Production Notes

of the GRAND RAPIDS SYMPHONY CHORUS

Production Notes 2009-2010

SymphonicBoom, Friday, October 16:
Howard Shore, The Fellowship of the Ring

The Symphony Chorus will join the Youth Chorus and the Symphony to perform the complete score of the epic 2001 film.

On October 14, 2005, the Chorus, the Symphony, the Holland Chorale and the Battle Creek Boy Choir and Girl Choir performed Shore’s Lord of the Rings Symphony (consisting of excerpts from all three LOTR films) in a sold-out special concert at DeVos Hall. From Anne Tuuk’s review in the October 15, 2005 Grand Rapids Press:

The polished choirs, numbering nearly 200, blended their voices both to carry forward the musical story line and to back up the soloists. Their strength of ensemble singing alternated effectively with hushed and haunting sounds.

Special Events, Friday & Saturday, March 19 & 20:
Monteverdi, Vespers of 1610

The Chorus, Youth Chorus and Symphony will celebrate the Vespers’ 400th anniversary by performing the piece at Saint Andrew’s Cathedral in Grand Rapids. This will be the Chorus’ first production of the work.

Classical Series, Friday & Saturday, May 7 & 8:
Verdi, Requiem

The Calvin College Capella Choir will join the Chorus and Symphony for these performances. This will be the Chorus’ fifth production of the work. Previous productions are listed below:

November 2 & 3, 2001, with the Chamber Choir of Grand Rapids and the Symphony at DeVos Hall. These performances were dedicated to the victims of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. From Jeffrey Kaczmarcyk’s review in the November 3, 2001 Grand Rapids Press:

The approximately 200 musicians singing and playing Friday evening earned a standing ovation for the performance that captured both the drama and the beauty of Verdi’s Requiem …

The Grand Rapids Symphony Chorus, prepared by Peter Hopkins, nimbly sang nimbly through the Sanctus … the Symphony, too gave an engaging and exciting performance, big when necessary, but seldom overpowering the chorus.

October 15, 1995, with the Symphony at Grace Episcopal Church in Grand Rapids. From the review by Jeffrey Kaczmarczyk in the October 16, 1995 Grand Rapids Press:

This is one they’ll talk about for a while.

Giuseppe Verdi’s Requiem Mass, a monumental work of terror and despair, hope and resolution, received its all on Sunday afternoon in Grace Episcopal Church.

An immediate and prolonged standing ovation followed an outstanding performance by the soloists, Grand Rapids Symphony and Symphony Chorus, all under the direction of Martin Werner …

The Grand Rapids Symphony and Symphony Chorus also gave good performances. The chorus delivered a big, robust sound in several places such as the huge climax, “Hosanna in excelsis” in the Sanctus.

February 1, 1980, with the Calvin College Oratorio Society and the Symphony at Grand Rapids Civic Auditorium. From Gerald Elliott’s review in the February 2, 1980, Grand Rapids Press:

Whether Verdi’s “Requiem” goes depends greatly on the power, massed tonal quality and accuracy of the chorus … Civic Auditorium does not afford the best acoustics for a choir, regardless of size; some of the world’s finest choral groups have sung it, and have suffered. There was more to what the double choir was doing on this occasion than met the ear. What one did hear was some precise singing, a good massed tone, though the lower voices, both male and female, were not as strong as one could wish, and uniformly strong attacks.

The two groups reflected the care and talent their respective directors, Theodore Pasma and Harold Geerdes, have lavished on them, with the major credit going to Pasma for having knitted the two groups into an effective whole.

February 21, 1964, with the Symphony at Grand Rapids Civic Auditorium. From the review by Gerald Elliott in the February 22, 1964 Grand Rapids Press:

It was a different story for the Symphonic Choir, which had been intensively trained under the direction of Alfred P. Smith for many weeks. All of its members were comfortable with their parts. They sang with assurance; and when singers are confident, everything seems to go well. Certainly the choir was impressive in the precision of its singing, the beauty and expressiveness of its massed tonal quality, the clarity with which it set forth such complex parts as the fugue in the “Sanctus” and the immense power it could summon for the great climaxes.

[Robert] Zeller deserves no little credit for encouraging the organization of the choir and for programming works in which its resources could be fully exploited.