Ludlow Choral Society – A Shining Night of American Song

Jazz is represented by arrangements of three well known Gershwin Songs – I Got Rhythm, Fascinating Rhythm and Summertime. The Spiritual arrangements will include Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve seen in an arrangement with a Latin jazz feel by Birmingham based composer John Barber. Other songs will draw upon the native American tradition and shape note communal singing. The 20th-century American choral tradition is represented with song cycles from Florence Price, the pioneering African American Composer much of whose work is only recently been brought to prominence. A centrepiece of the concert will be the set of Nocturnes by renowned composer Morten Lauridsen who recently celebrated his 80th birthday. Commissioned in 2005, the Nocturnes are exquisite and meditative settings of French, Spanish and English poetry. Much of Lauridsen’s music has been composed on a remote island retreat in the Pacific Northwest and his evocative melodies and lush harmonies echo the beauty of his surroundings. The “Nocturnes” of Morten Lauridsen include his lovely setting of James Agee’s well-known poem “Sure on this Shining Night” which gives the Concert its title.
The programme will finish with a setting of St Augustine’s Evening Prayer by Ola Gjeilo a contemporary Norwegian-American composer whose choral works are widely sung and admired.
The evening will be presented by Ludlow Choral Society’s Musical Director Nicola Starkie with our new regular accompanist Marion Bettsworth.