Welcome to another wonderful season of music with Masterworks Chorale! We are entering our thirty-second year of providing fine choral music to East-Central Indiana, and the singers and board members are already working hard to ensure it will be one of our best. Our concert schedule this year features two nationally renowned guest artists: Kathleen Hacker, who is the chair of the music department at the University of Indianapolis, and Mark Buselli, who is the head of jazz ensembles at Ball State University. The Chorale will also be participating in the annual community Christmas Sing this year, as well as an educational outreach concert in the local public school systems.

            Our fall concert is entitled “Psalms, Hymns, and Spirituals,” and is a musical tribute to sacred choral music. Works by Mendelssohn, Howells, and Rutter will be performed, as well as African-American spirituals arranged by Burleigh, Dawson, and Hogan. The spiritual is one of the few genres of choral music that is distinctly American. Its musical characteristics are closely tied to the blues, which is the basis of all modern popular music. Its subject matter provides a window into a dark period of our nation’s history. The spiritual as a genre has earned its place in the modern choral repertory because it is rich with emotion and musical integrity, and it demands strong technical skill from its singers. Performances of spirituals require the same attention to historical authenticity as any piece of art music. The Chorale’s performance will highlight the maturation of this genre, and the composers who helped bring attention to its artistic pedigree.

Sincerely,