St. Martin's Chamber Choir
Encyclopedia
St. Martin's Chamber Choir, based in Denver, Colorado
, is a professional, non-church affiliated vocal ensemble of 24 voices.
, the Baroque Chamber Orchestra of Colorado, the Colorado Music Festival Chamber Orchestra, the Confluence String Quartet, and the Musica Sacra Chamber Orchestra of Augustana Arts. The choir was also featured at the National Performing Arts Convention held in Denver in June, 2008.
The organization takes its name from the site of its first concerts, St. Martin's Chapel at St. John's Episcopal Cathedral in Denver.
The choir has released eleven CD recordings.
St. Martin's Chamber Choir is supported by numerous corporate and private foundations and by the "Scientific and Cultural Facilities District
" and Colorado Creative Industries (formerly the Colorado Council on the Arts).
• A Marian Christmas: A Marian Christmas, the first full-length compact disc recording from St. Martin's Chamber Choir, was released in December 1998. This CD collection features Hugo Distler
's chorale variations on 'Es ist ein Ros entsprungen' from his cantata Die Weihnachtsgeschichte, and also includes a selection of Marian antiphons, English carol settings, and three settings of the text Ave Maria.
• Dreams All Too Brief: English Partsongs: Included on this offering are 19th and 20th century miniatures by Edward Elgar
, Charles Villiers Stanford
, Ralph Vaughan Williams
and Herbert Howells
. Hubert Parry
's Songs of Farewell conclude this collection of poignant, ethereal choral works.
• A Glimpse of Heaven: A Glimpse of Heaven features works ranging from Thomas Morley
's setting of the Anglican burial service to Horatio Parker
's "Adstant Angelorum Chori". The recording also includes works by Lionel Pike, Terry Schlenker, Henry Purcell
and David Cutforth.
• The American Spirit: The American Spirit is St. Martin's Chamber Choir's celebration of American composers, and includes Cecil Effinger
's Four Pastorales with oboe, Terry Schlenker's "Kyrie", Randall Thompson
's "Alleluia", a setting of the Lamentations of Jeremiah by Timothy Krueger, Jean Berger
's "Skelton Poems" with piano and Tim Sarsany's "Salve Mater misericordiæ".
• O Taste and See: Released in the fall of 2003 O Taste and See includes, in addition to Ralph Vaughan Williams
' choral gem of the same name, the Mass for Four Voices by William Byrd
, Orlando Gibbon
's "Short Evening Service", Charles Villiers Stanford
's Three Motets, Op. 38, and other works from the Anglican choral tradition.
• The Unknown Masterpiece: Premieres from the 2003-2004 Season: The Unknown Masterpiece features live performances of Terry Schlenker's Mass for Double Choir, Janet Vanden Bosch's "These few tears - in memoriam Mark Owen Sheldon", Timothy Krueger's Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis, and other works given their premieres by St. Martin's during their 2003-04 season.
• Monastic Echoes: The Canonical Hours, an eight movement work by John White reflecting the eight daily monastic services (or hours) as the monks journey through the day, is the centerpiece of the CD Monastic Echoes. Complementing The Canonical Hours are the twelve Gregorian plainchant settings of the Compline text 'Te lucis ante terminum'. Additional works include Terry Schlenker's "Timor et Tremor" and Craig Carnahan's "Thou Shalt Know Him".
• It is Finished: Stations of the Cross: This CD traces Christ's Holy Week journey to the Cross. The collection includes works from the 16th through the 21st centuries, following the Via Crucis and ending with a prelude to Easter.
• A Marian Christmas II: A Marian Christmas II is a sequel to St. Martin's 1998 recording A Marian Christmas. Featuring many selections from the December 2006 concerts of the same name, A Marian Christmas II contains a collection of carol arrangements and seasonal works, including five world premiere recordings.
• The Waking: Choral Music of Terry Schlenker: The Waking: Choral Music of Terry Schlenker, contains both never-before-recorded new works and selections from previous St. Martin's CDs. Lush voicings and distinctive harmonies make Schlenker's music truly memorable.
• Enlightenment A Cappella: St. Martin's recording released in 2009, Enlightenment A Cappella, is a collection of seldom-heard unaccompanied works from the 18th century, when most choral music employed basso continuo. The CD features music by Johann Friedrich Doles
, Carl Heinrich Graun
, Johann Kuhnau
, Giuseppe Ottavio Pitoni
, John Blow
, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
and many others.
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...
, is a professional, non-church affiliated vocal ensemble of 24 voices.
History
St. Martin’s Chamber Choir, led by founder, Artistic Director and conductor Timothy J. Krueger, was created in 1994. The choir presents concert programs drawn from choral literature spanning from Renaissance motets, through 18th century Baroque and Classical works and Romantic era partsongs, to masterworks of the 20th and 21st centuries and new pieces composed expressly for the ensemble. Although the group’s repertoire is largely a cappella, St. Martin’s has collaborated with such groups as the Boulder Philharmonic OrchestraBoulder philharmonic orchestra
The Boulder Philharmonic Orchestra, founded in 1958, is a fully professional orchestra based in Boulder, Colorado. It is the successor to the Civic Symphony Orchestra, and it is directed by Michael Butterman...
, the Baroque Chamber Orchestra of Colorado, the Colorado Music Festival Chamber Orchestra, the Confluence String Quartet, and the Musica Sacra Chamber Orchestra of Augustana Arts. The choir was also featured at the National Performing Arts Convention held in Denver in June, 2008.
The organization takes its name from the site of its first concerts, St. Martin's Chapel at St. John's Episcopal Cathedral in Denver.
The choir has released eleven CD recordings.
St. Martin's Chamber Choir is supported by numerous corporate and private foundations and by the "Scientific and Cultural Facilities District
Scientific and Cultural Facilities District
The Scientific and Cultural Facilities District is a special regional tax district of the State of Colorado that provides funding for art, music, theater, dance, zoology, botany, natural history, or cultural history organizations in the Denver metropolitan area.In 1988, voters in the Denver region...
" and Colorado Creative Industries (formerly the Colorado Council on the Arts).
Timothy J. Krueger, Artistic Director
Timothy J. Krueger, founder, Artistic Director and conductor of St. Martin's, studied musicology at the Wheaton College Conservatory, at the University of Colorado-Boulder, the Universität Hamburg, Germany, and the University of London's Royal Holloway College. He has worked professionally with such ensembles as the Santa Fe Opera, the Santa Fe Desert Chorale, Chicago a cappella, Vox early music ensemble (Ann Arbor, MI), the St. John's Cathedral Choir in Denver, and the Ars Nova Singers of Boulder, Colorado. He is choirmaster of St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, Denver and a part-time faculty member at Metropolitan State College of Denver.Discography
To date St. Martin's Chamber Choir has released 11 CDs which are described below.• A Marian Christmas: A Marian Christmas, the first full-length compact disc recording from St. Martin's Chamber Choir, was released in December 1998. This CD collection features Hugo Distler
Hugo Distler
Hugo Distler was a German organist, choral conductor, teacher and composer.-Life and career:...
's chorale variations on 'Es ist ein Ros entsprungen' from his cantata Die Weihnachtsgeschichte, and also includes a selection of Marian antiphons, English carol settings, and three settings of the text Ave Maria.
• Dreams All Too Brief: English Partsongs: Included on this offering are 19th and 20th century miniatures by Edward Elgar
Edward Elgar
Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet OM, GCVO was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestral works including the Enigma Variations, the Pomp and Circumstance Marches, concertos...
, Charles Villiers Stanford
Charles Villiers Stanford
Sir Charles Villiers Stanford was an Irish composer who was particularly notable for his choral music. He was professor at the Royal College of Music and University of Cambridge.- Life :...
, Ralph Vaughan Williams
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Ralph Vaughan Williams OM was an English composer of symphonies, chamber music, opera, choral music, and film scores. He was also a collector of English folk music and song: this activity both influenced his editorial approach to the English Hymnal, beginning in 1904, in which he included many...
and Herbert Howells
Herbert Howells
Herbert Norman Howells CH was an English composer, organist, and teacher, most famous for his large output of Anglican church music.-Life:...
. Hubert Parry
Hubert Parry
Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry, 1st Baronet was an English composer, teacher and historian of music.Parry's first major works appeared in 1880. As a composer he is best known for the choral song "Jerusalem", the coronation anthem "I was glad" and the hymn tune "Repton", which sets the words...
's Songs of Farewell conclude this collection of poignant, ethereal choral works.
• A Glimpse of Heaven: A Glimpse of Heaven features works ranging from Thomas Morley
Thomas Morley
Thomas Morley was an English composer, theorist, editor and organist of the Renaissance, and the foremost member of the English Madrigal School. He was the most famous composer of secular music in Elizabethan England and an organist at St Paul's Cathedral...
's setting of the Anglican burial service to Horatio Parker
Horatio Parker
Horatio William Parker was an American composer, organist and teacher. He was a central figure in musical life in New Haven, Connecticut in the late 19th century, and is best remembered as the teacher of Charles Ives....
's "Adstant Angelorum Chori". The recording also includes works by Lionel Pike, Terry Schlenker, Henry Purcell
Henry Purcell
Henry Purcell – 21 November 1695), was an English organist and Baroque composer of secular and sacred music. Although Purcell incorporated Italian and French stylistic elements into his compositions, his legacy was a uniquely English form of Baroque music...
and David Cutforth.
• The American Spirit: The American Spirit is St. Martin's Chamber Choir's celebration of American composers, and includes Cecil Effinger
Cecil Effinger
Cecil Effinger was an American composer, oboist, and inventor.-Life:Effinger was born in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and resided in that state for most of his life...
's Four Pastorales with oboe, Terry Schlenker's "Kyrie", Randall Thompson
Randall Thompson
Randall Thompson was an American composer, particularly noted for his choral works.-Career:He attended Harvard University, became assistant professor of music and choir director at Wellesley College, and received a doctorate in music from the University of Rochester's Eastman School of Music...
's "Alleluia", a setting of the Lamentations of Jeremiah by Timothy Krueger, Jean Berger
Jean Berger
Jean Berger was a German-born pianist, composer, and music educator.-Early years:...
's "Skelton Poems" with piano and Tim Sarsany's "Salve Mater misericordiæ".
• O Taste and See: Released in the fall of 2003 O Taste and See includes, in addition to Ralph Vaughan Williams
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Ralph Vaughan Williams OM was an English composer of symphonies, chamber music, opera, choral music, and film scores. He was also a collector of English folk music and song: this activity both influenced his editorial approach to the English Hymnal, beginning in 1904, in which he included many...
' choral gem of the same name, the Mass for Four Voices by William Byrd
William Byrd
William Byrd was an English composer of the Renaissance. He wrote in many of the forms current in England at the time, including various types of sacred and secular polyphony, keyboard and consort music.-Provenance:Knowledge of Byrd's biography expanded in the late 20th century, thanks largely...
, Orlando Gibbon
Orlando Gibbons
Orlando Gibbons was an English composer, virginalist and organist of the late Tudor and early Jacobean periods...
's "Short Evening Service", Charles Villiers Stanford
Charles Villiers Stanford
Sir Charles Villiers Stanford was an Irish composer who was particularly notable for his choral music. He was professor at the Royal College of Music and University of Cambridge.- Life :...
's Three Motets, Op. 38, and other works from the Anglican choral tradition.
• The Unknown Masterpiece: Premieres from the 2003-2004 Season: The Unknown Masterpiece features live performances of Terry Schlenker's Mass for Double Choir, Janet Vanden Bosch's "These few tears - in memoriam Mark Owen Sheldon", Timothy Krueger's Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis, and other works given their premieres by St. Martin's during their 2003-04 season.
• Monastic Echoes: The Canonical Hours, an eight movement work by John White reflecting the eight daily monastic services (or hours) as the monks journey through the day, is the centerpiece of the CD Monastic Echoes. Complementing The Canonical Hours are the twelve Gregorian plainchant settings of the Compline text 'Te lucis ante terminum'. Additional works include Terry Schlenker's "Timor et Tremor" and Craig Carnahan's "Thou Shalt Know Him".
• It is Finished: Stations of the Cross: This CD traces Christ's Holy Week journey to the Cross. The collection includes works from the 16th through the 21st centuries, following the Via Crucis and ending with a prelude to Easter.
• A Marian Christmas II: A Marian Christmas II is a sequel to St. Martin's 1998 recording A Marian Christmas. Featuring many selections from the December 2006 concerts of the same name, A Marian Christmas II contains a collection of carol arrangements and seasonal works, including five world premiere recordings.
• The Waking: Choral Music of Terry Schlenker: The Waking: Choral Music of Terry Schlenker, contains both never-before-recorded new works and selections from previous St. Martin's CDs. Lush voicings and distinctive harmonies make Schlenker's music truly memorable.
• Enlightenment A Cappella: St. Martin's recording released in 2009, Enlightenment A Cappella, is a collection of seldom-heard unaccompanied works from the 18th century, when most choral music employed basso continuo. The CD features music by Johann Friedrich Doles
Johann Friedrich Doles
Johann Friedrich Doles was a German composer and pupil of J.S. Bach.Doles was born in Steinbach-Hallenberg. He attended the University of Leipzig...
, Carl Heinrich Graun
Carl Heinrich Graun
Carl Heinrich Graun was a German composer and tenor singer. Along with Johann Adolf Hasse, he is considered to be the most important German composer of Italian opera of his time.-Biography:...
, Johann Kuhnau
Johann Kuhnau
Johann Kuhnau was a German composer, organist and harpsichordist.-Biography :Kuhnau was born in Geising, Saxony. He grew up in a religious Lutheran family. At age nine, he auditioned successfully for the Kreuzschule in Dresden...
, Giuseppe Ottavio Pitoni
Giuseppe Ottavio Pitoni
Giuseppe Ottavio Pitoni was an organist and composer born in Rieti, Perugia, Italy. He became one of the leading musicians in Rome during the late Baroque era, the first half of the 18th century.-Life:...
, John Blow
John Blow
John Blow was an English Baroque composer and organist, appointed to Westminster Abbey in 1669. His pupils included William Croft, Jeremiah Clarke and Henry Purcell. In 1685 he was named a private musician to James II. His only stage composition, Venus and Adonis John Blow (baptised 23 February...
, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
and many others.