San José, Posadas where it was recorded.
Kevin Memley
During the Pandemic in 2020, with the help of Lily O’Brien, I sent out “Season of the Day” emails to our members. 92 emails were sent during the period we would have been in rehearsals for Opus 27. If you want to explore the history of Consort’s first 26 years, check out this page in our “Past Seasons” at the bottom. The emails included many topics such as celebrating our soloists, women and black composers, tours, and trivia questions.
Season of the Day emails also had sections about our favorite composers like Allan, Sanford, and Kevin. In fact, Kevin Memley is our most performed composer after Allan. For his section, I asked Kevin for his favorite pieces and was able to include six of them. You can see his section starting here, July 9th, 2020.
Moonlight and Rain, Kevin Memley
Consort sang Moonlight and Rain in 2014, Opus 21. You will find it both in the Opus 21 season’s page’s playlist, and in its own Season of the Day page on July 12th, 2020.
O Magnum Mysterium, Kevin Memley
This year will be the first time that Consort has sung O Magnum Mysterium. However, for those of you who also sing with the Marin Symphony Chamber Chorus, we have sung it twice at the Christmas Mission concerts.
- The first time was in 2015 under the direction of Stephen McKersey.
- Then again in 2019, this time under the direction of Kevin Fox.
- Stephen retired and Kevin began directing the Symphony choruses in 2017.
Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves, Giuseppe Verdi
For this piece we need to go back 14 years to 2011, when the Marin Symphony Chorus did an entire Master Works concert, performing “Opera’s hottest hits.” See if you can identify the five Consort members featured in it’s publicity poster (answer below).
That’s enough for now … now get back to your rehearsing!