NEWS
St. Bartholomew Choir Prepares for
World Choir Games
Though St. Bartholomew's choir was invited to compete in the World Choir Games, the Olympic-style choir event being hosted by Cincinnati this July, their four-piece set will be all about music.
Choir director Paul Bresciani said members chose to participate in the international event's Open Competition section in a spirit of sharing and performing beautiful music. "This event is not really about competition," he said, "it's about everybody getting together."
The choir from the Springfield Township (Ohio) parish will participate in opening and closing ceremonies, and an international panel of judges will evaluate them and give them feedback as they vie for Gold, Silver, and Bronze certificates. The Open Competition doesn't award medals, but "it's still a big deal," Bresciani said, and the singers are hard at work on four of their best pieces.
The choir will participate in the Musica Sacra (Sacred Music) category, one of 23 categories in the Open Competition. The requirements are four pieces, no longer than 15 minutes total, from three different time periods. Only two can include musical accompaniment.
Bresciani chose the Lacrimosa from Mozart's Requiem as the piece from a composer born before 1809, a Russian Our Father by Nikoklai Kedrov as the piece from a composer born between 1809 and 1873, and Esto Les Digo by Kinley Lang as a piece from a living composer. For the fourth, director's choice piece, he chose the Franz Biebl Ave Maria made famous by Chanticleer, the renowned mens' a cappella choir.
"The pieces show many different styles in wide variety of time periods, and showcase what our choir can do well," Bresciani said.
The Russian Otche Nash, or Our Father, will be particularly interesting to Cincinnati audiences, Bresciani said. "It was written in about 1922 and spread throughout Russia," he explained. Although mostly unknown here, he said, "it's a beautliful, multi-part chant thats so popular in Russia that many churches sing it every Sunday."
The World Choir Games schedule hasn't been set yet -- choirs are still registering from all over the world -- but the Musica Sacra part of the competition will take place during July 4-8, the first week of the two-week Games. We'll post schedules when they're set and, in the months to come, we'll introduce you to more area Catholic choirs participating in the Games.
Photo courtesy Paul Bresciani.
