Category Archives: Performances

RiverChor to present Spring Concert

RiverChor, Clinton Iowa's Community Choir

RiverChor will present a blend of choral music taking you on a number of delightful journeys.  Visit the Gypsies with Brahms, experience an ocean and a river community, relive your childhood with updated nursery rhymes, and Fly Away while Awakening to the music!  The concert will be on May 1, 2016, at 2:00 pm, in Zion Lutheran Church in Clinton, Iowa.  It is open to all, and is free.

Repertoire presented will be selected from the following:

Come to the Music……Joseph M. Martin

O Clap Your Hands …. Maurice Green

Festival Te Deum ….. R. Vaughn Williams

Zigeunderlieder ….. Johannes Brahms

Monday’s Child, and Sing a Song of Sixpence ……. arr. John Rutter

Away from the Roll of the Sea ….. Allister MacGillivray

Song for the Mira ……. Allister MacGillivray

Do I Hear a Waltz? (Medley)  …… Rodgers/Hammerstein/Sondheim/Hart

I’ll Fly Away …. Albert Brumley

All Through the Night …… arr. Norman Luboff

The Awakening …… Joseph M. Martin

 

Mark your calendar for May 1, we’ll see you there!

RiverChor presents ‘O, To Be in England’ on November 1

RiverChor is in final rehearsals for their fall concert, “O, To Be in England”. Mark your calendars for Sunday, November 1, 2:00 pm at Zion Lutheran Church in Clinton, Iowa. The concert will feature the following pieces:

When in Our Music God is Glorified …..  Charles Villiers Stanford
Remember, O Lord, What is Come Upon Us …..  T. A. Walmisley

Jerusalem, DLM …..  William Blake
I Was Glad …..  C. H. H. Parry
featuring David Gaulrapp, organist

Hosanna to the Son of David …..  Orlando Gibbons
There Shall a Star from David …..  Felix Mendelssohn
Advent Motet …..  Gustav Schreck

Lay Up Your Treasures in Heaven ….. Pepper Choplin
Swing Low, Sweet Chariot ….. arr. Stacey V. Gibbs

I’ll Fly Away ….. Albert E. Brumley/arr. Joel Raney

We look forward to seeing you in the audience this Sunday!

RiverChor to feature Bach Cantata on April 19th Concert

Christ lag in Todes Banden BWV 4 is an early cantata of Johann Sebastian Bach, and was likely intended for an Easter performance in 1707.  It is a chorale cantata, with music and text based on the hymn of the same name by Martin Luther.  There are seven movements, and it will be accompanied by strings.

RiverChor is also excited to present Robert Schumann’s Er, der Herrlichste von allen.  This piece has been newly arranged for three part women by Dr. Thea Engelson.

Making up the balance of the concert are various songs of the sea, of love, and spirituals as follows:

He’s Gone Away   American Folk Song  arr. Shaw/Parker

The Sailor and Young Nancy     arr. E.J Moeran

I Love My Love    Cornish Folk Song  arr. Gustav Holst

The Jolly Tar and the Milkmaid    George & Ira Gershwin

Where is Love?    Lionel Bart arr. Kirby Shaw

I Love That Old Barbershop Style   Einar Pedersen  arr. Val Hicks

Let Me Fly    arr. Robert DeCormier

I’ll Never Turn Back No More    R. Nathaniel Dett

King Jesus is A-Listenin’   arr. Ken Berg

Saints Bound for Heaven    Traditional   arr. Alice Parker and Robert Shaw

Mark your calendar now so you don’t miss this concert!  It will be Sunday, April 19, 2015, at 2:00P.M. in Zion Lutheran Church in Clinton.  The concert is open to the public, a free will-offering will be taken to defray the cost of music and musicians.

It’s time for Messiah!

Messiah2014JPG

 

We hope you can join us.  You are welcome to print this poster and put it up (click on it, it will open in a new page), we work on DIY advertising!  Be a part of a long standing Clinton tradition….it just isn’t Christmas without the Messiah.

RiverChor Prepares for Fall 2014 Concert

RiverChor is in rehearsals for their fall concert, which will be Sunday, November 2, 2014 at Zion Lutheran Church.  The concert is free.

Rose and Crown

Repertoire will follow two basic themes, music for Kings, and music of love.

O Lord God …… Paul Tschesnokoff

Ubi Caritas …… Ola Gjeilo

The Lord is My Light …… Horatio W. Parker

Coronation Mass in C …….. W. A. Mozart

Annie Laurie ……….. arr. Arthur Johnstone

The Pasture ……… Frost/Thompson,  featuring our Men

At Last ……. Gordon/Warren,  featuring our Women

A Summer Night, and You, and Paradise ……. Keillor/Kornelis

Lord of the Dance ……. Carter/Fleming

Swing Low Sweet Chariot ….. arr. Peter Knight

King Jesus is a-Listnin’ ….. arr.  Ken Berg

Please mark your calendar for November 2, we enjoy singing for you!

 

RiverChor Prepares for Tenth Anniversary Concert

RiverChor has been entertaining the Gateway Area for ten years!  Join us at 2 pm on Sunday, April 27, 2014 for a celebratory concert at Zion Lutheran Church.  The concert will feature many pieces from the very first concert the choir performed, plus a few favorites from the years.

Program:

Come, ye that love the Lord ….arr. Alice Parker

Let Nothing Ever Grieve Thee …. Johannes Brahms

Hallelujah ………. Ludwig von Beethoven

Locus Iste ….. Anton Bruckner

Beati quorum via ….  Charles Villars Stanford

Rise Up, My Love, My Fair One …. Heaely Willan

Ubi Caritas ……  Maurice Durufle

The Last Words of David ….Randall Thompson

Sanctus …. Craig Courtney

Aftonen ……. Hugo Alfven

Danny Boy ……  Joseph Flummerfelt

Soon-ah Will Be Done …… William Dawson

Abide with Me ……  arr. Moses Hogan

The Awakening ….  Joseph M. Martin

Down by the Riverside …. arr. John Rutter

The Earth Adorned …. Waldemar Ahlen

Mark your calendars now, spring and April are right around the corner (we hope!), and we invite you to enjoy our concert on the 27th.

Your Gateway Area Chorus, based in Clinton, Iowa.

RiverChor Rings in the Season

RiverChor will be participating in two upcoming performances.  The first will be our annual appearance with the Clinton Symphony Orchestra.  We will be performing the first set of the Alfred Burt Carols.  “These delightful carols are the result of a tradition begun by the Reverend Bates G. Burt, his composer son, Alfred, and friend-of-the-family Wihla Hutson; for many years these three collaborated on the creation of original carols, which were then sent to friends as Christmas cards.” (via Shawnee Press)

Additionally, the choir will be performing with the symphony on “A Christmas Festival” by Leroy Anderson; “Jesus bleibet meine Fruede” (Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring) by J.S. Bach; and concluding with choruses from Handel’s “Messiah”.  This performance will be at Clinton High School’s Vernon Cook Theater at 7:30 pm on December 14.  Tickets are $15 for adults, $5 for students, children through the 8th grade are free.  Further details of the concert are available on the Clinton Symphony’s website: http://www.clintonsymphony.org/

The annual Clinton performance of Handel’s “Messiah” will take place on December 15th, at 3 pm at St. Paul Lutheran Church, 715 S. Third Street.  This is year one of the cycle, which is the Sing-a-long.  All are welcome to sing, or to listen.  Participants are welcome to bring their own score, however there will be scores available.  We hope you’ll join us for this tradition that began in 1931, and help ring in the season.

RiverChor begins 10th Season

RiverChor, the Gateway Area's Community Chorus, based in Clinton, Iowa

Press Release – From its beginning as a replacement concert on Zion Lutheran Church’s concert series in April 2004, RiverChor has enjoyed ten years of quality music making in the Clinton area.

That tradition continues when the choir presents its fall concert Sunday, November 10 at 2 p.m. at Zion Lutheran Church.  The concert is free and the public is cordially invited; donation plate will be available for contributions.

“Our 10th season will be, in part, one of reflection and retrospection,” Rob Engelson, RiverChor conductor, said.  “We’ve performed a lot of music since our first appearance on April 25, 2004, and we’re going to bring some of it back on this year’s concert.”

One of the works on Sunday’s concert will be Gabriel Faure’s “Requiem”, which the choir performed on its November 2004 concert.  In his setting of liturgical texts from the Catholic Mass for the Dead, Faure writes music of a contemplative, consoling nature that is meant to comfort those who mourn the dead.  The work is scored for chorus, soprano and baritone soloists, and organ, which will be played by Chris Holmer, accompanist for the choir.

The second half of the concert will feature an interesting variety of works including “Domine, Ad Adjuvandum Me Festina” by Martini, Gustav Holst’s “Short Festival Te Deum”, and folk songs and spirituals from the United States, Canada, and Nigeria.  One of the spiritual, Paul Eddington Wright’s arrangement of “My Lord, What a Morning,” is another ‘retro’ work that was performed on the choir’s first two concerts back in 2004.

“For our spring concert,” Engelson said, “we plan to recreate a good portion of that April 2004 program.  Hopefully, after ten years, we’ll be able to bring a fresh perspective to those important pieces in our history.”

Members of RiverChor include high school students to retirees and come from several communities in Iowa and Illinois.  The choir performs regularly with the Clinton Symphony Orchestra, and it will again be featured on the orchestra’s holiday concert on December 14th.