New Generation of Singers Takes Inspiration from Early Music
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The Chorworks ensemble performs at Duke Chapel.
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The Chorworks ensemble performs at Duke Chapel.
Participants in the Chorworks program perform at Duke Chapel.
From June 19 to 25, twenty-one students from across the country, six instrumentalists, and four faculty gathered at Duke Chapel for the annual Chorworks summer program. As part of the Chapel's initiative to provide music education and bring great music to the community, these emerging singers studied and performed Baroque-era music from the time before the renowned composer J.S. Bach.
Over the course of six days, the students learned two dozen works by composers including Heinrich Schutz, Johann Hermann Schein, Samuel Scheidt, Andreas Hammerschmidt, and members of the Bach family. Along with the faculty and instrumentalists, they gave two concerts and sang in the Chapel’s Sunday morning service.
Dr. Philip Cave, the Chapel’s conductor-in-residence, led the program.
"This was a glorious week of music-making: intense but highly rewarding,” Dr. Cave said. “The students were captivated by the music, much of which was new to them, and greatly inspired by the coaching by, and performances with, the faculty."
“This program is unique in providing the opportunity for early-career singers to learn repertoire and its context, to study performance practice in a concentrated way, and to bring this wonderful music from out of the shadows!” he said.
Watch an excerpt of the Chorworks performance of Die mit Tränen säen by Thomas Selle on June 24 at Duke Chapel.