Auditory hallucinations? Not this time. The "voices" you'll hear at St. Anne Church on Sunday, April 13, are decidedly embodied ones, belonging to members of Rochester's professional choral chamber ensemble, Voices, led by William Weinert, the director of choral activities and a professor of conducting at the Eastman School of Music. For their final concert of the 2007-08 season, "North Coast Exchange," Voices will join with the Detroit area's Birmingham-First Chamber Choir, under the direction of Thomas Trenney, for a vocal extravaganza sure to please the most discriminating fans of choral music.

Weinert founded Voices in February 2007, filling a gap he saw in Rochester's musical scene. "I think we serve two important functions," he says. "First, we specialize in music that sounds best with a small, flexible vocal ensemble. Our concerts feature groups of different sizes, and usually include music for one voice per part."

A second aim was to establish an ensemble whose working methods are modeled after professional groups based in larger European and American cities. "We rehearse several times in the week leading up to the concert, rather than once every week through the year," Weinert says, adding that it "focuses us on getting to the heart of the music quickly."

Now in its fifth season, the Birmingham-First Chamber Choir is made up of music students, professionals, and amateurs. "The students bring fresh energy and vitality, the professionals a valuable expertise, and the amateurs a contagious love of singing," say Trenney, the BFCC's founder and artistic director. A former Rochester resident and student of Weinert, Trenney earned two master's degrees from Eastman (one in organ and one in conducting) while also working full time at Bethany Presbyterian Church in Greece.

"Tom is a very special musician," Weinert says of Trenney. "He's full of infectious and irresistible energy, and I'm thrilled that he will be back in town."

The two ensembles will combine for the opening and closing numbers on the program. "Hail Gladdening Light," written in 1912 by the Irish composer and teacher Charles Wood (1866-1926), is based on a 3rd Century Greek Christian hymn, "Phos Hilaron," traditionally sung during the lighting of lamps in the evening. Wood's expressive double-choir setting will be performed in John Keble's English translation. The lushly romantic "Evening Hymn," by English composer Henry Balfour Gardiner (1877-1950), is a classic in British choral literature. This evensong anthem divides the choir into a full 8-part texture, enhancing the rich vocal texture with organ accompaniment.

The BFCC's solo sets will feature music "inspired by the evening - some romantic, some mysterious, some evocative, some unsettling," say Trenney. Fans of Morten Lauridson (b. 1943) will recognize his soaring vocal lines and always emotionally evocative harmonies in "Sure on This Shining Night," the third in a set of "Nocturnes" composed in 2005. In addition to choral settings by Eric Whitacre ("Sleep"), Ralph Vaughn Williams ("Rest"), Edward Elgar ("Serenade"), and Atahualpoa Yupanqui ("Duerme Negrito"), the BFCC will present the world premiere of a work by one of their own members. Carmen Cavallaro's "La mia sera" is a five-movement setting of Italian poems by Giovanni Pascoli.

If the BFCC's selections conjure images of evening, the theme of Voices' solo sets is definitely springtime. The choral song cycle "The First Day of Spring" by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (1809-47) is, says Weinert, "a miniature masterpiece that he wrote for recreational singing in the open air. The songs evoke the natural world in one way or another, with titles like ‘The Lark' and ‘The Primrose.'" The title of the opening song, "Frühlingsahnung," Weinert notes, "embodies a sentiment achingly familiar to Rocheserians in April: that feeling that spring must be just around the corner!"

Voices will also perform a set of five part songs by Charles Villiers Stanford (1852-1924). Stanford was known mainly as a composer of Anglican Church music, but his "The Blue Bird" has nonetheless enjoyed a long reputation as the "perfect choral nature-picture in the English pastoral tradition," says Weinert. "For years I wanted to explore the dozens of similar works he wrote, but nearly all were long out of print. One day I finally decided to dig down just one layer deeper into the Sibley Music Library's monumental collections, and in a special archive of early 20th-century choral music I discovered all of the other 40 Stanford part songs smiling up at me in their original editions, seemingly untouched for 90 years." In addition to "The Blue Bird," Voices will perform four other charming nature pieces new to Rochester listeners: "Chillingham," "To a Tree," "When Mary through the Garden Went," and a sprightly scherzo called "The Fairies."

"I suppose you could say that most of the program is overtly Romantic in flavor," says Weinert. But then, why not? What style is more appropriate for an evening in spring? 

Voices

St. Anne Church, 1600 Mt. Hope Ave.

Sunday, April 13

4 p.m. | Free (donations accepted) | 274-1444