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 Chiaroscuro is an Italian word that invites contemplation of that which lies beyond the appearance of light and shade.  It was a fitting program title for the debut of a superb new choral ensemble that emerged Saturday, May 30, in Kansas City and Lawrence, under the direction of former King's Singer and Professor Emeritus of Choral Conducting at Yale, Simon Carrington.  These performances, in my opinion, made it clear that the Simon Carrington Chamber Singers have staked a claim for themselves among the highest strata of musical artistry in which vocal chamber music ensembles such as Chanticleer and the Tallis Scholars dwell - an unprecedented triumph for an ensemble to achieve in its debut.

The story behind the group's formation is almost as remarkable as the ensemble itself. (See the May 27 interview with Simon Carrington by Douglas Helvering.) Co-founders of the group Amy Waldron, Craig Kenkel and Jeffrey Carter formed a board of directors with arts patrons Leona Schaefer (of Fiona’s List) and her husband, Director of Music at Grace & Holy Trinity Cathedral, John Schaefer, along with Randall and Elizabeth Oestreicher. The goal was to bring together former Carrington students now singers at the top of their game who shared the desire to form an elite professional vocal chamber ensemble. Carrington, a genial musical genius of profound insight and experience, knew precisely how to breathe life into their vision, which for him begins with the sound.

To achieve the "Simon sound," Carrington uses the model of a harmonic pyramid, building upon the foundation of the basses to balance texture and tone from the lower voices up, instead of working down from the predominant soprano melody line. It is a technique employed by the best orchestral directors to achieve transparent chordal balance, and learned, perhaps, from Carrington's own early experiences as a professional orchestral string bass player.

Although many of the singers had not sung under his direction for years, Carrington prepared a seating chart to facilitate the optimum blend of the 24 voices for the first of only four days of rehearsals before he heard anyone sing a single tone. He subsequently made only one minor adjustment, achieving in the first moments of the first rehearsal a blend of the voices almost exactly as he had conceptualized, an example of his keen ear and extraordinary musical memory.  Sopranos were alternated with altos, tenors with baritones, so that each singer was able to hear his/her own part independently within the surrounding harmonies for superior control of balance, and to give each voice a space to fully unfold. 

The ambitious program of 12 pieces, drawn from some of the most challenging vocal works composed over a span of six centuries, provided a rich palette of styles and technical hurdles for the ensemble to show its stuff.  One piece led seamlessy into another, all sung with such ease of delivery and attention to nuance of text and line that the difficulty of the music was never apparent.  The listener was transported into the chiaroscuro of an endless variety of contrasts: periods, styles, textures, dynamics and languages.  This music was delivered straight from the hearts of the ensemble to the hearts of the listeners.

The first set of pieces opened with the "Kyrie" from the Missa Gaudeamus by Josquin des Pres, built upon a Gregorian chant heard in the bass. The marvelous ring of the sopranos sent the first of countless zings of the day flying into the rafters of the cathedral. Without pause, the Emendemus in melius by William Byrd followed, in which a program was not necessary to follow the perfect diction. A chord sounded by organist Dale Morehouse set up the tonality for the next piece, Soul of the World by Henry Purcell. Its contrasting upbeat tempo and startling fortissimo dynamic produced a joyful sound on the text "soul of the world inspired by Thee." 

Standout soprano soloist Stephanie Moore mesmerized the audience with her pure tessitura in the hauntingly lovely piece, Music for a While by Purcell. The ensemble matched her in delicate nuance, achieving a texture akin to fine lace.

That was followed by a "little" oratorio, La Reniement de St. Pierre by Marc-Antoine Charpentier, which Carrington humorously assured the audience not to "worry about; it is only about 10 minutes long." The work featured exemplary solos by Craig Allen as Jesus, Jay Carter as Peter, and the magnificent baritone voices of Chris Gilliam and Nick Probst as Historicus I and II, equally matched by the other soloists, and joined by continuo players Paul Laird on cello and Dale Morehouse, organ. The choir's sound was remarkable, with an infinite variety of sparkle among the voices. The master stroke of the work was its conclusion, with wave upon wave of immensely beautiful sorrow from the choir in its narration of Peter weeping bitterly upon realizing his betrayal of Christ. It was a high point of the concert.

Composer Ian Coleman, chairman of the William Jewell Department of Music, wrote a piece for the ensemble's debut, Hold Fast to Dreams. Opening to individual tones with an interesting hiss effect, it featured dreamy, cloud-like sound clusters in which perfect seconds in the sopranos were as clear as bells.

Perhaps the most charming and amusing piece on the program, and also perhaps the most difficult rhythmically and harmonically, was Bob Chilcott's Weather Report, which, as Carrington amusingly explained, had to do with the British preoccupation with bad weather. Its jazzy rhythmical chords were intermingled with the solo work of soprano Ida Nicolosi and alto Kacey Coakley, who demonstrated how exciting perfect octaves can sound, even when spaced two octaves apart.

The Magnificat by Arvo Pärt was my favorite work on the program. The pure voices of the sopranos, sung without vibrato and perfectly matched in timbre, drew me in from the opening major second tones sung flawlessly. Later I asked soprano Joyce Steeby which two sopranos had been singing those opening notes and was amazed to learn that six, not two, sopranos were singing in phenomenal unison.

Geoffrey Wilcken's anthem Grant Us Thy peace concluded the program. Its text and harmonies were a good fit within the context of the program, with the singers intoning "for dark and light are both alike to Thee."

Although the noon concert at Grace and Holy Trinity was sublime with the added visual enhancement of light and shadows playing across stone surfaces, the evening concert at Saint John the Evangelist in Lawrence was even better. One might have feared that the densely packed audience, together with the sound-absorbing carpeted aisles, would deaden the reverberation, but the walls echoed with glorious sonic splendor. The more intimate space allowed the singers' diction to be heard even more clearly than at the noon performance. The ensemble took greater chances that night, freed from having to save a little for another performance.  In fact, as the concert progressed, they let it rip! Soprano Esteli Gomez punched out the high D-flat on the last note of the Chilcott Weather Report with electrifying abandon. Both audiences were rewarded by an encore of exquisite beauty, Mark Hayes' lush arrangement of Home on the Range.     

The exhilarated audiences were left to speculate what lies ahead for this stellar new ensemble.  Both concerts were recorded by local Kansas City companies, in video by Clearfocus Multimedia and in surround sound by BRC Audio Productions, so DVDs and CDs in surround sound will become available in the near future. Let's hope that recordings and more concerts will soon follow. Considering the high artistic level the SCCS has achieved on its first venture -- after only four days of rehearsals -- they are an important new presence that deserves to be nurtured and shared for a long time.

Review: 
The Simon Carrington Chamber Singers
Simon Carrington, Music Director
Chiaroscuro: Contrasts of Light and Shade
Saturday, May 30, 2009, Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral, Kansas City, MO and
Saint John the Evangelist Catholic Church, 1234 Kentucky, Lawrence, KS
www.simoncarringtonchambersingers.com

Cover photo credit: Luke Sickman of Clearfocus Multimedia

By Gayle G. Hathorne

Classical and Vocal Contributor (Past writer)