A New Dawn

A New Dawn, the Hudson Community Choruses’ (HCC) Spring Concert, celebrates 35 years of choral music with chorus favorites and new pieces on Sunday, April 28, at 4 p.m., at a new location -- Hudson Middle School Auditorium, 83 N. Oviatt St., Hudson.

This concert will also mark the final performance of HCC’s longest serving Artistic Director, Nathaniel Duvuvuei, who will be moving out of the area this summer. Duvuvuei took over the baton for the choruses in 2011 and has been an integral part of building the musical skills, traditions and membership in the choruses.

According to Duvuvuei, “our concert theme, A New Dawn, brings together music with an expectation of hope, purpose, and wonder.  It is about an optimistic zeal that you bring to those you love and those who love you.  It's about a purpose that extends to our fellow humans and recognizes that we are all the same in different kinds of ways. Finally, it's about a sense of wonder that releases us from things that burden us -- a sense of wonder that only becomes easier as we recognize that we are not alone. When we come together in this way we awaken to a new dawn.”

The concert will open with Elaine Hagenberg’s stirring Awake, My Soul, followed by Brazilian composer Ernani Aguiar's  Salmo 150 (Psalm 150,) also known as the musician’s psalm because it extols praising God with voice and instruments. In addition, the Adult Chorus will perform Stephen Paulus’ The Road Home, Prayer of the Children by Kurt Bestor, arranged by Mark Hayes, and Shawn Kirchner’s Unclouded Day.  It Takes A Village, composed by Joan Szmyko and Carly Simon’s Let the River Run, were previously sung by the chorus and return in celebration of the chorus’ 35th anniversary. The women of the chorus will join together to perform the traditional Appalachian hymn Will The Circle Be Unbroken, arranged by J. David Moore.

Highlighting the HCC Children’s and Youth Choruses will be a performance of John Lennon’s Imagine, arranged by HCC member and Youth & Children’s assistant Kristina Yoder, and signed in American Sign Language (ASL). Ava Lindsay, a Hudson High School ASL student, taught both choruses the signs and will lead them at the concert. The combined Children’s and Youth Choruses will also sing Oye with words and music by Jim Papoulis.

The Children’s Chorus will be featured in Jasmine Flower, a traditional Chinese folk song arranged by Mary Donnelly and George L.O Strid and The Bumblebee by Sally K.  Albrecht. The HCC Youth Chorus will perform Ad Astra (To the Stars) written by Jacob Narverud, The Dreamer in Me by  PINKZEBRA and You Will Be Found, written by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul for the Broadway musical Dear Evan Hansen. The Youth Chorus will join the HCC Chamber Chorus in I Dream A World by Rollo A. Dillworth.

The HCC Chamber Chorus, a smaller auditioned group of singers, will also be featured on The Luckiest by  Ben Folds with an arrangement by Mr. Duvuvuei. Continuing a favorite HCC tradition, all the choruses will join for the finale, Greg Gilpin’s A New Horizon.

Mr. Duvuvuei will direct and Paige Morris will accompany all three choruses and they will be joined on a number of pieces by Percussionist Jeremy McCabe and Rolando Pizana on bass. Ms. Yoder will also accompany the Youth and Children's Choruses on guitar for  Imagine.