A word from the director

I’m incredibly excited to kick off my first full season with the Granite State Choral Society this fall with a concert called “Wondrous Love”.  This upbeat and eclectic program will celebrate the many faces and moods of love, both divine and human, through music in a wide variety of styles and time periods, including classical, gospel, jazz, shapenote, Broadway, and popular hits of the 60s, 70s, and 80s.  This program will give our talented singers the opportunity to showcase their versatility, challenging them to portray a broad range of emotional colors and vocal styles.  Among the highlights of the program will be a work called “The Ground”, taken from the “Sunrise Mass” of the young, contemporary Norwegian composer Ola Gjiello.  This lush, beautiful work takes its text from the Latin mass ordinary.  Whereas most composers choose to present the different mass texts in separate movements, here Gjiello condenses them into a single, unified work of remarkable beauty.  Other highlights include arrangements of songs made popular by George Gershwin, Billy Joel, and Marvin Gaye, to name just a few.  I’m confident that this program will truly have something for everyone.  On behalf of the GSCS, I hope you can join us as together we explore one of the great mysteries of the universe, celebrating the many facets of “Wondrous Love”.

Dan Roihl