Douglas Frank Chorale: Performances

The Douglas Frank Chorale

Performances & Projects

New! "Christmas in Song"
Currently in Development—Stay Tuned for Details
Performance & Recording Project

"Early" Compact Disc Recording
Significant Works in Microtonal Temperaments

A new CD series is being released by the American Festival of Microtonal Music. The "Early" CD includes live performances by the Douglas Frank Chorale of significant works in exacting microtonal temperaments as presented by the AFMM during its 22nd Annual "MicroFest." For more information, please click here.

"Alleluia"
Music by Randall Thompson
Choreography by Douglas Frank in Collaboration with the Performers
Inter-Arts Technology Project

Eight of the Chorale's exceptional singers will realize Randall Thompson's moving a cappella work "Alleluia" in a new Inter-Arts collaboration with contemporary dancers. The work will feature costumes, lighting and striking visual effects in an interdisciplinary creation—completely different from a chorus standing on stage—released as a music video using the latest high-definition audiovisual and Internet technologies.

Sizzling Shakespeare!
A Taste of Classical and Mostly Jazz
Recording Project

Primarily a cappella works, most written by living composers, all set to Shakespeare's timelessly wonderful texts. "Three Jazz Madrigals" by Ron Drotos; "Three Madrigals from William Shakespeare" by Richard Felciano; and "Songs and Sonnets" by George Shearing. Plus, works by Robert Baksa, Matthew Harris, Frank Martin, Ward Swingle, Ralph Vaughn Williams and more, including performances of matching texts in musical compositions from the 16th to the 21st centuries—classical to sizzling!

Magical May Day
New Music, Inter-Arts Premières, Classic Madrigals
Concert Performance—TBA

Experience the centuries-young revelry of May Day with the Douglas Frank Chorale in collaboration with contemporary choreographers and other artists breaking through barriers of traditional art forms to create new Inter-Arts programming.

The pagan fertility ritual of May Day predates the Middle Ages. It began at dusk on April 30 and went on through the night—the fabled Walpurgisnacht. Men and women would go off into the woods to gather garland and flowers for the following day's festivities (allowing great sexual liberty and the conception of many May Day babies) and the decoration of an appropriately phallic symbol of fertility, the Maypole. The people would come together at dawn on May 1 to welcome the Sun with dancing and singing—to ensure the blessings of renewal and good harvest.

The Douglas Frank Chorale's contemporary May Day celebration will feature premières of interdisciplinary collaborations; premières of new music by Catherine Aks and Suzan Postel; plus some of May Day's "greatest hits" from the Chorale's award-winning Best Classical Album, "The A Cappella Singer." Read more about the relationship between May Day ("Beltane" in Celtic) with celebration, renewal and witchcraft.

Repertoire

American Festival of Microtonal Music
Significant Works in Microtonal Temperaments
Concert Performance

The 22nd American Festival of Microtonal Music, under the direction of Johnny Reinhard, presented the Douglas Frank Chorale and the AFMM Ensemble in performances of two significant works from the late 17th century—the Christmas Cantata, "Wo ist der neugeborne König der Juden" ("Where is the newborn King of the Jewry") by Andreas Werckmeister (1645-1706) and the concerto, "Ach bleib bei uns, Herr Jesu Christ" ("O stay with us, Lord Jesus Christ") by Johann Michael Bach (1648-1694).

Three trailblazing microtonal a cappella works also were performed—"Da cosi dotta man" by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (c.1525-1594) in just intonation; "Qadish" by Solomon Rossi (Salamone Rossi Hebreo, c.1570-c.1630) in just intonation; and "Musica prisca caput" by Nicola Vicentino (1511-c.1576) in Vicentino's own 31-tone-per-octave tuning. The program also included "Brandenburg Concerto No. 2" by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750). The Werckmeister cantata and the JM Bach and JS Bach concerti were tuned to historic Werckmeister III temperament.

Not many people remember the composer and theorist Andreas Werckmeister today. There is no existing image of his face. Werckmeister, however, clearly influenced the Bachs and other contemporaries. He is credited with describing the closed circle of 12 major and minor keys through "well temperament" for the first time in history. He published nine books in his lifetime, and articulated a sophisticated tuning now being rediscovered that is far more exacting than the equal temperament of today's pianos.

Soloists: Cynthia Shaw (soprano) Megan Friar (mezzo-soprano) Thom Baker (tenor) Gregg Lauterbach (baritone) Thomas Verchot (piccolo trumpet) Dan Auerbach (violin) Bram Kreeftmeijer (oboe) Rebecca Pechefsky (harpsichord) and Johnny Reinhard (alto recorder and bassoon).

For more information on microtonal music, visit the AFMM web site, read the Village Voice review by Kyle Gann, "Micro-Monuments," and The New York Times review by Paul Griffiths, "Instruments And Ears Newly Tuned." This program was made possible thanks to the generous and sustained support of the New York State Council on the Arts and the Maldeb Foundation.

Friends & Enemies of New Music
World Premières by Ben Yarmolinsky
Concert Performance

The Douglas Frank Chorale joined harpist Susan Jolles in four world premières by accomplished composer Ben Yarmolinsky—"Kaddish," sung in Aramaic (a dialect of Hebrew) and "Three Psalms," in English, with solos by Gregg Lauterbach and Douglas Frank—as presented by the Friends & Enemies of New Music.

Two masterworks by the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Leon Kirchner led the program—the "Duo for Violin & Piano" (1947) and the "Interlude for Solo Piano" (1989). Virtuoso new music specialists Renee Jolles (violin) and Cheryl Seltzer (piano) joined the sensational young pianist Jonathan Biss in definitive performances of these inspired works. "Farewell Songs" by Tom Cipullo received its world première. Harold Meltzer’s haunting "Two Songs from Silas Marner" and Gia Comolli’s energetic "Sonata for Trumpet and Piano" also were performed, with additional performances featuring the acclaimed sopranos Judith Kellock and Sharla Nafziger, cellist Gregory Hesselink, trumpeter Jonathan Malko, and pianist Jeanne Golan.

Friends & Enemies of New Music has presented over 50 concerts featuring more than 300 new American works. The group continues to be a forum for emerging composers and performers. Funding for this program was made possible through the support of the New York State Council on the Arts, the Aaron Copland Fund for Music, and the Virgil Thompson Foundation.

"The A Cappella Singer"
400 Years of Love, Sex and Popular Music
Award-winning Début CD Recording

The Douglas Frank Chorale's début CD and first-ever recording of "The A Cappella Singer," a famous collection of 30 works—from Renaissance madrigals, part songs and dance tunes to 20th century compositions—was nominated with some of today's most respected vocal ensembles worldwide (Anonymous 4, Chanticleer, the Tallis Scholars) and won the distinguished Contemporary A Cappella Recording Award (CARA) in 2001 for Best Classical Album. For more information, please click here.

Programming

The Douglas Frank Chorale is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit public-benefit organization committed to presenting compelling programs featuring a wide range of repertoire. The Chorale is dedicated to commissioning and collaborating with other artists and cultural organizations to create interactive programs of special interest, diversity and creativity. Thank you for your participation in this organization and its goals with your attendance, comments and support.

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