Southern Crescent Chorale Presents Arise, My Soul

The Southern Crescent Chorale will present Arise, My Soul on Saturday, March 3 at 8:00 p.m. at Spivey Hall. Located on the campus of Clayton State University, Spivey Hall is a 400-seat, acoustically superior performing arts venue that has presented the best in jazz and classical music to metro Atlanta since 1991. Its celebrated concert series receives regular national and international attention as one of America's finest, and the hall's acoustics and design are routinely lauded by patrons and performers.

Janice Folsom, founder and artistic director of the Southern Crescent Chorale, stated: “The Chorale is always thrilled to sing in this amazing venue. Our audience routinely raves about the musical nuances that become so apparent in the spectacular acoustical setting.”

The Chorale’s thirteenth Spivey Hall appearance features magnificent choral classics including works by Bach, Mendelssohn, Gjeilo, Rutter, and Clausen, as well as familiar hymn arrangements about the soul. Accompanied by a professional string quartet and Spivey Hall’s magnificent Albert Schweitzer Memorial Organ, the Chorale will transport you with glorious music.

Steve Shivers, the Chorale’s accompanist since 2009 and McDonough resident, will be featured in two outstanding pieces entitled Dark Night of the Soul and Luminous Night of the Soul. In Dark Night (2010), composed first, Ola Gjeilo wanted to place the chorus, piano and string quartet on more or less equal footing rather than writing for chorus with accompaniment. He also wanted to convey a sense of the poem’s colorful, passionate spirituality. The chorus and instruments work through contrasting passages, urgent seeking or serene contemplation. Gjeilo describes Luminous Night (2012) as “the brighter, sunnier sequel to Dark Night of the Soul.” Most of the text, composed by Charles Anthony Silvestri, a frequent collaborator, uses the human impulse toward artistic creation — choirs, silversmiths, poets, potters, actors, authors — as evidence of divine inspiration (“You were the Spirit of all that is art”).

Be sure to tune to WABE 90.1 FM on Monday, February 26 at 11:00 p.m. for the Atlanta Music Scene program in which excerpts from previous Southern Crescent Chorale Spivey concerts will be featured.
Tickets for Arise, My Soul are $20.00 for adults and $10.00 for students. Purchase tickets by calling Spivey Hall at 678-466-4200 or online at www.spiveyhall.org.