Two Fine Choruses Perform:

Piero Bonamico rehearses with the Randolph Singers in preparation for this weekend's big Sunday concert featuring the Singers, Sounding Joy!, and the Sounding Joy Youth Chorus. (Herald / Bob Eddy)

Randolph Singers, Sounding Joy

For the first time in several years, Randolph’s two fine adult choruses will come together this Sunday for a joint concert.

The Randolph Singers, about 40 strong, will join the 20 singers of Sounding Joy! for a concert entitled "Songs of America" at 3 p.m. at Chandler Music Hall.

The Randolph Singers will be led by Piero Bonamico and Sounding Joy! by Marjorie Drysdale. Pianists Tim Guiles and Marta Borgstrom will accompany.

As a special treat, the two adult choruses will be joined by the Sounding Joy Youth Chorus singing "Four Songs from the Fabulous Fifties." The elementary-aged children will be singing favorites like "Splish-Splash," and "Bye Bye, Love."

Conductors of both choruses said they are enthusiastic about being able to perform together. Both halves of the program will involve a selection involving all 60 singers—Leonard’s Bernstein’s moving "Make Our Garden Grow" from the musical "Candide," and a rousing, show-stopping arrangement of the standard folksong "Cindy," that has a hoedown flavor.

Lively and Moving

Both choruses will mine the rich veins of American music—folk, traditional, popular, and semi-classical—for what promises to be a lively and moving program.

Both choruses, also, will pay homage to Vermonters who have brought extraordinary musical gifts to their adopted state.

The Randolph Singers will perform "White Horses," one of the favorite choral arrangements by Braintree composer Gwyneth Walker. Both the Singers and Sounding Joy! will be performing arrangements by Robert De Cormier, a nationally known conductor, composer, and arranger who founded the Vermont Symphony Orchestra Chorus and the small ensemble Counterpoint.

Sounding Joy! especially will concentrate on De Cormier’s music, presenting four of his arrangements that demonstrate the emotional range of his work. They include a striking chain gang song, "Rainbow Round my Shoulder," the heartbreaking "Hear the Lambs A-Cryin" the gospel-inflected "Let Me Fly," and "Turn the World Around," a Caribbean song clearly influenced by De Cormier’s long musical friendship with Harry Belafonte.

The chorus prepared for Sunday’s concert in a two-hour long workshop with De Cormier last Saturday which members agreed was inspirational and motivational. For his part, De Cormier expressed great pleasure at how well the ensemble performed his music.

The Randolph Singers, in their section, will perform music by Aaron Copeland, "At the River," and John Rutter, "Heavenly Airplane" as well as Walker and De Cormier.

Off to Virginia

The music to be performed Sunday relates to other major projects for both Randolph choruses. Later this year, the Randolph Singers will participate by invitation as the Vermont representative at the 400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown in Virginia. The chorus will perform on its own and as part of huge massed choir representing all 50 states.

All the music at Sunday’s concert will be repeated in Jamestown.

Meanwhile, Sounding Joy! will perform the De Cormier pieces, and others by Gwyneth Walker in the fall at the Calvin Coolidge Birthplace historical site in Plymouth.

Both choruses will also be part of an enormous two-day celebration of Walker’s 60th birthday this fall. At least 10 choruses, plus instrumental ensembles will perform a variety of programs of Walker’s music at Chandler Music Hall.