Chorale begins 33rd season with Brahms’ ‘Requiem’

Count on the Carolina Master Chorale to carry its voice to more audiences across all three Grand Strand counties.

The group will premiere its 33rd season, with the theme of “Hope, Love & Heroism,” with two concerts this weekend, performing Johannes Brahms’ “Ein Deutsches Requiem,” with Adrienne Danrich and Jeffrey Jones as guest soloists, at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Coastal Carolina University’s Wheelwright Auditorium in Conway, and 4 p.m. Sunday at Waccamaw High School in Pawleys Island.

With the addition of a venue each in Myrtle Beach, North Myrtle Beach and Surfside Beach, and counting a guest appearance with the Long Bay Symphony in January, the Chorale will perform in eight places through spring.

Starting his 16th year as music director and conductor, Tim Koch credited Helen Andrews in her 1 1/2 years as executive director for “thinking in new ways” in widening the Chorale’s reach to entertain more ears and touch more hearts.

Koch said with 16 new members among about 75 total singers, everyone amazed him at a rehearsal last week with their vocal unison and “attention to detail,” especially at the “powerful” tenor section, “maybe the best in my tenure.”

Beginning the year with Brahms’ “Requiem,” Koch said, represents “our meat and potatoes,” a fulfillment of a mission statement to perform “great choral masterworks.” He said among the many composers’ “great” requiems, “none is more extraordinary, ... gorgeous and uplifting than Brahms’ work,” so “it was time to do it again, either as a season opener or closer.”

‘An Outbreak of Peace’ embraced

In mid-December, the Chorale will perform Myrtle Beach resident Andrew Fowler’s “An Outbreak of Peace” twice. He composed the piece during his decade as the Chorale’s artist in residence, and it’s based on the true story from Christmas Eve 1914, in the first year of World War I, when a temporary truce resulted from a German soldier singing “Silent Night.”

Appreciating the honor of the Chorale performing this a third time and ready to listen from the seats this weekend, Fowler called this work an oratorio “in the old school approach ... equivalent to an opera ... and telling a story through music.”

“When I wrote it, there was not an opera,” he said, “but an opera has been written about it.”

Fowler, still so moved by the inspiration for “An Outbreak of Peace,” imagines how the original event, 101 years later, became “a good testament of the power of music to cut through all things” among the “temporal problems” faced by members in the armies in the Allies and Central Powers, “and lay down their arms and join in the spirit of a moment, through music.”

Koch said of all the compositions that Fowler – “a part of our family” – wrote for the Chorale to premiere, “I think this is his greatest artistic achievement. ... I think it’s just such a compelling story.”

Future hopes entail, “when the stars align” and with “a few more financial resources,” Koch said, to undertake a commercial recording of “The Outbreak of Peace” with “a quality that can stand on its own in any cultural center.”

For a weekend in mid-February, the Chorale will perform “My Funny Valentine” in three sites, especially with always high turnout at this time in later winter, and winter vacationers whom Koch said “all come out to that concert.”

To close the Chorale’s year in late April with “American Heroes,” Koch said “we found a number of pieces that look at heroism in a variety of ways.”

At these two concerts, plans are to invite and introduce individuals from the community and region who have gone the extra distance, such as first responders, service personnel, charitable workers and decorated athletes, “people who bring our heroic aspects for our being American.”

Friends a new arm of Chorale

The newly established Friends of Carolina Master Chorale group will mark another avenue of outreach for this ensemble to extend its depth and community visibility.

Kathy Tinius, its vice president, addressed how the Chorale “has grown and matured” and that its members stay “busier than ever with rehearsals, concerts, and helping with fundraising activities.”

She said the Friends will give patrons and supporters of the Chorale “opportunities beyond their generous contributions” with another way to be a part of the Chorale’s progress, and to help to assist the executive director – including Larry Wilson for the interim – in benefits and “event execution.”

“We had seen the success specifically of the Long Bay Symphony Guild and the various library Friends groups,” Tinius said, “so we thought it would be the perfect model for us to use.”

This story was originally published October 14, 2015 at 1:00 AM with the headline "Chorale begins 33rd season with Brahms’ ‘Requiem’."