Choral Society of the Hamptons Will Sing to Spring
The Choral Society of the Hamptons will celebrate spring with “Across the Centuries,” a concert of music spanning 300 years, on March 26 at 5 p.m. at the East Hampton Presbyterian Church.
The program includes Pergolesi’s 18th-century piece “Magnificat,” Telemann’s “Laudate Jehovam, Omnes Gentes,” a setting for Psalm 117 also composed in the 18th century; “Trois Motets,” an early 20th-century composition by Roger-Ducasse, and “Laudes Organi” (“Praise to the Organ”) by Kodály.
Led by a guest conductor, Walter Klauss, the singers will be joined by Emelia Donato, soprano, Thomas Bohlert, organist, and the strings of the South Fork Chamber Ensemble. Ms. Donato, though only 22, has performed as a soloist at Carnegie Hall with the American Symphony Orchestra and at Alice Tully Hall with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, and has toured Italy as a soloist with Musica Viva.
Kodály’s piece, commissioned by the American Guild of Organists and first performed in 1966, will feature the church’s three-manual pipe organ, which is considered the finest of its kind on the East End. The organist, Mr. Bohlert, the former principal accompanist for the choral society, recently retired after 16 years as director of music at the church, where he directed the chancel, children’s, and handbell choirs. He is a founding member of the chamber music ensemble Bach & Forth.
Mr. Klauss, a frequent choral society guest director and an East Hampton resident, has appeared worldwide as guest conductor of choruses and orchestras. He is the founder and conductor emeritus of the Musica Viva concert series in New York.
Tickets are $30 in advance, $35 at the door, with youth tickets $10 in advance and $15 at the door. Preferred seating is $75. Immediately after the concert, the choral society will hold a benefit cocktail reception for the conductor and soloists at the Palm. Reception reservations, at $100 per person, are available until next Thursday at the society’s website.
The choral society’s summer concert will take place on July 8 at the Parish Hall of Most Holy Trinity Catholic Church in East Hampton. Brahms’s “A German Requiem” will be performed with the Greenwich Village Chamber Singers and the South Fork Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Mark Mangini, the society’s music director.
The Choral Society of the Hamptons is an auditioned chorus that performs with professional conductors, soloists, orchestra, and accompanists. It was founded in 1946 by the late Charlotte Rogers Smith.