Nova Singers, a 20-member professional vocal ensemble under the direction of Dr. Laura Lane, will present two performances of “Mother Earth” this month, featuring songs about flowers, animals, mountains, the moon, and a call for rain.
“Mother Earth” will be performed at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, April 13 at First Lutheran Church in Galesburg and at 4 p.m. Sunday, April 14 at St. Paul Lutheran Church in Davenport.
“Every single piece on the program is tied together by its appreciation for nature, some aspect of nature, and love for and need for some aspect of nature. But they’re all stylistically and musically completely different,” Lane said.
The program ranges from selections of British composer Benjamin Britten’s five flower songs set to poems to Samuel Barber’s “Reincarnations,” and from the indigenous chants in Cree composer Andrew Balfour’s “Vision Chant” to Sean Ivory’s “The Peace of Wild Things,” which Lane calls soft and soothing.
"This is the one where the poem says, when I feel down about what’s happening in the world, when I worry about how the world will be for my children and grandchildren, I go out into nature. I go out and surround myself by wild things,” Lane said.
Dominique Archambeau will accompany the ensemble on viola. Archambeau began her musical training at the New Music School in Chicago and has performed across the United States and abroad, including an international tour with the Gabrovo Chamber Orchestra. She is currently completing a doctoral degree in Viola Performance and Pedagogy at the University of Iowa.
The Nova Singers will also perform works by Grammy-winning American Composer Eric Whitacre, including “Animal Crackers.” It's composed of short pieces based on poems by Ogden Nash.
The other Whitacre selection in “Mother Earth” is “Cloudburst,” a beautiful and dramatic composition inspired by witnessing a desert cloudburst and by the poetry of Octavio Paz.
“It stands alone in its style, the fact that it’s in Spanish. The story is, the earth is thirsty. And we are praying for, asking for rain,” Lane said, noting that a team of percussionists makes the performance of that piece even more dramatic.
Tickets are available at the door for both performances or online at NovaSingers.com.
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