A file photo of the American Festival Chorus at a recent concert.
LOGAN – The American Festival Chorus & Orchestra will open their 2022-2023 concert season with The Great English Mystic by Ralph Vaughan Williams on Saturday, October 22 at 7:30 p.m. in the Newel and Jean Daines Concert Hall in the Utah State University’s Chase Fine Arts Center.
A pre-concert lecture, “’Bright Portals of the Sky’: The Choral Music of Ralph Vaughan Williams” will be presented at 6:30 pm in the Daines Concert Hall by Drake University Professor of Music History Eric Saylor.
This year marks the 15th year AFCO has been entertaining Cache Valley and, to celebrate, Craig Jessop the music director selected some of the most magnificent and poignant works of Williams, including his renowned “Serenade to Music,” “Toward the Unknown Region,” and “Hodie.”
“We are excited to celebrate this sesquicentennial year of Vaughan Williams’ birth with some of his most beloved choral and symphonic works,” Jessop said. “We know you will be charmed by the music and by our incredible soloists.”
AFCO invited violinist Robert Waters of the Fry Street Quartet to be a special guest and join the orchestra as soloist in “The Lark Ascending.” Other special guests include Celena Shafer, soprano; Aubrey Adams-McMillan, mezzo; Thomas Glenn, tenor; and Christopher Holmes, bass-baritone. The program will also include the USU Women’s Chorus.
For over 50 years Ralph Vaughan Williams composed operas, ballads, chamber music vocal pieces and orchestral compositions including nine symphonies.
His collection of music is known for reflecting a wide variety of moods, which audiences will undoubtedly experience during this concert.
Drake University professor Eric Saylor, Professor of Music History, specializes in British art music and has focused his works primarily on the life and works of Ralph Vaughan Williams. He will delight audiences with a 45-minute pre-concert lecture. Saylor is a widely published author of books and journal articles and a contributor to the second edition of the New Grove Dictionary of American Music. He has also presented his research extensively throughout conferences in North America and Europe.
Founded in the summer of 2008, the American Festival Chorus and Orchestra has become one of the premier professional musical organizations in the region. Under the artistic direction of music director Dr. Craig Jessop and associate director Dr. Cory Evans, AFCO provides a culture of musical excellence that edifies, entertains, and educates performers and audiences.
Tickets are $15 – $30, and children aged 8 and older are welcome. For more information, call (435) 797-8022 or visit americanfestivalchorus.org.