Joyful Noise instills a lifelong appreciation of musical excellence through choral music education

and inspiring performances.

CHORUS ANGELICUS

"The Angelic Choir"

Chorus Angelicus was founded in 1991 and now comprises four choral ensembles, involving more than seventy children who hail from towns throughout southwestern New England

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GAUDEAMUS

"Let us rejoice"

Gaudeamus is an adult chamber choir of professional and semi-professional free lance singers formed in 1992, and often performs larger works in conjunction with Chorus Angelicus.

Mendelssohn’s choral masterpiece tells the story of the prophet Elijah as recounted in the Old Testament. When Elijah encounters tremendous anxiety and hardship, he turns to God and asks for assistance. A compassionate voice from heaven replies with the words of Psalm 121, a delicate and stunning piece of poetry:

 

Lift thine eyes to the mountains. Whence cometh thy help?

Thy help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.

Thy keeper will never slumber.

 

The text was originally written in German, but was translated to English for the first performance of Elijah in the nineteenth century. Mendelssohn was very popular in London, which has always been a hub of activity and resources for composers. He saw the advantage of composing his oratorio to be sung both in English and his native German, so as to guarantee and maximize performances all across Europe!

 

This precious miniature of a composition is deceivingly complex and sophisticated: it appears rather easy in appearance but to master a finished product requires countless hours of practicing, polishing, finessing, and fine-tuning all aspects of the performance. As you can imagine, choral works arguably sound best in the resonant Gothic spaces of vaulted cathedrals. But, not being able to converge all together in one of those due to the pandemic, we had to engineer that magic through sound and video processing, each chorister recording from the coziness of their homes.  Our choristers, both Juniors and Seniors, worked extremely hard to get the right sound, blend, and music style for this occasion; a true labor of love!

 

Again, as we face such uncertain times in the world of music making, especially choral music, we find solace and comfort in not only coming together in the virtual realm, though this amazing technology, but also in the fact that we can share these words of wellbeing and joy with all of you, our community of families, supporters, and friends.

 

Enjoy!

“The Junior Choir of Chorus Angelicus has been reminiscing live performances from yesteryear in their latest virtual choir project. The choir reprises a short, but intricate three-part canon they sang this past December in their winter concerts, written by contemporary Italian composer Simone Stella.  For some newer members, this is their first performance of this piece. No virtual performance will ever measure up to the thrill of making music live, but yet again Chorus Angelicus strives to make choral singing relevant and engaging in these strange times”

Mr. Andrew Skinner, Junior Choir Director