Chicago Catholic Choir (Director: Kevin Allen)
  • Bri
    Posts: 103
    Kevin Allen is the director of a new amateur choir in Chicago: Chicago Catholic Choir. We are looking for more members!

    Rehearsals are Sundays from 6 to 8 pm at St. Gregory the Great, and we are singing for concerts or prayer services 4 times per year (generally on Saturday and/or Sunday evenings).

    If you'd like to audition (which focuses on ability to match pitch, not on sight reading), please email chicagocatholicchoir@gmail.com.

    A little info is available on the Facebook page:
    https://www.facebook.com/chicagocatholicchoir

    A website should be forthcoming.

    Attached is a flier from our November concert, which included the following:

    Allen – Prayer to St. Michael

    Allen – The Song of Hezekiah

    Bonis - Adoro te

    Calabrese – Emendemus in melius

    Compere - Crux trimphans

    des Prez - Ave Maria

    Dubois – Ave Maria

    Durufle – Ubi Caritas

    Faure – Cantique de Jean Racine

    Gounod – Pater Noster

    Ostrowski – O Sanctissima

    Chants:

    Adoro te (men and women)

    Ave Maria - 4th Sunday of Advent (men)

    Ave Maria (women)

    Parce Domine

    We sing next for Convivium Marianum in December.
    https://www.stgregoryhall.org/liturgies.html
    CCC Concert Flyer 10_23_2023.pdf
    2M
    Thanked by 5CHGiffen ServiamScores Anna_Bendiksen Jeffrey Quick tomjaw
  • Anna_BendiksenAnna_Bendiksen
    Posts: 229
    Oh man, if I were still in Wheaton...
    Thanked by 2Bri tomjaw
  • CHGiffenCHGiffen
    Posts: 5,151
    And, oh wow, if I were still in Evanston.
    Thanked by 2Bri tomjaw
  • StimsonInRehabStimsonInRehab
    Posts: 1,916
    Send Kevin (and Robert, and Sean, and Courtney R., and the newly nuptialed Mrs. Lipka) all my best. I would’ve been there, had our choir not been performing at our William Byrd Festival the same day.
    Thanked by 2Bri tomjaw
  • Jeffrey Quick
    Posts: 2,048
    I wish I were there. This is something that should happen in every major city. Secular choirs have virtually deserted our repertoire.
    Thanked by 5Bri tomjaw CHGiffen ServiamScores LauraKaz
  • CGM
    Posts: 683
    Where I live,
    — one secular choir just did the Mozart Requiem with orchestra in October, and
    — another secular choir will do the Mozart Requiem with orchestra in March.
    — That second choir just did a concert of Byrd (Haec dies a6 + Mass for Five) and Howells (Haec dies, Nunc dimittis, Take him earth for cherishing) in October, and
    — will do a concert of Palestrina (Missa brevis + motets) and Bruckner (Mass no. 2) in February.

    So the sacred repertory has not entirely been abandoned...
    Thanked by 2CHGiffen Bri
  • Bri
    Posts: 103
    Here is a flier for anyone who may be interested.
    Chicago Catholic Choir.pdf
    282K
    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
  • ServiamScores
    Posts: 2,724
    CGM—what saddens me is the fact that they are treated like museum pieces, to be trotted out and put on display, totally divorced from their proper context: living, breathing liturgy. I’m glad they are being sung, but there’s still a sterility to it.
    Thanked by 3tomjaw CharlesW Anna_Bendiksen
  • Richard MixRichard Mix
    Posts: 2,768
    I've never thought of a B-minor Mass or or a Mozart Requiem or a Missa Solemnis as a sterile experience. Isn't accusing 'secular choirs' of 'desertion' a case of misplaced blame?
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,934
    I think SS is rightly pointing out that religious works from the past are more often heard as concerts rather than parts of liturgy. Sad, but true. That doesn't say much for the current state of liturgy in many places. I don't find some of those works "sterile" so much as used inappropriately. If you hear an aspiring director present the "Coronation Mass" with 10 singers, something will definitely be missing. That work is more than a bit over the top for a parish liturgy since no Holy Roman Emperor coronations have occurred in a long time. However, there are some other great works that have been relegated to the secular concert hall but could still be used for liturgy. I heard a great presentation of the Mass for choir and two organs (Op.16.) - Vierne, done in church but as part of an Episcopalian concert. The Catholic parishes wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole.
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