By Lee Shepherd
The Madrigal Choir of Binghamton, under the baton of guest director Theresa Lee-Whiting, opens its 46th season on Sunday, Oct. 27, with a concert titled “Love Never Ends.” At this special event, the choir carries on the indelible legacy of beloved conductor Dr. Bruce E. Borton, artistic director of the ensemble since 2011.
He died on Aug. 11.
The concert will be held at 4 p.m. at Trinity Memorial Church, 44 Main St., Binghamton.
Not only a fine conductor, Borton also wrote and arranged choral works such as the setting of a biblical passage from I Corinthians 13 that he chose for “Love Never Ends.” The piece will open the second half of the program.
“Kind and humble, yet meticulous and musically demanding — how privileged are those of us who were chosen to sing with Maestro Borton.” That’s what Lee-Whiting said at Borton’s passing, and it was a sentiment expressed by one of the countless people whose lives he touched as a choral director, teacher, mentor and friend. The choir, with Borton at the helm, gave concerts that blended innovative and traditional programming, sometimes featuring his own compositions and arranged works. His skill at creating themed concerts filled halls with loyal audience members.
Lee-Whiting has flourished as a music educator and conductor for 20 years. She has been director of music ministries at the Tabernacle United Methodist Church in Binghamton since 2002 and recently started a women’s choir at the Broome County Jail. John Isenberg, music director at All Saints Episcopal Church in Johnson City and a faculty member of Binghamton University’s Music Department, is piano accompanist to the Madrigal Choir.
The choir is thrilled to once again showcase Derek Lee Ragin, an American countertenor, at this concert. Ragin will reprise that appearance with selections of spirituals, spotlighting the genius of arranger Moses Hogan.
Ragin is the rare singer with feet in two very different camps, specializing both in Baroque opera and African-American spirituals. In 1991, he released a disc of spirituals titled Ev’ry Time I Feel the Spirit, recorded with Moses Hogan and his New World Ensemble. His recording of Leonard Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms and the world premiere of the composer’s Missa Brevis with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Robert Shaw won him a Grammy Award. Ragin has won acclaim in concert halls all over the world, including Lincoln Center and London’s Wigmore Hall.
The centerpiece of the Oct. 27 concert will be Lux Aeterna for chorus and chamber orchestra by Morten Lauridsen. Each of the five connected movements contains references to light assembled from various Latin texts. Lauridsen said he composed the piece in response to his mother’s fatal illness: “I found great personal comfort and solace in setting these timeless and wondrous words about light, a universal symbol of illumination at all levels, spiritual, artistic and intellectual.”
Since 1997, the Lux Aeterna has been performed countless times throughout the world. Lauridsen, named an American Choral Master by the National Endowment for the Arts in 2006, is a 2007 recipient of the National Medal of Arts, the highest artistic award in the United States, presented to him by the president in a White House ceremony. Lauridsen is lauded for his composition of “radiant choral works combining musical beauty, power and spiritual depth that have thrilled audiences worldwide.”
The 17-piece chamber orchestra accompanying this work are members of the Binghamton Community Orchestra.
Also on the program is Gerald Finzi’s My Spirit Sang All Day, Fly Away by Mark Masri and Moses Hogan’s arrangement of the traditional spiritual I Got a Robe.
IF YOU GO: Tickets are $20. Students with ID are admitted free. Visit the website madrigalchoir.com for more information or to purchase tickets. Tickets also can be purchased at the door.
