Lenox — If you haven’t been getting enough coronation music lately (and who has?), you will be happy to know that Cantilena Chamber Choir will present a program of magnificent British coronation music by Handel, Purcell, John Rutter, Andrew Lloyd Webber, and Tarik O’Regan on Sunday, October 20, 3 p.m., at Trinity Episcopal Church in Lenox. Also on the program are three motets by Anton Bruckner.
Williams College Organ Professor Tim Pyper joins the chorus, along with a brass quartet and timpanist. The chorus, organ, and brass will very easily lift the roof off the building.
Everything on the program but the Bruckner was written expressly for the Kings and Queens of England from the time of Handel, and that includes King Charles, who broke with tradition a little bit in 2023 by using a new anthem, “Make a Joyful Noise,” written for the occasion by Andrew Lloyd Webber. The piece showcases the way British coronation music has evolved over the centuries.
George Frideric Handel is probably the best-know composer of coronation music, living or dead. His coronation anthem “Zadok the Priest,” composed for the 1727 coronation of King George II, is absolutely iconic and has been used at every British coronation since that time. Its slow-building introduction and triumphant choral entry make it one of the most recognizable works of British ceremonial music​. It is a hard act to follow, so if the chorus performs it on Sunday, it is likely to be at the end of the program. No sensible person foresees a time when Handel’s coronation music does not reign supreme.
Now in its 21st season under the direction of Dr. Andrea Goodman, the Cantilena Chamber Choir comprises 24 highly experienced singers of professional caliber who have earned a multi-year Cultural Portfolio grant award from the Massachusetts Cultural Council in recognition of the chorus’ annual Martin Luther King program and three Choral Arts New England Alfred Nash Patterson awards for innovative programming. The chorus has appeared at Tanglewood, the Mahaiwe and Colonial theaters, Hancock Shaker Village, The Mount, The Berkshire Museum, Hevreh, and WGBY in Springfield. Most notably, the choir performed, live at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, “Le Passion de Jeanne D’Arc” with the original 1928 score for choir, organ, and orchestra.
Andrea Goodman has held professorships at the Cincinnati Conservatory, New York University, and Skidmore College. She has been a visiting professor of conducting at the New England Conservatory of Music, where she also directed the women’s choir. She has served as the director of the annual summer Saratoga Choral Festival for 18 summers. Guest appearances have included the Aspen Music Festival, the Festival de Musique Sacree in Fribourg, Switzerland, the Festival of White Nights, and the Singing World Festival in St. Petersburg, Russia. Dr. Goodman holds a Doctorate of Musical Arts in conducting.
Hear the Cantilena Chamber Choir perform coronation music by Handel, Purcell, and John Rutter, plus the piece Andrew Lloyd Webber wrote for King Charles, at Trinity Episcopal Church, 88 Walker Street, Lenox, MA, on Sunday, October 20, at 3 p.m.
