The Minnesota Center Chorale (MCC) begins its 35th season in the fall of 2007. Normally comprised of 80 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 and Space Music. Korean American composer Yung-wha Son recently completed a residency with the MCC, which culminated with the premiere of the MCC commission, Song of Diaspora. 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 MCC is a member of United Arts of Central Minnesota.
Auditions for joining the Minnesota Center Chorale will be in August of 2008.
For more information, please send email to - minnesotacenterchorale@gmail.com
Minnesota Center Chorale 2008/2009
Season Concert Schedule
In honor of Minnesota’s sesquicentennial celebration, each MCC concert will include works by Minnesota composers and focus on Minnesota themes.
Fall 2008 Home in a New Land
This concert focuses on the largest immigrant population that calls Minnesota home and features works drawn from Minnesota’s rich German heritage. To connect Minnesota’s past and present immigrants, Somali students from Technical High School in St. Cloud will perform cultural dances.
December 12 & 13, 2008 Cabaret 2008: A Minnesota Winter
6:30 p.m. Holiday Music ~ Gourmet Dinner
St. John’s University: Great Hall, Collegeville
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.
March 2009 Minnesota Legend and Lore
Minnesota is a land of legend and lore. The music of this concert will tell of these legends, from folk songs to a composition highlighting 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.
May 2009 Returning Home
Home is a word that resonates with meaning, and the music of this concert expresses home and its varied impact in our lives. Mary McAuliffe’s An American Odyssey is about creating a new home in the U.S. after emigrating from Ireland. Yung-wha Son’s Song of Diaspora was commissioned and premiered by MCC in May 2006. As Dr. Son said at the premiere: “Whether voluntarily chosen or not, displaced lives everywhere live with the longing for the homeland left behind. Yet, they are also preoccupied with the possibilities of new beginnings. Longing and nostalgia mixed with the hope of finding new beginnings and new connections are the symbolic expression of this work.”
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or call - (320) 257-0603
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:
Minnesota Center Chorale
PO Box 471