The Capital region has long appreciated the Battenkill Chorale for the quality of their singing and also for the originality of the music they sing. Mozart and Haydn and Brahms all certainly have their place for the Chorale but so do contemporary Norwegian compositions, South African freedom songs and music performed by prisoners in Nazi concentration camps.
On May 7 and 8, the Chorale - now in their twenty-first year - will sing a Bluegrass mass. Banjos and mandolins will be featured along with melodies inspired by the Bluegrass tradition of Appalachia and Bluegrass pioneer Bill Monroe himself. The Chorale will be joined by the acclaimed bluegrass quintet, Monroe Crossing.
The chorale will perform: Carol Barnett's, "The World Beloved: A Bluegrass Mass” at the Immaculate Conception church in Hoosick Falls. Janet McGhee is Conductor and Artistic Director of the Battenkill Chorale and she joins us .