150 years of JOY: The Best of the Best

Friday, October 23, 2009 at 8 pm  - Mechanics Hall

We kick off our 150th anniversary with a look back at some of the most beloved choral music of the Chorus’ earliest years.  This concert features music by Bach, Handel, Haydn, Brahms, Fauré and Mendelssohn and will conclude with the Ode to Joy, the finale to Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.  The Chorus will be accompanied in grand 19th century style by the magnificent Hook organ in Mechanics Hall, the Chorus’ home for a century and a half.

150 years of GLORY:  HANDEL'S Messiah

Saturday, December 5, 2009 at 8 pm - Mechanics Hall

The best-known of all the choral masterworks, Handel’s Messiah has been a staple of the Worcester Chorus’ repertoire from the very first concert 150 years ago, when the choir sang excerpts from Handel’s Messiah and Haydn’s Creation.  For more than a century, the annual Christmastide performance of Messiah has been one of the city’s most cherished traditions.

150 years of COMFORT:  BRAHMS - Ein Deutsches Requiem, Op. 45

Friday, April 9, 2010 at 8 pm - Mechanics Hall

When the Worcester Music Festival was founded, Johannes Brahms was only twenty-five years old.  A decade later, he finished his German Requiem.  A work of great power and beauty, the Requiem sets biblical texts in German rather than the ancient Latin rite.  The Chorus celebrates its 150th anniversary with one of the most profound European works of art ever penned.  The Worcester Chorus will be joined by the Holy Cross College Choir in performing this monumental masterpiece.

150 years of SINGING:  The Soul of American Music

Saturday, June 5, 2010 at 8 pm - United Congregational Church

In a concert of spirituals, gospel music and American folk music, the Worcester Chorus celebrates the songs that were sung outside the concert hall throughout its history, a heritage as long and rich as our classical tradition.  This concert will feature such familiar songs as Amazing Grace, Ezekiel Saw the Wheel and Shenandoah in choral arrangements spanning a century and a half.

"The Worcester Chorus proved to be genuine masters of the choral art as they presented a sensational concert." - Worcetser Telegram & Gazette

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