CHARIS Repertoire

Although Charis performs repertoire from Renaissance to Contemporary, the group concentrates on settings of fine poetry by contemporary American composers. Charis has performed (and recorded) a number of works by such composers, including James Bassi, Franz Biebl, Julie Dolphin, William Hawley, Judith Zaimont, Nancy Wertsch, Elliot Z. Levine, and James Harold Carr.

In addition to various benefits and special appearances, Charis typically prepares a fall and a spring program, each with several performances. Some of the group's previous concert programs are summarized below:

Seventeenth Season

Spring 2010: Beautiful Dreamers

A musical potpourri featuring a varied selection of works including music by the illustrious Bach family, Henry Purcell, Adrian Batten as well as Madrigals by Robert Convery and songs by Stephen Foster.

Fall 2009: A Christmas Candlelight Concert

Celebratory songs from around the world, featuring works by Mendelssohn, Holst, Saint-Saens and Handel. Also: Christmas motets by French composer Pierre Villette, carols from Scandinavia and seasonal favorites for the audience sing along.

Sixteenth Season

Spring 2009: Mary the Muse

Bernstein, Conte, Grieg, Poulenc, Rachmaninov, Rutter, Schubert, Stravinsky, Tchaikovsky and more, plus: World Premier and U.S. Premier performances.

Fall 2008: Carols & Lullabies

Benjamin Britten, Conrad Susa, plus Rutter, Howells, Willcocks, Darke, Mathias and more.

Fifteenth Season

Spring 2008: Love's Language: The Song of Songs

Featuring works by di Lasso, Monteverdi, Billings and more

Fall 2007: A Candlelight Christmas Concert with orchestra

Vivaldi Gloria & Carols of the Season with orchestra

Fourteenth Season

Spring 2007: The Earth is Our Mother

Featuring works by Dave Brubeck's (choir and jazz ensemble), David Hamilton, David Griffiths, Ronald Perrera, Elgar, Finney, Paulus and Britten.

Fall 2006: A Global Village Christmas

Celebratory and serene Christmas songs and carols from around the world, featuring works by Britten, Holst, Lauridsen, Arvo Part and including a set of American Christmas spirituals as well as a sampling of other Christmas songs spanning the globe from Africa to Latvia.

Thirteenth Season

Spring 2006: Animal Passion

Featuring Benjamin Britten's Rejoice in the Lamb as well as works by Janequin, Gibbons, Taverner, Hindemith, Stanford and more.

Fall 2005: O Lovely Light

This Program features a selection of traditional English Carols including "Lo How a Rose 'er Blooming" and "The Coventry Carol" (Lullay thou Little Tiny Child) as well as Charpentier "Messe de Minuit pour Noel", Victoria "O Magnum Mysterium", Bach "O Jesulein Suss, O Jesulein Mild", "In Dulci Jubilo" and other works by Handl, Purcell, Praetorius, Sweelinck and Weelkes performed with Baroque instrumental ensemble including recorders, lute and strings.

Twelvth Season

Spring 2005: Intimations of Spring - Special Guest Conductor: Johannes Somary of AmorArtis

Josquin's Missa Ave Maris Stella, Palestrina's Lamentations of Jeremiah, Madrigals by Weelkes, Monteverdi, Ravel, Mendelssohn, Vaughan Williams, Elgar

Fall 2004: Rejoicing the Heart - A Concert of Modern Sacred Works

Ernest Bloch's Avodath Hakodesh, Ralph Vaughn Willams' Mass in G Minor, 4 Songs by Samuel Barber

Eleventh Season (Tenth Anniversary Season!)

Spring 2004: Make Our Garden Grow

Aaron Copland's In the Beginning, Randall Thompson's The Peacable Kingdom, an arrangement of Bernstein's Make our Garden Grow (from Candide), music by Jerome Kern (I'm Old Fashioned, The Song is You, All the Things You Are), Stephen Sondhiem (Sunday - from Sunday in the Park with George), and more.

Fall 2003: My Soul Doth Magnify

Magnificats by Bach, Purcell and Finzi; Mozart's Exsultate Jubilate; Billings Anthem for Thanksgiving, and cuts from our 2003 CD, Hoping It Might Be So: Christmastide.

Tenth Season

Spring 2003: We Sing of Love: Choral Treasures from the Renaissance and Romantic Eras

Including works by Monteverdi, Gibbons, Brahms, and Elgar. (For a complete list, see the Program Order.)

Fall 2002: A Concert of Rememberance and Renewal

Bloch's Sacred Service, Benjamin Britten's Abraham and Isaac (Canticle II), and newly commissioned works by James Bassi, Julie Dolphin and Susanne Peck.

Ninth Season

Spring 2002: Jazzy Roots from Paris to Broadway

Works by Poulenc, Debussy, Ravel, Jerome Kern, Gershwin, Cole Porter and others.

Fall 2001: Handel's Messiah

Performed at Tarrytown Music Hall with guest singers and full baroque orchestra.

Eighth Season

Spring 2001: Marvelous Madrigals: the creme of Italian, English, and French Renaissance madrigal literature

Works by Wilbye, Morley, Montiverde, Orlando di Lasso, Purcell and others.

December 2000: Rutter Gloria

Charis performs, with brass, percussion and organ accompaniment John Rutter's Gloria, along with Chrismas music featuring new settings of traditional carols by American composers, including James Bassi, Elliot Z. Levine, Johannes Somary, and Nancy Wertsch.

Seventh Season

Spring, 2000 Choir From Heaven: Baroque Brilliance

Charis performed J.S. Bach's Jesus, meine Freude and Scarlatti's St. Cecelia Mass of 1720 with some of New York's finest period instrumentalists.

Fall, 1999: Goin' Home

The music of Americans willing to face pain, instability, and death in exchange for entrance to the New World and, ultimately, to the Kingdom of God. This concert featured a panorama of American music, from hymns of Colonial New England to twentieth-century poetry. Early American selections included sacred songs by Billings, Wood and Jenks. Folk and popular songs performed included arrangements of Shenandoah, Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ye and the world premiere of three works by New York composer (and, now, Charis member) Julie Dolphin.

December, 1999: Winter Solstice Benefit

Charis & Friends: A Benefit for the Nature Conservancy

Sixth Season

Spring, 1999 Dido & Aeneas

Charis Chamber voices presented a semi-staged performance of Purcell's miniature opera Dido and Aeneas. The work was performed with period instruments and featured Charis director Susanne Peck in the title role. The program was completed by a performance of Monteverdi's haunting Lamento d'Arianna , performed along with his celebrated Madrigals from Book IV.

Fall, 1998: December Joy

This holiday concert by Charis Chamber voices featured choral songs and motets from the Middle Ages to the present by Poulenc, Howells, Rutter, Holst, Sametz, and Durufle.

December, 1998: Winter Solstice Benefit

Charis & Friends: A Benefit for the Nature Conservancy

Fifth Season

Spring, 1998: A Rich Array:Post-Romantic English and American Choral Works

In celebration of Spring, Westchester's Charis Chamber Voices presents songs of nature and love by post-romantic composers such as Elgar, Britten, Barber, Vaughan Williams, and Musgrave. The music's rich sonorities and lush melodies beautifully illustrate the expressive pastoral and love poetry of Shakespeare, Herrick, Crabbe, Clare, Stephens, and Wyatt. Susanne Peck, director of Charis, said: "This music flirts with ambiguity. The delayed cadences and resolutions keep us on the threshold of tension and release."

Fall, 1997: Two Choirs from Heaven: Baroque Choral Masterpieces

Charis Chamber Voices joined with New York City's Cerddorian Vocal Ensemble to perform Baroque works for two choirs, continuo organ, cello, and theorbo. Beginning with Venetian works by Gabrielli, the concert program traces the evolution of German Baroque music through its acclaimed masters: Schütz, Schein, and Bach. In addition to our normal Westchester venues, a special performance at Church of the Ascension in New York City.

Fourth Season

Spring, 1997: Birds and Beasts: Animal Themes in Choral Literature

The feathered and furry kingdom has inspired great range of sentiment in the human heart. Here is a collection of songs and choral settings by some of the finest composers for voice -- Francis Poulenc, Samuel Barber, Johannes Brahms, Orlando Gibbons -- in praise and awe of animals.

Fall, 1996: Serenity's Hour: New Choral Arrangements of Seasonal Poetry

Extraordinary new Christmas holiday settings of high-quality poetry by the likes of e.e. cummings and Thomas Hardy are being created in Minnesota, Iowa, California, Spain, and Norway for chamber choirs. New York City composer Elliot Z. Levine provides exceptional Chanukah music, and one never tires of Benjamin Britten's medieval carol settings for harp and choir. The harp, as well as a guitar, are featured in three other works for this program's seasonal allure.

Third Season

Spring, 1996: Sweet May: Songs from the Twelfth to the Twentieth Century Composed by Women

This program featuree choral music by women composers, starting with the twelfth-century genius Hildegard von Bingen. Women from Baroque Italy under the auspices of church, court, and renowned parentage contrast with Amy Beach, one of America's -- in fact, the world's -- first women to strike out onto the professional stage on the merits of talent and accomplishment alone. The majority of women composing today in America are educators, several of whom are here represented in amusing, lyrical, and very finely crafted choral works.

Fall, 1995: I Love My Love: A Concert of Songs About Folk Life

Themes of country life and love abound in Brahms' Neue Liebeslieder Walzer, a moderately difficult second-foreign-language project, here undertaken alongside settings of English and American folksongs, with one challenging Spanish hot pepper by Aaron Copeland.

Second Season

Spring, 1995: Italian Spring: A Madrigal Concert

Without question, the mother tongue of vocal technique and literature is Italian. As a first foreign-language project, this program presents Italian madrigals from the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries, as well a set of contemporary madrigals from 1986 by Italian-American composer William Hawley.

Fall, 1994: Heart's Turning: A Harvest Concert of American Music

In keeping with the turn of season, this program honors the festival of Thanksgiving with an overview of American compositions: sacred settings from colonial days and from nineteenth-century New England's quintessentially American Charles Ives, traditional folksong arrangements, spirituals, Randall Thompson's 1959 settings of Robert Frost poetry and, finally, works of current-day New York City composer Elliot Z. Levine.

First Season

Spring, 1994: The Birth of Charis: A Concert Celebration of Spring

In celebration of seasonal renewal and the emergence of our new arts organization, this program presents a collection of British and American madrigals and choral songs about spring. For the occasion, an a cappella composition, Spring Cycle: Vernal Incantations, was commissioned from poet Lynette Peck and composer James Carr.

Repertoire

The following is a partial list of pieces in Charis's repertoire.

Some songs appear on our CD Collection and are marked with the icon for streaming Windows Media files. They are optimized for a 32K bps connection, and should play using the Windows Media Player or the Real One Player (if they don't play for you, try these links to upgrade your player).

Composer Piece Date Performed Comment (anon) There is no Rose 1420 (ca.) ??   (anon) I Wonder As I Wander ?? 2003-CD Solo: Susanne Peck, Soprano (anon) Angelus ad Virginem 1300's (ca.) ??   (anon) ?? Personent Hodie ?? 2003-CD ?? Carol of the Bells ?? ??   ?? Christmas Song ?? ??   ?? Deck the Halls ?? ??   ?? Deep River ?? ??   ?? Go Tell It ?? ??   ?? Good King Wenceslaus ?? ??   ?? Harvest Hymn ?? ??   ?? Jesus Child ?? ??   ?? S' Vivon ?? ??   ?? Silent Night ?? ??   ?? We Wish you a Merry Christmas ?? ??   ?? White Christmas ?? ??   ?? Hanerot ?? ??   Arcadelt, Jacques Il bianco e dolce cigno 1505-1568 2003 (and before)   Bach, J.S. Magnificat ?? 2003-Nov   Barber, Samuel Anthony O' Daly ?? ?? From: Reincarnations Barber, Samuel Mary Hynes ?? ?? From: Reincarnations Barber, Samuel The Coolin' ?? ?? From: Reincarnations Barber, Samuel Saint Ita's Vision ?? 2003-CD Solo: Susanne Peck, Soprano Bassi, James Quem Pastores Laudavere 2003-CD   Bellingham Invocation ?? ??   Bennet, John Let go, why do you stay me? 1575-1614 2003   Biebl, Franz Ave Maria 1964 2003-CD Solo: Scott Munson, Tenor; Todd Takken, Baritone Billings, William Fare You Well, My Friends ?? ??   Billings, William Africa 1746-1800 2000-CD Brahms, Johannes Vier Gesänge 1833-1897 2003   Brahms, Johannes Die Wollust in den Maien 1833-1897 2003   Brahms, Johannes Liebeslieder (Waltzes) 1833-1897 1993 (with Philharmonia Virtuosi) Britten, Benjamin Ballad of Green Broom ?? ?? From: Five Flower Songs, Op. 47 Britten, Benjamin Marsh Flowers ?? ?? From: Five Flower Songs, Op. 47 Britten, Benjamin The Evening Primrose ?? ?? From: Five Flower Songs, Op. 47 Britten, Benjamin The Succession of the Four Sweet Months ?? ?? From: Five Flower Songs, Op. 47 Britten, Benjamin To Daffodils ?? ?? From: Five Flower Songs, Op. 47 Byrd Keel Row ?? ??   Carr, James Spring Cycle I, II, III 1994 2000-CD (I), (II), (III) Chapman She's Like a Swallow ?? ??   Clemens, James E. (Arr.) The Holly She Bears A Berry ?? 2003-CD Copland, Aaron The Promise of Living ?? ??   Copland, Aaron Zion's Walls ?? ??   Copland, Aaron Long Time Ago 1900-1990 2000-CD de Lassus, Orlande Mon Coeur se recommande à vous 1532-1594 2003 (and before)   Delius, Frederick On Craig Ddu 1862-1934 2003   Dietterich Followers of the Lamb ?? ??   Dolphin, Julie Common Bill 1999 ??   Dolphin, Julie Hallelujah, I'm a Bum 1999 2000-CD Dolphin, Julie I Am a Poor Wayfaring Stranger 1999 2000-CD Dolphin, Julie October 1999 2000-CD Solo: Susanne Peck, Soprano Dolphin, Julie Adieu 1999 2000-CD Dolphin, Julie Christmas Peace ?? 2003-CD Duruflé, Maurice Tota Pulchra es (from Quatre Motets) 1960 ??   Duruflé, Maurice Ubi Caritas (from Quatre Motets) 1960 ??   Elgar, Edward My Love Dwelt in a Northern Land 1857-1934 2003 (and before)   Erb, James (arr.) Shenandoah ?? 2000-CD Farrell, Neil (Arr.) In the Bleak Midwinter ?? 2003-CD Finzi, Gerald Magnificat ?? 2003-Nov   Gaffney, Suz (arr.) Frosty the Snowman ?? ??   Gaffney, Suz (arr.) Let it Snow ?? ??   Gaffney, Suz (arr.) Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer ?? ??   Gaffney, Suz (arr.) Santa Claus is Coming to Town ?? ??   Gaffney, Suz (arr.) Winter Wonderland ?? ??   Gibbons, Orlando The silver swan 1583-1625 2003 (and before)   Grainger Londonderry Air ?? ??   Handl, Jacob Mirabile Mysterium 1586 ??   Hess, Marjorie The Oxen ?? 2003-CD Holst, Gustav My Sweetheart's like Venus ?? ??   Holst, Gustav Rig Veda ?? ??   Holst, Gustav (arr.) Personent Hodie 1582 ??   Houkom, Alf The Rune of Hospitality ?? 2003-CD Howells, Herbert A Spotless Rose 1919 ??   Howells, Herbert Come Sing and Dance ?? 2003-CD Solo: Susanne Peck, Soprano Ives, Charles E. Crossing the Bar 1891 ??   Ives, Charles E. Serenity ?? 2000-CD Jenks, Stephen Decay 1772-1856 ??   Jenks, Stephen Sorrow's Tear 1772-1856 2000-CD Kimball, Moses (Arr.) Hatfield 1794 2000-CD Levine Lo V'Chayil ?? ??   Levine, Elliot Z. While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks ?? 2003-CD Lowry, J.C. The Traveller ?? 2000-CD Monteverdi Lamento d'Arianna ?? ??   Monteverdi Madrigals from Book IV ?? ??   Monteverdi, Claudio Quel augellin che canta 1567-1643 2003 (and before)   Monteverdi, Claudio Ohimè! se tanto amate 1567-1643 2003 (and before)   Morgan, Justin Amanda 1747-1798 ??   Morley, Thomas I go before my darling 1557-1602 2003 (and before)   Morley, Thomas Miraculous love's wounding 1557-1602 2003   Mozart Exsultate Jubilate ?? 2003-Nov Solo: Susanne Peck, Soprano Musgrave, Thea At Most Mischief ?? ??   Musgrave, Thea Hate Whom Ye List ?? ??   Musgrave, Thea Tanglid I was ?? ??   Musgrave, Thea With Serving Still ?? ??   Parker, Alice (arr.) Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ye ?? 2000-CD Parry, Hubert There is an old belief 1848-1918 2003   Peck, Susanne Hodie 2003 2003-CD Peck, Susanne (Arr.) Masters In This Hall 2003 2003-CD Poulenc, Francis Hodie Christus Natus Est 1952 ??   Poulenc, Francis O Magnum Mysterium 1952 ??   Poulenc, Francis Quem Vidistis Pastores Dicite 1952 ??   Poulenc, Francis Videntes Stellam 1952 ??   Purcell, Henry Dido and Aeneas ?? ??   Purcell, Henry Magnificat ?? 2003-Nov   Read, Daniel Newport ?? ??   Rutter, John Gloria ?? ??   Rutter, John There is a Flower 1986 2003-CD Solo: Colleen McMahon, Soprano Sametz, Steven Noel! 1995 ??   Schubert, Franz Ständchen (Serenade) 1797-1828 2003   Schubert, Franz Die Forelle (The Trout) 1797-1828 2003   Schubert, Peter (Arr.) We Three Kings ?? 2003-CD Somary, Anne (Arr.) Wassail ?? 2003-CD Somary, Johannes (Arr.) Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence ?? 2003-CD Solo: Anne Harris, Soprano Thompson, Randall Choose Something Like a Star 1942 ?? From: poems by Robert Frost Thompson, Randall Road Not Taken 1942 ?? From: poems by Robert Frost Wertsch, Nancy O Magnum Mysterium ?? 2003-CD Solo: Julie Dolphin, Soprano White, J.T. (arr.) All is Well, P.M. 1844 2000-CD Wilberg, Mack (arr.) I'm Goin' Away ?? 2000-CD Wilbye, John Sweet honey-sucking bees 1574-1638 2003 (and before)

NOTE: I have only started work on this table, it is not complete by a long shot!

Charites: if you care to help me, go to the members login and user our new interactive repertoire page. Additions/modifications are just a click away!