Hello, beloved Greeley Chorale Patrons! As we embark upon our 54th season and my 10th season as Artistic Director, we want to thank you with all our hearts for the support of this wonderful choral organization.
As I plan and organize our seasons, I am always wondering what our singers and patrons want most in our performances. Personally, my feeling is that if the singers are happy, I am happy, but programming a season with a theme, three formal concert performances, and about forty choral selections is a hugely daunting task!
Historically, the Chorale performs choral music from about seven centuries. We select our repertoire from a wide variety of styles – Renaissance motets (Latin), anthems (English), madrigals, music from the Baroque period, such as our biennial performances of Handel’s Messiah, and the choral/orchestral music of the Classical period by composers such as Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven. In the Romantic period, choral music style expanded to works of an intimate nature, to the larger works of Brahms, Mendelssohn, and others.
It is the 20th and 21st centuries which provide the largest part of our repertoire. Here, the opportunities explode: arrangements of hymns, folk songs, spirituals, and newly composed settings of great texts. Add to that patriotic songs as well as settings of seasonal and popular tunes and you can begin to understand the challenge of programming each season!
Some choirs specialize in choral masterworks, Broadway, or popular tunes. In the Greeley Chorale, we try to do it all, and this season will feature such eclectic fare, plus the toe-tapping talents of Kream of the Krop, our popular holiday performances (featuring the beloved Gloria for choir and brass by John Rutter), our wildly popular Pops & Pasta!, and closing the season with the new Requiem for the Living by Dan Forrest, a work of beauty, consolation, and hope. Please join us for our 54th season as we will not only make our singers happy, but you, our wonderful and dedicated patrons, as well!
Sincerely, Galen Darrough Artistic Director & Conductor