November 24, 2024, 2:00pm,  Maynard High School

Our 46th season opening concert, “Baroque Brilliance”, focuses on compositions by the three great Baroque composers — Scarlatti, Handel and Bach — all by happy coincidence born in the year 1685!  Scarlatti, though best known for his over 500 keyboard sonatas, also wrote beautiful devotional choral works which recall the ethereal sound of Palestrina, but are ingeniously constructed along Baroque principles of contrapuntal writing. Scarlaltti’s Ipse Confessor will feature soloist Johanna Geremia. A classically trained soprano from Massachusetts, Johanna Geremia is returning to Sounds of Stow nearly nine years after her first solo performance with them. Johanna has studied voice under Dr. Jamie-Rose Guarrine and Dr. Jennifer Sgroe, and has most recently performed as a deputy soprano with the Amsterdam Basilica Choir in the Netherlands. After receiving her degrees in history, German, and music from UMass Amherst, Johanna moved to the Netherlands to complete her Master’s degree in medieval literature.

In contrast, our Handel selections are from his oratorio Solomon and celebrate the sensuous nature of his attraction to the Queen of Sheba.  Absolutely seductive and charming.

Bach takes us on a profound spiritual journey as the singers wander in search of a place of rest — which they do find in the moving final resolution of this beautiful work, Der Gerecht kommt um.

The program concludes with Bach’s familiar and much loved Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring, sung in the original German.

Translations of texts will be projected so that you can follow as the music develops the composer’s intent.

Giovanni Gabrieli, born 130 years prior to 1685, was one of the most influential composers of the high Renaissance, just as Bach’s works are the culmination of the Baroque style.  We open our program with his thrilling motet Jubilate Deo, which our editor notes “represents at once a crowning achievement of the Renaissance and a prophetic prologue to the Baroque.”  The 8-part chorus, accompanied by 4 trumpets and 4 trombones, will transport you to the vast spaces of San Marco in Venice, where these antiphonal works were performed across vast spaces.”

Additionally, our brass octet will showcase short works by four other Venetian contemporaries of Gabrieli, providing a mere taste of the musical riches of this period.

December 6-8, 2024, Groton Hill – “Christmas Magic” with Vista Philharmonic!

Friday, Dec 6 at 7:30pm; Saturday, Dec 7 at 3:00pm & 7:30pm; and Sunday, Dec 8 at 3:00pm.

Sunday, April 13, 2025, 2:00pm, Littleton High School

We explore “Romantic Riches” with music by Mendelssohn (two movements of his beautiful Psalm 42) and Brahms – the great motets “Nanie” and “Schicksalslied” (Song of the Fates). Neither Mendelssohn nor Brahms ever wrote a musical line that was not wonderful to sing; these works explore the eternal quest for meaning and reassurance in the midst of the uncertainties of the human condition. In addition, we will revisit his “Four Songs for Women’s Chorus, Two Horns and Harp”( Vier Gesange), the epitome of Romantic expression.