Lynn Ellis Williams, director of the Madz (formally known as the Ladies Madrigal Singers), has created a special Spring Concert featuring Gabriel Faure’s Requiem.
Many members of the former Artisan Squires are joining the women’s ensemble in the performance of this work. Alison Nixon will be guest conductor and Andrew Greenwood the baritone soloist. This will allow Lynn Williams to be the soprano soloist. The women will also be supported by members of Lynn’s Penrhyn Youth Singers in one section of the Faure. Accompanying the program will be some other young Bowen Island musicians, as cellist Liliana Belluk and violinists Sophie Walters and Nicholas Belluk have created the Arbutus String Trio.
Gabriel Faure composed his Requiem in D Minor between 1887 and 1890. He told an interviewer at the time, "It has been said that my Requiem does not express the fear of death and someone has called it a lullaby of death. But it is thus that I see death: as a happy deliverance, an aspiration towards happiness above, rather than as a painful experience.”
So, as you listen to this beautiful choral work, you can experience Faure’s conception of peaceful acceptance and release, expressed through his serene, elevating, and comforting music.
We invite the entire community to hear this glorious work, and these talented musicians, at Cates Hill Chapel, April 12, 7 p.m. Tickets are available at Cates Pharmacy and at the door, with $15 for adults, and $12 for seniors and youth. Children under 8 attend for free.
