HOUSTON CHAMBER CHOIR AND TREBLE CHOIR OF HOUSTON RELEASE CD OF COMPOSER BOB CHILCOTT’S CIRCLESONG ON BRITISH LABEL SIGNUM RECORDS
Calendar Release
HOUSTON, January 20, 2022 – The Grammy® Award-winning Houston Chamber Choir and the award-winning Treble Choir of Houston’s new recording of British Bob Chilcott’s Circlesong for Signum Records, will be released Jan. 21. Artistic Director Robert Simpson conducts the Houston Chamber Choir in this groundbreaking work by one of England’s most renowned composers, along with Marianna Parnas Simpson leading the Treble Choir.
This is the first Houston Chamber Choir album released since the 2019 Duruflé: Complete Choral Works, which won a Grammy® for “Best Choral Performance” in January 2020 and was also released on Signum Classics. The record company is one of the United Kingdom’s leading independent classical labels and home to diverse and eclectic repertoire by some of the finest artists and singers from around the world.
A work filled with ambition, Circlesong is a musical portrayal of the human life cycle as captured in the indigenous poetry of North America. Based on poetry from the Chinook, Comanche, Dakota, Inuit, Iroquois, Kwakiutl, Navaho, Ojibwa, Pueblo, Seminole, Sioux and Yaqui traditions, the 13 movements in seven parts mark the different stages of life, from birth and childhood to adulthood, middle age and death. Circlesong is a work of impressive drama, variety and depth, which was performed in Houston by the Houston Chamber Choir in February 2020 before the Covid-19 pandemic effectively closed live performances.
"It was a great honor for the Houston Chamber Choir to be selected by a composer of Bob Chilcott’s stature to record this extraordinary piece,” says Simpson. “His music gives voice to the words and wisdom of Native American peoples with deep understanding and respect. On a personal level, I was thrilled to have the chance to collaborate with my wife, Marianna Parnas-Simpson, and her remarkable Treble Choir of Houston at Christ Church Cathedral.”
The Houston Chamber Choir has established itself as one of the premier professional choirs in the United States, serving Houston through concerts and educational initiatives that enlighten, entertain, and educate people of all ages and has been described by author and filmmaker Jamie Bernstein as “the choral equivalent of the Harlem Globetrotters. Everyone is a virtuoso.” The Choir is comprised of 24 professional singers, most of whom have studied at the top music schools and conservatories in the United States including Juilliard, New England Conservatory, University of Houston, and University of Texas.
The Treble Choir of Houston, founded in 2006 at Christ Church Cathedral, is an acclaimed ensemble of young women, grades 6-12, that provides outstanding musical training in a nurturing environment. Coming from widely diverse backgrounds, these young women are united in their pursuit of musical excellence. The choir has performed at Carnegie Hall in New York City.
Circlesong Track Listing:
Introduction
1 Beauty Before Me / We Wait In Darkness
Part I, Birth
2 Song for Bringing a Child into the World
3 Newborn
Part II, Childhood
4 Yaqui Song
5 A Child's Song
6 Give Me Strength
Part III, Lover
7 Chinook Songs
8 Over the Wave
Part IV, Adulthood
9 Summer Song
Part V, Middle Age
10 O Great Spirit
Part VI, Old Age
11 In the House Made of Dawn
Part VII, Death
12 Farewell, My Brother
13 The Sun’s Beams are Running Out / We Wait in the Darkness
14 Like a Rainbow
15 All Things Pass
16 Circles of Motion
17 Walking the Red Road
For more information about the Circlesong album and to purchase a CD, please visit our homepage at HoustonChamberChoir.org and click on the “order your copy!” tab. The work will also be available on all major music platforms.
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Link to high res photos here
About Houston Chamber Choir
Led by Founder and Artistic Director Robert Simpson, the Houston Chamber Choir is a Grammy® Award-winning ensemble of 24 professional musicians selected from the finest choral artists in our region. “One of the jewels of the city’s cultural scene” (Houston Chronicle), the Houston Chamber Choir has brought Houston an array of choral works for 26 years ranging from early music and Baroque masterpieces, including the city’s first period instrument performance of Bach’s B Minor Mass, to the rarely heard Third Sacred Concert by Duke Ellington, and performances and premieres of works by today’s leading composers, many with Houston ties — David Ashley White, Christopher Theofanidis, Dominick DiOrio, J. Todd Frazier, Mark Buller, Karim Al-Zand, Pierre Jalbert, Marcus Maroney, and Daniel Knaggs.
The Houston Chamber Choir’s awards include Chorus America’s Margaret Hillis Award for Choral Excellence and the American Prize. They were one of 24 international ensembles selected to appear at the 2020 World Symposium on Choral Music in New Zealand. The Houston Chamber Choir has appeared at national conventions of the American Choral Directors Association, the American Guild of Organists, and Chorus America. Tours have taken them to Mexico, Wales, and the Northeastern United States where they performed at Trinity Church, Wall Street in New York City, and Yale University at the invitation of the Institute of Sacred Music.
The Houston Chamber Choir's recording of the complete choral works of French composer Maurice Duruflé was awarded the 2019 Grammy® Award for Best Choral Performance. In January 2022, Signum Classics will release its newest recording of compositions by acclaimed British composer Bob Chilcott. For this recording, the Houston Chamber Choir is joined by the Treble Choir of Houston directed by Marianna Parnas-Simpson. The title work, Circlesong, is a 13-movement composition for two choirs, two pianos, and percussion based on First Nation poetry of North America.
About Bob Chilcott
As a composer, conductor, and singer, Bob Chilcott has enjoyed a lifelong association with choral music, first as a chorister and choral scholar in the choir of King’s College, Cambridge, and for 12 years as a member of the King’s Singers. He became a full-time composer in 1997 and has produced a large catalogue of music for all types of choirs which is published by Oxford University Press. His most often performed pieces include Can you hear me?, A Little Jazz Mass, Requiem, and the St John Passion.
Bob has conducted choirs in more than 30 countries worldwide and has worked with many thousands of amateur singers across the UK in a continuing series of Singing Days. For seven years he was conductor of the Chorus of The Royal College of Music in London and since 2002 he has been Principal Guest Conductor of the BBC Singers. In 2017 Bob was awarded an Honorary Fellowship by The Royal School of Church Music and in 2019 takes up the role of Principal Conductor Birmingham University Singers.
His music has been widely recorded by leading British choirs and groups including The King’s Singers, King’s College, Cambridge, Wells Cathedral, Westminster Abbey, The Sixteen, Tenebrae, The BBC Singers, The Bach Choir, Commotio, and Ora. In 2016 he enjoyed a collaboration with the celebrated singer Katie Melua on the album In Winter. In 2017 two new discs were released by Commotio and Choralis – All Good Things on Naxos, and In Winter’s Arms on Signum, his first recording collaboration with an American choir. Newer recording projects are with the BBC Singers, Houston Chamber Choir, and Wroclaw Philharmonic Choir.