The Berkshire Edge
PREVIEW: Anthony Trecek-King conducts BCI Festival Chorus at Tanglewood May 28
Hearing Eric Whitacre’s music for the first time is a wondrous and immense pleasure. So if you love choral music, then you owe it to yourself to hear Whitacre’s works performed in a great room by a great choir.
Lenox — You may know Anthony Trecek-King from his appearances on the Emmy-nominated WGBH television series “Sing That Thing” or from one of his talks at TEDx Boston. Or maybe you’ve seen him conduct at the Sydney Opera House or Carnegie Hall or a dozen other prominent venues. Then again, you may know him from your time as a student at the University of Hartford’s Hartt School, where he serves as Associate Professor of Choral Music and Director of Choral Activities. And if you are a member of the chorus for the Handel and Haydn Society or San Francisco Symphony, then you’ll remember him from his performances with those ensembles.
And if you haven’t heard of him at all, then you are overdue for a rewarding discovery on Sunday, May 28, when Trecek-King conducts the Great Barrington-based Berkshire Choral International (BCI) Chorus in works by Mozart, Brahms, Whitacre, and others at Tanglewood’s Ozawa Hall. (Make that two discoveries if you are unfamiliar with Eric Whitacre).
All we know about the program for May 28 is that it includes those three composers in works exploring the meaning of the word “home.” This wouldn’t be much to go on were it not for the fact that Mozart and Brahms are authors of some of the most sublime choral music ever created, and Eric Whitacre is a composer of contemporary choral works known for their lush harmonies, intricate textures, and expressive melodies. In other words, he writes choral music that people enjoy listening to (as opposed to the all-too-common other kind of contemporary choral music). Whitacre was a rock musician before he ever thought about choral music. But in college, he sang in a choir just once and was hooked. (He didn’t even know how to read music.) Read more.