Dolce Canto seasons holidays with choral excellence Dec. 7-8.
For 17 years, Dolce Canto has explored almost 350 choral works from the Renaissance period to the present, bringing musical imagination and inspiration to audiences in Missoula and beyond. The choral ensemble continues that exploration Dec. 7 in Ronan and Dec. 8 in Missoula with “Unheard Voices.”
If music history is considered as a subjective composer competition, only the luckiest winners’ music is recognized and performed. Perhaps, the vision of the past is better revealed by focusing on the remembered and the forgotten, the heard and the unheard, since it all reflects the human spirit.
Dolce Canto will offer audiences the chance to discover unheard voices from forgotten figures of the 17th century, including a complete Mass Ordinary by an Italian nun, composer Chiara Margarita Cozzolani, and two motets by geniuses from the Bach family. The choral group will also perform environmental music from the United States, Australia and China, as well as other contemporary and holiday works from the United Kingdom, Canada, Estonia, Lithuania and Germany.
These performances mark the first concerts under the baton of Dolce Canto’s new artistic director, Yong Mao, who has gathered together an assembly of dedicated musicians to begin the acclaimed group’s 18th season. Most recently, this doctoral candidate in choral conducting at the University of Oklahoma led an engineering student choir to win several awards in the 14th China International Chorus Festival and the seventh Bali International Choir Festival in July 2018.
Dolce Canto is an auditioned, non-profit choral ensemble founded in 2001. It exists to enrich the lives of its members and audiences by performing exceptional and diverse choral music with compelling artistry and sensitivity. The group was invited to sing in New York’s Carnegie Hall in 2013, is the 2014 recipient of the prestigious Dale Warland Singers Commission Award, and has released two CDs. Most recently the group toured South Korea in April 2016.
Dolce Canto’s December Concerts
- Ronan: 7 p.m. Friday, Dec. 7, at the Ronan Performing Arts Center as part of the Mission Valley Live series; tickets are $15 and may be reserved by calling 406-887-2739 or emailing [email protected] or visiting missionvalleylive.com.
- Missoula: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 8, at the UM Music Recital Hall; tickets are $10-$18 and available online at www.dolcecanto.info.