BRATTLEBORO — The Brattleboro Concert Choir, directed by Susan Dedell, present Paul Winter's “Missa Gaia/Earth Mass” on Saturday, May 17, at 7:30 p.m., and on Sunday, May 18, at 4 p.m.
Both concerts, at Centre Congregational Church in downtown Brattleboro, are layered with the recorded voices of wolves, loons, whales, and harp seals in interconnected harmony in this joyful, rhythmic, and contemporary mass for the Earth.
Dedell writes that “Missa Gaia” originated when the dean of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City asked saxophonist Paul Winter to create new music for Mass.
“Winter realized that he wanted to create a Mass that was both ecumenical and ecological. […] Celebration and joyful gratitude is central to this piece, Dedell explains.
She adds: “Even in the more soulful moments, there is a sense of wonder that is rooted in abundance. The music seems to breathe a sense of spaciousness, a generous exhilaration. I think 'Missa Gaia' is in a class of its own - a truly satisfying and complete experience.”
A particularly unique aspect of “Missa Gaia,” she says, is that it is a collaborative - and ongoing - creation. The piece originated as an interweaving of creative ideas from all the members of the Paul Winter Consort, including Winter, Paul Halley, Jim Scott, Oscar Castro-Neves, and Kim Oler.
In subsequent performances, the core movements of the “Missa Gaia” remain, but new movements have been written - and are being written - that may be added to the work as the director desires, makiing “Missa Gaia” a work of ongoing creation and evolution.
In that spirit, Dedell, said, she invited several instrumentalists whom in her view are “the next generation of fine musicians.”
“I wanted to have guest musicians for this concert who were either former or current students of the musicians of my generation who were associated with this piece. This sense of continuity and connectedness seems so appropriate for this piece, not to mention the fact that they are awesome musicians,” she says.
Guest vocal soloist for the concert is Zara Bode, a founding member of the Sweetback Sisters and an active studio musician in New York.
Soprano saxophonist Tony Speranza Jr. is a graduate of BUHS and Hartt College of Music. He is a member of the Asylum Quartet, which recently won the Grand Prize and the Gold Medal at the 2014 Chamber Music Competition in Boston.
He is the son of local music teacher Tony Speranza Sr. and is a former piano student of Dedell.
Cellist Marta Roma, from Barcelona, Spain, is a student of Eugene Friesen at Berklee School of Music. Friesen, a member of the Paul Winter Consort, is featured on the original recording and notes he is delighted to mentor Roma for these performances.
Percussionist Stefan Amidon and his former teacher and mentor, Steve Rice, are percussionists for the piece. After leaving Brattleboro, he attended Oberlin College's jazz program and enjoys an active freelance career.
Other instrumentalists for the program include oboist Aaron Ichiro Hilbun and pianist Brian Fairley. Hilbun, on the faculty of Florida Gulf Coast University, is an oboist with the Sarasota Opera.
Fairley is music director for Double Edge Theatre in Ashfield, Mass., and is a pianist, coach, and director.