Weekend pick: Coro Piccolo welcomes the ‘Angels’ with an intimate holiday concert
A past performance of Coro Piccolo, part of the Fresno Community Chorus family.
The event: “And Suddenly With the Angels” will offer a gorgeous, intimate blend of voices in a wide variety of holiday-related choral numbers.
The group: Coro Piccolo is a 50-voice ensemble is one of the performing groups that make up the Fresno Community Chorus.
Time, place and price: 2:30 and 4:30 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 11, Willow Avenue Mennonite Church, 2529 Willow Ave., Clovis. Tickets are $15.
The tradition: Music director Anna Hamre says, “In past years we have done this intimate performance at St. Anne’s, but the facility is currently closed. Therefore, we are performing at Willow Avenue Mennonite Church, because it, too, is intimate and the acoustics are glorious.”
The accompaniment: The singers will be joined by string quintet, flute, percussion, and keyboard.
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The program: Opening with Ralph Vaughan Williams’ “Fantasia on Greensleeves,” the lineup includes a traditional Ukrainian Carol, the gorgeous “Lo, how a rose” (by Michael Praetorius and Jan Sandstrom) and the contemporary sounds of Vaclav Nelhbel’s “Estampie Natalis.”
The distinctive element: In Eriks Esenvalds’ “Stars,” performers play crystal glasses pitched into clusters of sounds. “Performers play them the usual way: wetting their fingers and rubbing the glass rims until they resonate,” Hamre says. “It is a pretty ethereal sound to accompany the poetry of Sara Teasdale.”
The narration: As he has in years past, Alan Peters will offer insights into the texts reflecting how “darkness becomes light.”
Victor E. Kral
Coro Piccolo, Three words, calming, inspirational, glorious!