May Festival

May 18th 2008

Sunday, 8:00 PM

MAY FESTIVAL SPECIAL CONCERT:
RACHMANINOFF: Excerpts from Vespers
SCARLATTI: Exultate Deo
DES PREZ: El Grillo
PALESTRINA: Sicut Cervus
FAURÉ: Cantique de Jean Racine
WILLIAM DUCKWORTH: Hebrew Children
SCHUBERT: Des Tages Weihe
VAUGHAN WILLIAMS: The Turtle Dove
THOMPSON: The Last Words of David
arr. DAWSON: Ezekiel Saw the Wheel
May 18 8:00 PM
Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption

The Festival's annual sojourn to the exquisite Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption is this year taken in celebration of James Bagwell's tenth anniversary as director of the May Festival Youth Chorus. The works he has selected represent highlights from his time with the group, which he has shaped into an acclaimed ensemble that, just last season, was featured on NPR's From the Top, a program that showcases the best of the best of today's young performers.

The May Festival Chorus will perform one of the most sublime works in all of choral literature, Rachmaninoff's Vespers. This socalled All-Night Vigil Service evokes the Death and Resurrection of Christ through its symbolic descent into darkness and return to light. The Vespers remained among Rachmaninoff's favorite compositions, so much so that he requested that the work's "Nunc dimittis" be sung at his funeral.