Saint Louis Chamber Chorus, A Choral Atlas: “The Glory That Was Greece”

The next stop in our Choral Atlas series takes us back in time to Ancient Greece, where we savor the deeply personal lyric of the woman poet Sappho, together with four chilling Odes from Sophocles’ tragedy, Antigone. While the Sapphic poetry will be heard in its original Greek as well as English and Italian versions, the Sophocles choruses all set translations made by the SLCC’s own conductor, Philip Barnes. These have been made specifically for the SLCC by Ned Rorem, Sasha Johnson Manning, Kerensa Briggs, and now Melissa Dunphy. Dr. Dunphy, who previously served as the choir’s Associate Composer, knows well these St. Louis singers, and so has written music with them in mind. Members of the Chorus and the audience alike will be able to greet the composer in person, as she is flying to St. Louis for the premiere. A common thread weaving through the program is repertoire by Sir Granville Bantock, whose music the Chorus has long championed. Indeed, the concert reaches its climax in Bantock’s Invocation to Pan, an extended, majestic ode scored for 12-voice double choir. An appropriately academic setting hosts this presentation of music so steeped in history and scholarship – Graham Chapel, on the campus of Washington University. With its excellent sight lines and clean acoustic, it’s an ideal venue for such repertoire whose quality and complexity require first class performers. The Saint Louis Chamber Chorus fit that bill!