Chorus presents 118th annual concert July 30

NORFOLK » The Litchfield County Choral Union will present Johann Sebastian Bach’s Cantatas 9, 106 and 170 along with his motet “Jesu, meine Freude ”, on Sunday, July 30 at 3 p.m. The Choral Union, under the direction of Jonathan F. Babbitt, will perform these works in the Music Shed at the Yale Summer Music School on the Ellen Battell Stoeckel estate in Norfolk.

Featured soloists include mezzo-soprano Allison Messier in the solo cantata 170. Also featured will be soprano Allison Whitfield, alto Barbara Youmans, tenor Gregory Zavracky and baritone David Tinervia. All of the pieces will be accompanied by the LCCU Festival Orchestra, also under the direction of Babbitt.

Founded in 1899 by Carl and Ellen Stoeckel, the Choral Union draws singers from western Connecticut, Massachusetts and the Hudson Valley. This concert reflects a return to a somewhat more classical program after a slight departure for its 2016 season. That concert delighted audiences with solo and choral selections from many of Gilbert and Sullivans’ most famous and favorite operettas. Other past performances have included Mozart’s Requiem Mass, Faure’s Requiem Mass, Handel’s complete Messiah and Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem, to name a few.

The Choral Union rehearses and performs in the breath-taking redwood Music Shed built especially for the group by the Stoeckels on the grounds of their country estate. It was the desire of the Stoeckels that the Choral Union be their legacy in “...honoring the composer and his work...” in the most elevated manner possible. Thanks to their beneficence, combined with the ongoing support of Yale University and multiple donors and benefactors, that work continues with this current season of Bach selections.

Music Director Jonathan F. Babbitt, who began his tenure on the stage of the Music Shed as a boy soprano in 1973, holds Bachelor and Master degrees from Yale University and the Yale School of Music. He was appointed Music Director of the Choral Union in 1986. Active as a clinician, conductor, adjudicator and composer, Babbitt has appeared across the United States, Canada and Europe with choral groups performing repertoire from the Renaissance to the contemporary.

His compositions have premiered at the prestigious International Contemporary Music Festival in Bonn, Germany, and at Connecticut and Rhode Island Music Educator’s Association events here in the United States. Babbitt holds concurrent positions as Director of Choral Activities and Coordinator of Applied Music Studies at Mitchell College in New London, Connecticut, Music Director of the Greater New Bedford Choral Society in New Bedford, Massachusetts, and Music Director of the New England Sacred Camerata in Adamsville, Rhode Island.

Tickets for the July 30th concert may be purchased at www.lccu-us.org or by calling 860-868-0739. All tickets are general admission and cost $25 ($20 for seniors and students). Tickets are also available at the door on the day of the concert.