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Sunday, March 4, 2012

A Night of Honors

On Saturday night, the Chorus North Shore performed its commemorative concert at Our Lady of Hope church in Ipswich. Sunday's concert will be at St. Ann Church (Holy Family parish) in Gloucester.

The concert series commemorates 80 years of Choral Music on Boston's North Shore and 50 Years of Conducting by Sonja Dahlgren Pryor.

The chorus began in 1931 as the Community Carol Choir based in Rockport, Massachusetts. The next year it was renamed the Rockport Community Chorus. It changed its name again in 1983 (Rockport Community Chorus of the North Shore) to reflect the more diversified group of musicians from the North Shore. Finally, it was called Chorus North Shore in 1995.

To honor Sonja (Sunny), the chorus sang songs from her first year as conductor (Rose Marie, The Desert Song, and a French Military Marching Song), and three American patriotic songs. The next song was part narration, part collection of African-American spiritual songs fused into an 18-minute piece called God's Trombones. The second half of the show was a composite Mass with Beethoven's (86) Kyrie, Misa Criolla, Shubert's Credo, Sanctus from Verdi's Requiem, the Agnus Dei from Faure's Requiem, Mozart's Ave Verum Corpus, Virgil Thomson's My Shepherd will supply my Need, and William Dawson's Soon Ah Will Be Done.

Pre-concert activities featured notable representatives from the Commonwealth's government. Federal House Democrat John Tierney from the Sixth Congressional District was the first to present a citation to Sunny for her 50 years of service to music on the North Shore. Senate Republican from the First Essex and Middlesex District, Bruce Tarr, gave a charming presentation to Sunny. House Republican, Bradford Hill, from the Fourth Essex District, recalled the time he was one of Sunny's students in the Hamilton school system before giving a citation first to the Chorus North Shore and then to Sunny for their notable achievements. The chair of the Ipswich Board of Selectman, himself a singer, gave the final citation to Sunny.

Everyone enjoyed their night. One more concert and then we begin preparations for Verdi's Requiem on June 2nd. Please come.

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