©1998-2008
The DeKalb Choral Guild, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.

Season 30 Performance Calendar

Click on each date to find out more about each concert event.

October 27, 2007 -- "Harambee" -- Benefit Concert for the Maji Mazuri Center

November 26, 27 and 29, 2007 -- Annual Tree Lighting Parties at Crawford Long Hospital, Emory University Hospital and Wesley Woods

December 8, 2007 -- A Family Holiday Celebration
With our special guests, the DeKalb School of the Arts Chorus

February 16, 2008 -- Bella Italia -- Season Fundraiser Event

February 23, 2008 -- Emory Community Choral Festival

Upcoming Concert!
May 9, 2008 -- Season 30 Gala Concert in Spivey Hall
With our special guests, the DeKalb School of the Arts Chorus

May 24, 2008 -- Piccolo Spoleto Festival, Charleston, South Carolina

August 23, 2008 -- Buon Viagge - Italian Tour Preview Concert

August 28 - September 8, 2008 -- Festival of American Music in Italy - Rome, Florence, Assisi and Venice

Season 30 Gala Concert

Celebrating the past and future of choral music
with our special guests, the DeKalb School for the Arts Chorus
and organist Trey Clegg

Featuring the world premiere of the Guild's newly commissioned work, a setting of the Beatitudes by Czech composer Jiri Laburda.

Join the Guild in Spivey Hall for a celebration of 30 years of choral music in our community.  In the late 1970s, the free chorus movement was taking place in cities across the country. Inspired by the musical and community involvement, a young Bill Baker (then only 19 years old) founded the DeKalb Choral Guild in March, 1978. Thirty years and two directors later, the Guild still lives up to its mission of involving the community in the study and performance of great choral music.

To mark this historic anniversary, the Guild will present the “Season 30 Gala Concert” at Spivey Hall. The concert will include the world premiere of a commissioned work, “The Beatitudes” by Czech composer Jiří Laburda and the premiere of “Frontier Hymn: On Jordan’s Stormy Banks” by Ken Berg. The Guild will welcome to the stage Atlanta organist Trey Clegg and the students of the DeKalb School for the Arts, directed by Jeffrey Funderburk. The Guild’s director has chosen a number of works to represent the different styles and origins of music the Guild has performed during its 30 years. 

The Season 30 Gala Concert is supported in part by the Georgia Council for the Arts (GCA) through the appropriations of the Georgia General Assembly. GCA also receives support from its partner agency, the National Endowment for the Arts.

Additional funding for this concert is provided by generous donations from
Roger & Vivian Hill and Robert & Corey Jeanne Armstrong

On the concert program:

Two World Premieres!
"Beatitudes" by Jiří Laburda
"Frontier Hymn: On Jordan's Stormy Banks" by Ken Berg

"Musicks Empire" (from Triptych) by Lloyd Pfautsch
"Fanfare for a Festival (All Praise to Music!)" by Ron Nelson
"Ave Maria" by Javier Busto
"In Paradisum" by Edwin Fissinger
"Regina Caeli" by Gian Carlo Menotti
"Ave Maris Stella" by Trond Kverno
"Jesus Christ the Apple Tree" by Colin Mawby
"Tu es Petrus" by Robert Pearsall
"Insalata Italiana" by Franz Friedrich Richard Genée
"Earth Song" by Frank Tichelli
"Tristezza" by F. Paolo Tosti, arr. by Randy Haldeman
"With a Band of Music" (Songs of the Hutchinson Family), arr. by Robert de Cormier

Friday, May 9, 2008, 8:00 PM
Spivey Hall
Clayton State University
Morrow, Georgia
(Directions from Spivey Hall's web site.)

Tickets: $15 each
The Spivey Hall box office offers a number of discount plans:
50% discount to students with a valid ID
20% discount for groups of 10 or more
10% discount to WPBA Advantage Card members
Various discounts to Clayton State University faculty, staff and students
You can order your tickets by calling the Spivey Hall Box Office at 687-466-4200
or visiting them on-line at www.spiveyhall.org.

Piccolo Spoleto Festival 2008

The Guild has been selected for its fourth appearance at the Piccolo Spoleto Festival, the Southeast's premier arts and cultural festival.  The Guild will take part in the new Outreach Series, which aims to spread the arts programming to several areas surrounding Charleston and involve even more people in the excitement that is Spoleto.

Saturday, May 24, 2008
St. James Episcopal Church on James Island
1872 Camp Road, Charleston, South Carolina 29412
(Get customized directions to the concert from MapQuest.)

Free Admission with donations accepted at the door.

Buon Viagge - Italian Tour Preview Concert

Can't make it to Italy in September?  Why not hear the Guild before they cross the Atlantic!  The Guild will present a preview concert to our Atlanta area audience featuring music we will take on tour.  The acoustically splendid St. Luke Presbyterian Church will provide a sound quite like the renaissance cathedrals in Italy.  The concert program features Italian art songs, new works by American composers and the Guild's newly commissioned work, "The Beatitudes" by Czech composer Jiří Laburda.

Saturday, August 23rd, 8 PM
St. Luke Presbyterian Church
1978 Mount Vernon Road, Dunwoody
(Get customized directions to the concert from MapQuest.)

Tickets:  $15, $5 Seniors and Students

Festival of American Music in Italy

August 28 - September 8, 2008
Performances in Rome, Florence, Assisi and Venice

The Guild has been selected as the official chorus representing the state of Georgia for the Festival of American Music in Italy.  Our tour specialists, Music Celebrations International, are arranging several performances in great venues across Italy.  And, we will have lots of time in the schedule to visit the sights, museums, shops and restaurants of this beautiful country.

Previously presented concerts in the Guild's 30th season ...

"Harambee"
A Benefit Concert for the Maji Mazuri Center

In Swahili, "Maji Mazuri" means "clean water," a substance vital to sustaining life.  The people of the Maji Mazuri Center in Kenya work hard every day to provide the "clean water" of hope for the abandoned and oppressed in the slums of Nairobi.  Maji Mazuri began with a micro loan program for women to develop a living.  Since then Maji Mazuri has expanded to build schools and educational programs, an orphanage for disabled children who would otherwise have to live on the streets, and youth training programs.

Each year, the Atlanta based Maji Mazuri USA hosts a fund-raising event to support the great works happening in Kenya.  This year, the Guild partners with Maji Mazuri to present a concert of music with an African theme.  "Harambee" is another Swahili word meaning "pulling together," especially in terms of togetherness, helping and sharing.  The concert program features works that highlight these ideas and includes music by African composers.  Following the concert, Maji Mazuri presents an event where you can join in supporting and celebrating the miracles happening every day on the streets of Nairobi.

Visit MajiMazuri.org to learn more about the great things happening in Kenya.

The concert program includes:

Famine Song (music by Vida, arranged by Matthey Culloton)
Gabi, Gabi (arranged by William Powell)
Freedom Come (from Bandari: Inside These Walls by Ben Allaway)
Sigalagala (Luo spiritual, arranged by S. A. Otieno)
Draw Up the Water from the Well (music by James E. Clemens, words by David Wright)
Audiemus (Karl Jenkins)
Harambee (Robert Hugh)

And performances by traditional African drummers and dancers!

Saturday, October 27, 2007, 7:30 PM
St. Luke Presbyterian Church
1978 Mount Vernon Road, Dunwoody
(Get customized directions to the concert from MapQuest.)

Tickets for the concert and event - $25

 
Holiday Events in the Community

When the Yuletide season arrives, members of the Guild don festive Victorian attire to spread cheer in the community.  This year, the Guild starts the season with the festive tree lighting ceremonies at hospitals in the Emory Health System.  We continue with our holiday traditions for the residents of Wesley Woods.  The Guild was honored to receive Wesley Woods' "Volunteer of the Year" award for our holiday concert in December 2005.

Annual Tree Lighting Parties at Emory HealthCare
Monday, November 26, 2007, 6 PM - Emory Crawford Long Hospital
Tuesday, November 27, 2007, 6 PM - Emory University Hospital
Thursday, November 29, 2007, 6 PM - Wesley Woods
Free for the Community

A Family Holiday Celebration

with our special guests, the DeKalb School for the Arts Chorus

Start your holiday season with a gift of music.  The Guild welcomes the students from the DeKalb School for the Arts Chorus for a concert of "family" fare, celebrating the aspects of "family" that draw us together during this special time of year.  Expanding from our immediate families to embrace the larger "human family", the concert includes inspiring music from the many celebrations taking place around us in our community.  This concert will be great for introducing young listeners to choral music and will provide “seasoned” choral audiences with some musical treats as well.

The concert program includes:
How Far is it to Bethlehem by Stephen Paulus
Light One Candle by Peter Yarrow
While by my Sheep, 17th century carol arr. by Hugo Jüngst
A Consort of Choral Christmas Carols by P.D.Q. Bach
1. Throw the Yule Log on, Uncle John
2. O Little Town of Hackensack
3. Good King King Looked Out
Some Children See Him by Alfred Burt
Christmas Pudding by Jonathan Willcocks
Christmas Flourish, arr. by Randol Alan Bass

Saturday, December 8, 7:00 PM
Oak Grove United Methodist Church
1722 Oak Grove Road, Decatur
(Get customized directions to the concert from MapQuest.)

Tickets: $15, $5 Seniors and Students

For information about scheduling a holiday performance to liven up your holiday party, visit our Chamber Singers web page.

Buon viagigo, amici!  Have you dreamt of attending the opera in Milan, walking the streets of Venice during Carnivale, drinking in the art of Florence or the architecture of Rome?  Take a musical journey to Italy with the Guild at this year's season fund-raiser event.  We will draw from the rich traditions of Italian music, including opera, art songs and folk songs, to transport you to la bella Italia.

In addition to the choral program, the evening features tasty food and drink, a selection of outstanding solo performances by Guild members, and a Silent Auction.  All funds from the event help the Guild with its mission of bringing fine choral music to our community.

The choral program includes:
"Fa Una Canzona" by Orazio Vecchi, edited by Robert Shaw and Alice Parker
"The Humming Chorus" from Madama Butterfly by Giacomo Puccini
"The Bell Chorus" from I Pagliacci by Ruggiero Leoncavallo
"Insalata Italiana" by Franz Friedrich Richard Genée
"That's Amore" by Brooks and Warren, arranged by S. Davis
"Tristezza" by F. Paolo Tosti, arr. by Randy Haldemann
"The Rainbow Connection" by Paul Williams and Kenneth Ascher,
arr. John Michaiel Higgins and Bryan Black

Saturday, February 16, 2008, 7:30 PM
Embry Hills United Methodist Church
3304 Henderson Mill Road, Chamblee
(Get customized directions to the concert from MapQuest.)

Tickets:  $20 adults, $10 students and seniors, $5 children 12 and under
Reserve Your Tickets On-Line Today!

Emory Community Choral Festival

Hosted by the Atlanta Sacred Chorale
with guest choruses
Micheal O'Neal Chamber Choir
Decatur Civic Chorus
DeKalb Choral Guild

The Guild has the honor of performing with our friends in the choral community at this year's Emory Community Choral Festival.  Hosted by our friends at the Atlanta Sacred Chorale, the festival gives you the chance to hear four choral mini-concerts in one night.

The Guild's concert program includes:
"Tu es Petrus" by Robert Pearsall (1795-1856)
"Earth Song" by Frank Tichelli (b. 1958)
"Tristezza" by F. Paolo Tosti (1846-1916), arr. by Randy Haldemann
"Harambee" by Robert Hugh

All choruses will perform:
"Hallelujah" from Mount of Olives by Ludwig van Beethoven

Saturday, February 23, 2008, 8:00 PM
Schwarz Center for the Arts
Emory University
1700 North Decatur Road, Atlanta, GA
(Get customized directions to the concert from MapQuest.)

Free Admission