2016-2017 Season

2016–17 Season: Experience True Magic!

 

Music of the Four Elements

Mother Earth is the honoree for our season opener. In the Beginning, Aaron Copland’s resounding choral work, depicts the wonder and awe of the creation story. This program also includes Eric Whitacre’s Water Night, Stephen Paulus’s The Water is Wide, and works by Johannes Brahms, Samuel Barber and others, all inspired by the natural world.

  • Thursday, October 13, 7:30pm – Scottish Rite Temple, downtown Tucson
  • Friday, October 14, 7:00pm – Desert Hills Lutheran Church, Green Valley
  • Saturday, October 15, 2:00pm – **PLEASE NOTE TIME CHANGE** – Tohono Chul Alice Y Holsclaw Performance Garden, northwest Tucson
  • Sunday, October 16, 3:00pm Grace St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Tucson

Bach’s Magnificat

The exuberant trumpet calls that open this celebrated work take liturgical music into a new and joyous realm. Bach’s setting of the ancient text depicts the exultant moment when Mary shares with her cousin the news of her forthcoming child. This is one of Bach’s most glorious works.

  • Thursday, November 17, 7:30pm – St. Alban’s Episcopal Church, east Tucson
  • Friday, November 18, 7:00pm – Lutheran Church of the Risen Savior, Green Valley
  • Saturday, November 19, 7:30pm – Catalina Foothills High School, Tucson
  • Sunday, November 20, 3:00pm – Grace St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Tucson

Christmas Lessons and Carols

Each year, Music Director Eric Holtan reimagines this unique holiday tradition of favorite and new music of the season performed by candlelight in some of the area’s most beautiful churches. The mystery and joy of the season are captured in these concerts like none other.

  • Thursday, December 8, 7:30pm – Episcopal Church of the Apostles, Oro Valley
  • Friday, December 9, 7:00pm – St. Francis Episcopal Church, Green Valley
  • Saturday, December 10, 7:30pm – St. Philip’s in the Hills Episcopal Church, Tucson
  • Sunday, December 11, 3:00pm – St. Philip’s in the Hills Episcopal Church, Tucson
  • Sunday, December 11, 7:30pm – St. Alban’s Episcopal Church, Tucson

Mendelssohn’s Elijah

Mendelssohn’s greatest musical achievement features thirteen vocal soloists, a full symphony orchestra and chorus. True Concord is joined by UA’s Arizona Choir, and GRAMMY award-winning baritone Richard Paul Fink sings the title role. Among the work’s most vivid episodes, Elijah raises a dead child, ends a drought by commanding rain and challenges the followers of Baal to win the souls of the Israelites. The Arizona Daily Star describes this concert as “arguably the cornerstone of the 2017 Tucson Desert Song Festival.”

  • Friday, January 27, 7:30pm – Catalina Foothills High School, Tucson
  • Saturday, January 28, 7:00pm – Valley Presbyterian Church, Green Valley
  • Sunday, January 29, 3:00pm – Catalina United Methodist Church, Tucson

Monteverdi’s Vespers

“The Baroque starts here,” is how Music Director Eric Holtan summarizes this seminal work. “Vespers” refers to the centuries-old tradition of evening prayers, but in creating a work of monumental scale, Monteverdi includes both tranquil prayerful moments and ecstatic outbursts of absolute joy. In partnership with Arizona Early Music Society, the iconic Vespers of 1610 will utilize sackbuts, cornettos, recorders and other rare period instruments.

  • Friday, February 24, 7:00pm – Valley Presbyterian Church, Green Valley
  • Saturday, February 25, 7:30pm – Catalina Foothills High School, Tucson
  • Sunday, February 26, 3:00pm – Grace St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Tucson 

Russian Masters

The mysticism of Mother Russia is evoked in Grechaninoff’s hypnotic Passion Week. Russia’s rich choral tradition, famous for its deep basses, is also represented by works of Rachmaninoff and Tchaikovsky. This profoundly spiritual music for a cappella choir is Russian romanticism at its finest.

  • Thursday, March 23, 7:30pm – Christ the King Episcopal Church, northwest Tucson
  • Friday, March 24, 7:00pm – St. Francis in the Valley Episcopal Church, Green Valley
  • Saturday, March 25, 7:30pm – Holy Resurrection Orthodox Church, east Tucson
  • Sunday, March 26, 3:00pm – Grace St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Tucson