Past Concerts
Spring 2024
On Sunday, April 14 at 3:00 PM at Saint Benedict Catholic Church, the Richmond Concert Chorale and RVA Baroque presented “Songs of Sorrow and Salvation” featuring French Baroque composer Jean Gilles’s “Diligam te, Domine” for chorus and orchestra, 20th-century Argentinian composer Alberto Ginastera’s “Lamentations of Jeremiah” for unaccompanied chorus, and instrumental music of Georg Philipp Telemann.
Fall 2023
Our concert in Fall 2023 presented the works of Herbert Howells, Willliam Byrd, and others
Spring 2023
Our concert in Spring 2023 includes music by Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel, Paul Hindemith, and Dominick Argento.
Fall 2022
In late November, 2022, we performed a “Music for Saint Cecilia” in collaboration with RVA Baroque featuring music written in honor of St. Cecilia. We sang several works by Henry Purcell including Welcome to all the pleasures, featuring the full chorus and small ensemble as well Herbert Howells’ Hail, Bright Cecilia, an elaborate oratorio to the historical figure of Cecilia made up of choruses, solos, duets, and trios for various combination so those voices and accompanying instruments.
Fall 2021
Our fall 2021 program was titled “In Remembrance” and featured music from Maurice Duruflé and Josquin de Prez. Josquin’s energetic Memor esto opened the program, supposedly written to remind King Louis XII of a benefice he had promised, and had so far failed to deliver, to the composer. The French composer Maurice Duruflé’s Requiem, Op.9 was the centerpiece and undoubtedly one of the great choral masterworks of the twentieth century. The lilting, lyrical work offered both contrast from the more somber choral pieces and a wistful mood the complemented them.
Spring 2020/Spring 2022
Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and necessary social distancing measures, our spring concert was postponed until Spring 2022.
Our Spring 2020 performance was a collaboration with Jefferson Baroque presenting Giacomo Carissimi’s Historia Divits, a dramatic oratorio on the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus. We will also perform Paul Mealor’s setting of The Beatitudes, as well as a new trio sonata arrangement of Chiara Margarita Cozzolani’s O quam bonum es by Raphael Seligmann.
The Chorale also collaborated with the Central Virginia Masterworks Chorale and the Richmond Philharmonic Orchestra for a performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony! For more information, visit http://www.richmondphilharmonic.org/.
Fall 2019 Concert
The Chorale’s Fall 2019 Program, Rest & Peace featured Heinrich Schütz’s Musikalische Exequien, a moving funerary work from this early German Baroque master, as well as shorter cantatas by Schütz and Melissa Dunphy’s recently-composed Suite Remembrance for unaccompanied choir.
Spring 2019 Concert
The Richmond Concert Chorale presented the second program of its 2018-19 season, Dietrich Buxtehude’s “Membra Jesu Nostri,” April 7 and April 14, joined by the Richmond-based period instrument ensemble, Jefferson Baroque, and members of the St. Benedict Catholic Church Schola Cantorum.
Fall 2018 Concert
Our 2018-2019 season kicked off in November with War and Remembrance, a program honoring the centennial of the end of World War I, featuring Gerald Finzi’s Requiem da Camera as well as music by Byrd, Janequin, McDowall, and others.
Summer 2018 Concert
In July 2018, we performed in collaboration with Viola da Samba, a European early/Brazilian music trio, and presented the North American premiere of Jean Kleeb’s Missa Brasileira
Spring 2018 Concert
Our Spring 2018 Concert, “Southern Harmonies,” featured music from composers who were born or worked in the southern part of their home countries, from south of the equator or “south of the border,” or were inspired by the American Sacred Harp tradition, including works by Reger, Higdon, Araujo, Padilla, and others
Fall 2017 Concert
Our Fall 2017 concert, Light in the Darkness, featured Monteverdi’s “Beatus vir,” a Telemann motet on “Ein feste Burg,” Eric Whitacre’s “Sainte Chapelle,” and music by Byrd, Bruckner, Tallis, and others. We enjoyed collaborating with Richmond-based period instrument ensemble Jefferson Baroque for these performances!
Spring 2017 Concert
Our Spring 2017 Concert, “Flight for Heaven” featured music by J.S. Bach, Benjamin Britten, and more. We also enjoyed performing in Smithfield, VA as part of the Isle of Wight Arts League’s “Sundays at Four” concert series! For more information on the Isle of Wight Arts League and the Sundays at Four series, please visit their homepage.
Choral Evensong at All Saints
On February 26, 2017, the Richmond Concert Chorale partnered with the Adult Choir of All Saints Episcopal Church to offer a service of Choral Evensong, with music by Roland Martin, Rachel Aarons, Steven Sturk, and others.
Fall 2016 Program: For All Seasons
For All Seasons, a program celebrating sacred and secular seasons and cycles, featured music by Brahms, Byrd, Debussy, Josquin, Stanford, and other classics alongside music by living composers including Melissa Dunphy, David Carpenter, and Jackson Hill.
Spring 2016 Program: Unknown Worlds
The Richmond Concert Chorale concluded its 20th Anniversary Season with a program that featured J.S. Bach’s motet Jesu, meine Freude as its centerpiece and drew on music from the Chorale’s past (including Victoria’s O quam gloriosum, performed at RCC’s first performance in 1995, two of Dvořák’s Songs of Nature, and Ralph Vaughan Williams’ haunting Silence and Music). The program also featured Ēriks Ešenvalds’s Northern Lights for chorus, tuned wine glasses, and handchimes, as well as music by Byrd, Parry, Saint-Saëns, Fogarty, and Monteverdi. RCC’s Founding Director Bruce Stevens joined us on Friday as continuo organist for the Bach, and Scott Hayes, the Director of Music at All Saints, joined us on Sunday.
Fall 2015 Program: Music for the Soul
The Richmond Concert Chorale opened its 20th Anniversary Season with a program of music written by composers in times of turmoil, featuring William Byrd’s Mass for Four Voices, as well as music of Howells, Mendelssohn, Schütz, and Whitacre, all for unaccompanied chorus.
Spring 2015 program: For the Fallen
Friday, May 15, 7pm — Christ Ascension Episcopal Church
In the 150th year after the end of the Civil War, RCC performed a concert in memory of all who have lost their lives in wars, both here and abroad. The program featured the haunting 2010 Requiem of Bob Chilcott (a former King’s Singer and very talented composer), as well as music of Eleanor Daley, Felix Mendelssohn, and Paul Aitken.
Fall 2014 program: In Praise of Music
Spring 2014 program: Love Songs for Mother’s Day
May 10 and 11, 2014
