Wellesley Choral SocietyOur 78th Season, 2025-2026Edward Whalen, Music DirectorHisako Hiratsuka, AccompanistCelebrating 32 years Togetherwww.wellesleychoralsociety.orgSpring ConcertSongs of a CenturyBritish and AmericanTwentieth-Century Choral MusicWorks for chorus and piano by composers including Randall Thompson, Aaron Copeland, Samuel Barber, George Shearing, and Leonard Berstein.Sunday, May 10, 20262:00 p.m.St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church79 Denton Road, Wellesley
2Birch Hill is proud to supportWellesley Choral Society’s2025-2026 SeasonPersonalized wealth management services forprivate clients, trusts, and endowments_____________________________________________One International Place, Suite 770, Boston, MA 02110617.502.8300 ● BHBoston.com
3THE WELLESLEY CHORAL SOCIETY DEPENDS IN PART ON THEGENEROSITY OF ITS FRIENDS AND SUPPORTERS.THE SOCIETY WISHES TO ACKNOWLEDGE CONTRIBUTIONSFROM THE FOLLOWING DONORS AND TO THANK THEM FOR THEIR SUPPORT OF OUR ANNUAL FUND CAMPAIGN OF MAY, 2025– APRIL, 2026Anonymous (x 2)Irene AxelrodKate and Gordon BatyMatthew ChernickPatricia G. and Peter V. CooperRebecca Crane and FamilyFrancesca D'ArcangeloSue D’Arcangelo: In honor of Francesca D’ArcangeloJenn EdwardsWayne EverettTed and Anastacia FeldmanMiguel GarciaCarolyn GayleGreen’s Hardware & Paint, Inc.Celeste HarringHisako HiratsukaLinda HirschMax HobartDr. and Mrs. Stephen K. HollandLeslie M. HolmesChris and Klavs JensenSara JohnsonRuth Kasten: In honor of Bob FeldmanL. Chloe KingNancy and Jonathan LippincottKaren LourenceJettora LundquistKate MeanyGary Mikula and Holly Burnet MikulaMaryEllen MillinGyöngyi MolnárMr. & Mrs. Carl G. NelsonNancy NicholsLucy and Bob O’MaraMary Anne ParadiseDennis and Ann PioppiEllen ProttasGillian RogellLora SimonBenjamin SingerCarol and Danny SingerSkylark Vocal EnsembleKatie SmallHeather TurnerMartha von MetzschMandy WaddellTed and Corrie WhalenJo Ann Wong
4 THE LAW OFFICES OF PAUL H. MERRYCOUNSELORS AT LAW 18 BELAIR ROAD WELLESLEY, MA 02482 TEL: (617) 720-2400 FAX: (617) 742-1887 TDD ACCESS: (617) 720-2400 [email protected] H. MERRY, ESQ.
5Wellesley Choral SocietyOur 78th Season, 2025-2026Music Director, Edward WhalenAccompanist, Hisako HiratsukaChorus LeadershipRebecca Crane, PresidentKathleen Rowe, Vice -PresidentLora Simon, TreasurerCarolyn Gayle, SecretaryJettora Lundquist, Immediate Past President, Program BookletsRebecca Crane, Concert FlyersChris Crowley, Social Media CoordinatorFrancesca D’Arcangelo, Annual FundLinda Derezinski, Web MasterAnastacia Feldman, Grant WriterRobert Feldman, Advertising DrivePaul Merry, Music Committee ChairHolly Mikula, PublicityGyöngyi Molnár, Music LibrarianNancy Nichols, Annual FundCarol Singer, Concert ManagementCorrie Whalen, Membership, CommunicationsThe Wellesley Choral Society is a member of the Greater Boston Choral Consortium, a cooperative association of diverse choral groups in Boston and the surrounding areas.Honorary BoardThe Wellesley Choral Society is a nonprofit organization, open to all singers, dedicated to studying and performing the world’s great choral music, both sacred and secular. The Society was founded in 1947 after several choruses in the town of Wellesley joined forces for a holiday festival. Edward Whalen became the Society’s tenth music director in 1994. WCS rehearses at the Unitarian Universalist Society of Wellesley Hills, 309 Washington St., Wellesley, MA, on Monday evenings from September to May, performing three concerts every year.All singers of high school age and over are welcome!Wellesley Choral Society, P.O. Box 81060, Wellesley Hills, MA 02481-0001http://www.wellesleychoralsociety.org Please LIKE our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/wellesleychoralsociety/Suzanne Cartreine Leslie HolmesWilliam Cooper Sara L. JohnsonMax HobartThis concert is supported in part by a grant from the Wellesley Cultural Council, a local agency which is supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency.
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7 Edward “Ted” Whalen was appointed Music Director of the Wellesley Choral Society in 1994. During his tenure with the ensemble, he has led the chorus in a wide scope of repertoire including Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas,Handel’s Coronation Anthems, Mozart’s Requiem and Great Mass in cminor, Bloch’s Sacred Service, Rachmaninoff’s Sacred Vespers, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, requiems of Brahms, Fauré, and Duruflé, and Poulenc’s Gloria. In May of 2015 the chorus presented a program of Mr. Whalen’s own compositions including Dialogues, a piece written especially for the group. In Spring 2018, the ensemble premiered his composition Stars, written in honor of their 70th anniversary season, and for the Spring 2019 concert, held on Mother’s Day, the chorus premiered a special work entitled Love and Prayers in honor of Mr. Whalen’s mother, Janet Whalen. Ted is a graduate of New England Conservatory, University of Rhode Island, and studied at Tanglewood Music Center and the Aspen Music Festival. He has appeared as conductor with the Boston Aria Guild’s performances of Humperdinck’s Hansel und Gretel, the Wakefield Festival Chorus, King’s Chapel, Waltham Philharmonic Orchestra, Rhode Island Gilbert and Sullivan Society, University of Rhode Island, and other ensembles. He has prepared choruses for performances at Monadnock Music Festival and conducted gala celebration performances for Boston Baroque. As a vocal soloist, Mr. Whalen has performed with such groups as the Boston Lyric Opera, The Des Moines Metro Opera, Lake George Opera Festival, and Boston Aria Guild. He made his Boston Symphony Hall debut singing the role of Dancairo in the critically acclaimed Chorus pro Musica performance of Carmen. Mr. Whalen also sang with Boston Baroque (Banchetto Musicale) for 25 years, appearing on all of the ensemble’s Grammy-nominated recordings. Since 1995, Ted has been the director of Upper School Choruses at Milton Academy. Hisako Hiratsuka joined the Wellesley Choral Society in 1990 as a singer and became our accompanist in 1993. She is a graduate of the Tokyo University of Arts and Music. Her teachers include Yasuko Tani and Victor Rosenbaum. Ms. Hiratsuka is an active chamber music player and accompanist. In recent years she has performed in the Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Baltimore, and Boston areas as well as in Tokyo, Yokohama, Osaka, Zushi, Chiba, and Kamakura, Japan. She also has accompanied flutists for music festivals in Ecuador and Columbia. Ms. Hiratsuka has been a featured soloist with the WCS, performing such works as Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy and the two-piano arrangement of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, accompanied by her daughter. Prior to coming to the United States in 1989, Ms. Hiratsuka taught piano in Japan. She currently teaches piano and coaches chamber music groups at Tufts University.
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9Wellesley Choral Society 78th Season SOPRANO ALTOFrancesca D’ArcangeloLinda DerezinskiAnastacia FeldmanCeleste HarringSara HoyeRebecca MayerKate MeanyHolly MikulaGyöngyi MolnarNancy NicholsCarol SingerKatie SmallJo Ann WongIrene AxelrodKate BatyRebecca CraneAmanda D’AiutoJanet DregerElinor DulitCarolyn GayleLinda HirschAnne KottJettora LundquistLavonne McKeownMary Ellen MillinMary Anne ParadiseCascia PartenskyMichele PetterutiEllen ProttasKathleen RoweHannele Saramo-RajaAlice ShabecoffLora SimonAlexia SontagAubrey StineMandy WaddellCorrie WhalenMarlene WilliamsonErin ZiomekTENOR BARITONE/BASSJason ChenMatthew ChernickLucas ClemensVincent DeSantisJenn EdwardsTed FeldmanPeter JuhaszEllen StrausChris CrowleyRobert FeldmanMiguel GarciaKlaus JensenBert JuhaszStephen Maack Paul MerryDennis Pioppi
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15Songs of a CenturyZion’s Walls Aaron Copeland, 1900-1990Gloria Tibi from “Mass” Leonard Bernstein, 1918-1990Old Abram Brown Benjamin Britten 1913-1976A Cradle Song John Ireland, 1879-1962Simple Gifts Aaron Copeland, 1900-1990Under the Willow Tree Samuel Barber, 1910-1981From the opera “VanessaStopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening Randall Thompson, 1889-1984My Eyes for Beauty Pine Herbert Howells, 1892-1983Concord Benjamin Britten, 1913-1976At the River Aaron Copelaqnd, 1900-1990The Road Not Taken Randall Thompson, 1889-1984IntermissionSongs and Sonnets (Selections) George Shearing, 1919-2011Live With Me and Be My LoveIt Was a Lover and His LassWho is Sylvia?Sure on This Shining Night Samuel Barber, 1910-1981Long Time Ago Aaron Copeland, 1900-1990Alleluia Randall Thompson, 1889-1983Take Care of This House Leonard Bernstein, 1918-1990from “White House Cantata”Choose Something Like a Star Randall Thompson, 1889-1983The Promise of Living Aaron Copeland, 1900-1990From “The Tender Land”
16Program NotesWe present five songs today by Aaron Copland that illustrate his lifelong work creating an American vernacular music. “Simple Gifts” was a largely forgotten Shaker song until Copland used it for the climax of his ballet score for Martha Graham’s Appalachian Spring (1944). Copland brings the same musical style to his well-known collection of “Old American Songs” (1950), which includes “At the River,” “Zion’s Walls,” and “Long Time Ago.” “At the River” captures the experience of baptism in the local river, the music evoking the gentle rocking motion of the water and a spiritual quietude. “Zion’s Walls,” more energetic, is another Shaker song. “Long Time Ago” adapts a sentimental parlor song. Our fifth Copland piece, “The Promise of Living,” is the principal ensemble number from his opera The Tender Land. Though using musical language like that of the simple “American Songs,” it presents a conflicted vision – as is perhaps appropriate in a full-length opera. While expressing the ideal of community, land, and shared labor, the song exposes underlying fissures: the main character, a high school senior, finding life on the land too narrow, is leaving the community, while at the same time the community’s attitude towards a drifter who had formed a bond with her reveals its closedness and fear of outsiders.Bernstein’s Mass (1971) was commissioned by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis for the inauguration of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. In recognition of Kennedy’s strong Catholic faith, Bernstein shaped the work along the lines of the Roman Catholic Mass. He placed the “Gloria tibi” at the beginning of the Mass’s Gloria section. This Gloria or “Great Doxology” is an ancient hymn of praise common to Roman Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran and Orthodox Christian rites, which does not however include the phrase “Gloria tibi.” By placing it where he does, Bernstein fractures a great unified hymn, shredding it as it were with short, hammerlike repetitions. The community of worshipers depicted in the Mass also fragments into warring camps. Bernstein closes the opera, finally, with a “Simple Song” that rejects the Catholic liturgy entirely in favor of a simple piety from the heart. The Mass is in part Bernstein’s response to the crises of the time: political assassinations, the Vietnam War, racial injustice. The same holds for “Take Care of This House,” from the musical 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, which traces the problem of race relations from the nation’s founding to the early 20th century.Under the surface simplicity of Benjamin Britten’s “Concord” and “Old Abram Brown” hides a darker vision. “Old Abram Brown” sets a simple nursery rhyme. But the block chords and heavy rhythms evoke a trudging, deadened movement, while the repetition of “dead and gone” becomes unsettling. The “Concord” alluded to in Britten’s opera Gloriana (a popular name for Queen Elizabeth I) was that of Elizabeth and the Earl of Essex. Britten’s too-clean harmonies in the song point ironically to the falseness of that relationship, which, founded on Essex’ flattery, culminated in his rebellion and execution. The Gloriana whose “Concord” we are singing was commissioned for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. The Queen and her Court were not amused.
17John Ireland’s “Cradle Song” sets a poem by William Blake. In the sleeping infant Blake sees not innocence but cunning (“infant wiles,” repeated in “cunning wiles”);when the child awakes, “the dreadful night” conjured during the child’s sleep “shall break” upon the world. (The infant of course is a symbol; we should not read the poem literally, as a judgement on sleeping children.) Ireland’s setting mirrors the text: phrases repeat hypnotically without harmonic resolution until the composer reaches “infant wiles,” on which he dwells, and then “dreadful night,” which he twice repeats.Samuel Barber’s “Sure on This Shining Night” sets James Agee’s poem of the same name. Agee’s contemplative poem confronts vulnerability (“kindness must watch for me”) and loneliness (weeping, “wand’ring far alone”); Barber responds with a hymnic setting. His opera Vanessa tells a darker story: a Gothic tale of a woman who has shut herself up for twenty years on a snow-bound estate, waiting in vain for a long-lost lover to return. “Under the Willow Tree,” an aria in the opera, is sung by Vanessa’s friend The Doctor. As a scientist by profession, The Doctor plays the voice of cool reason amid the wild irrationality of the household. “Under the Willow Tree” reveals however that even reason is captive to manic powers; there is no escape. The opera won the Pulitzer Prize for its 1958 performance.Randall Thompson composed Frostiana for the bicentennial of Amherst, MA – a town that had close association with the poet Robert Frost. The pieces are miniature tonepoems for chorus that reflect each poem’s rhetorical stance. Unlike the composers discussed so far, Thompson downplays the ironic and destabilizing elements of the poetry. His Alleluia, on the other hand, presents a darker vision. Serge Koussevitsky commissioned the piece for the opening of the Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood in 1940, expecting a celebratory fanfare. But Thompson, with the recent fall of France to the Nazis in mind, wrote, as he put it, “a very sad piece … comparable to the Book of Job, where it is written, ‘The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord’”: a lament transfigured through suffering into praise.The long, smooth lines of Herbert Howells’ anthem “My Eyes for Beauty Pine,” and the poet Robert Bridges’ text as well, risk turning religious devotion into aesthetic experience. The poet’s final phrase, however, pushes beyond aestheticism in its insistence that the “gentle heart” must “burn with true desire” and the “eyes” -- on which the aesthetic experience rests -- must “mirror … that celestial fire.” The listener may judge whether Howells likewise transcends aestheticism.The blind British jazz pianist George Shearing’s Songs and Sonnets (1999) are his second Shakespeare set – the first having been so well received that, Shearing quipped, “Mr. Shakespeare dug around in his trunk and came up with songs and sonnets that we hadn’t used yet.” Shearing’s hand lies light on the poetry, setting it in jazz idiom but otherwise allowing the Bard’s native musicality to shine through.~ Ted Feldman
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19Music is an essential part of all our lives, and making music is an essential part of our community. The Wellesley Choral Society has been making music in Wellesley for 78 years!To contribute to the Wellesley Choral Society,please send your checks made out to:Wellesley Choral Societyc/o Lora Simon, Treasurer8 Maurice RoadWellesley, MA 02482Or go to wellesleychoralsociety.org and click the “donate” linkThank you so much for supportingthe Wellesley Choral Society
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23OTHER CONCERTS that may be of interest to you!All concerts Saturday evenings, 7:30 PM First Church Congregational, 11 Garden St., CambridgeTickets and more information: www.spectrumsingers.orgMARCH 14, 2026The Great EqualizerMusic that references natural and man-made equalizersMAY 16, 2026A New EraMarking a new chapter of Spectrum music-making and featuring a locally commissioned workThe Spectrum Singers 2025 - 2026 Seasonwith new Music Director, Max HolmanNOVEMBER 22, 2025To Saint CeciliaA celebration of St. Cecilia on her feast day with music by composers who epitomized her spiritWOULD YOU LIKE TO JOIN US FOR OUR NEXT CONCERT?All singers of high school age and over are welcome!The Wellesley Choral Society is a no-audition chorus, open to all who love to sing.Come visit us during open rehearsals, and see if we are the chorus for you!REHEARSALS for the first concert in our2026-2027 season will start on Monday, September 14,with Open Rehearsals continuing on 9/21 and 9/28.We rehearse on Monday nights from 7:00 – 9:00 p.m. in theUU Wellesley Sanctuary (participation via Zoom is also available).ALL VOICE PARTS ARE WELCOME.Please contact Rebecca Crane, President, for more information: ([email protected])Wellesley Choral SocietyP. O. Box 81060Wellesley Hills, MA 02481-0001http://www.wellesleychoralsociety.org
24Friday, December 12, 2025 at 8:00 pm1689 Centre Street, West Roxbury, MATickets: $35 • Seniors: $30 • Students: $20 • Children: $5 www.dedhamchoral.org (ages 5 - 12)A Christmas CelebrationMass of St. Francisby Michael Haydn
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262025September 27, 2025 Exotic NightsRimsky-Korsakov | ScheherazadeScott Moore, violinHindemith | Symphonic Metamorphosis on Themes by Carl Maria von WeberOctober 25, 2025 Passionate DialoguesMascagni | Intermezzo from Cavalleria Rusticana Brahms | Piano Concerto No. 2Clayton Stephenson, pianoSchumann | Symphony No. 3 “Rhenish”December 5 & 7, 2025 Holiday POPS! Kids POPS!Lexington Symphony’s Annual Holiday CelebrationFebruary 14, 2026 Celebrating CoexistenceSheng | China Dreams: II. FanfareAnger | Morin Khuur Concerto No. 2Monkho, morin khuurMcPhee, Colin | Tabuh-Tabuhan Toccata for 2 pianos and orchestraStravinsky | PetrushkaMarch 28, 2026 Pushing the LimitsStill | BellsShostakovich | Violin Concerto No. 1Callum Smart, violinBartok | Concerto for OrchestraApril 25, 2026 An Evening with ShakespeareMendelssohn (McPhee arr.) | A Midsummer Night’s Dreamwww.LexingtonSymphony.orgCary Hall, 1605 Massachusetts Ave, Lexington, MA2026
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28Flowers for this afternoon’s concert generously provided byPetal Pushers Floral Studio