Frost, Love, Jazz
Rich harmonies and jazz rhythms will combine with moving texts and jazz interpretations of standards from the American songbook in “Frost, Love, and Jazz,” a program by the Choral Society of the Hamptons, on April 7 at 5 p.m. at the East Hampton Presbyterian Church.
Jennifer Scott Miceli, head of the music department at the C.W. Post campus of Long Island University, will serve as guest conductor. Ms. Miceli directs the Long Island Sound Vocal Jazz Ensemble, among other groups.
The afternoon’s featured work will be the first East Hampton performance of “A Little Jazz Mass,” which sets the text of the Latin Missa Brevis in jazz meters and chords, accompanied by a trio of piano, bass, and drums. The first performance happened in 2004 in New Orleans.
The “Frost” in the program’s title comes from four poems of Robert Frost. Set to music by Randall Thompson, they are a hushed setting of “The Road Not Taken,” “The Pasture,” “A Girl’s Garden,” and “Choose Something Like a Star.”
The “love” on the bill comes from a work by Eric Whitacre, known as the creator of virtual choirs, which electronically bring together thousands of singers from around the world in a single online performance. Mr. Whitacre won a Best Choral Performance Grammy Award in 2012.
Two instrumentalists who also sing in the chorus, Jane Hastay (piano) and Peter Martin Weiss (bass), will join with the saxophonist Richard Scollo to infuse the afternoon with four favorites from the American Songbook. They will perform a medley of “Soon It’s Gonna Rain” and “Singin’ in the Rain,” as well as “Easy to Love,” by Cole Porter, and “Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most.”
Tickets cost $25 in advance or $35 at the door, with youth tickets available for $10 or $15. Preferred seating tickets are available at $50. Tickets and information on both events can be found at choralsocietyofthehamptons.org. Tickets are also available from members and at the Romany Kramoris Gallery in Sag Harbor.
A fund-raising reception with the performers will follow the program at the Palm restaurant at the Huntting Inn, one block from the church. Tickets cost $100.