AARON COPLAND
In the Beginning

SAMUEL BARBER
Reincarnations

Saturday, April 13, 8:00 p.m.

Aaron Copland with Samuel Barber in Bernardsville, NJ, 1945 (Victor Kraft/Library of Congress )

Church of the Incarnation
209 Madison Avenue (at 35th Street)
New York, NY 10016

The Manhattan Choral Ensemble was thrilled to revisit two of the choir’s most beloved works: Samuel Barber’s Reincarnations and Aaron Copland’s In the Beginning. First performed by the MCE in 2006, these pieces hold a special place in the choir’s history.

Both pieces premiered in the late 1940’s, representing a high water mark in American choral compositions. Copland, along with composers such as Leonard Bernstein and George Gershwin, led the vanguard of creating a jazz-tinged populist sound, while Samuel Barber’s Neo-Romantic style explores a distinctly New World reconceptualization of traditional European structures.

Selections rounding out the program included Shawn Kirchner’s arrangement of Unclouded Day, Guide Me O Thou Great Jehovah, and other popular folk settings.