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Winter Concert Preview: “Be Like the Bird” by Abbie Betinis
By: Concentus At first blush, “Be Like the Bird” by Abbie Betinis appears unremarkable. It’s a short, unison piece that gets sung as a canon. Compared to her complex and multi-movement “From Behind the Caravan,” which Concentus performed in 2019, this new piece seemed extremely simple, almost trifling. And yet… First, there are the composer’s…
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Concentus – A Look Back
By: Concentus As we enter our 25th season, we wanted to take a moment to reflect on the years that got us to this point. Gwen Gassler and Edna Yeh founded Concentus Women’s Chorus in 2000. Soon after, Edna departed Rochester and Gwen grew the group from infancy to adulthood. Concentus has always been fortunate…
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Spring Concert Preview: Paper Crane
By Annie Nichol Concentus Women’s Chorus will present our spring concert in just a few weeks, on May 31 and June 1. Titled “Songs through the Senses,” this beautifully programmed concert invites singers and listeners to savor the five senses: sight, smell, hearing, taste, and touch. Before attending this concert, I invite you to reflect…
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Spring Concert Preview: Everyday Wonders
By Maggie Symington On May 31 and June 1, 2024, Concentus Women’s Chorus will be performing concerts of “Songs through the Senses” to honor the work of Rochester Refugee Resettlement Services*. (Click here for more details and to purchase tickets!) The cornerstone piece of our concerts is “Everyday Wonders: The Girl from Aleppo,” with music…
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Spring Concert Preview: Song of Miriam
By Johanna Rehbaum We are a story people. Humans always have been. We have always told stories to make sense of our existence as a people, to make sense of ourselves and each other. We begin telling stories to our children, but we never stop telling them, because we never stop trying to make meaning…
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Sirens at the RPO
By Maggie Symington Concentus was honored to join the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra to sing both Debussy’s Nocturnes and Holst’s The Planets on the same program in January 2024. This was our third time performing The Planets with the RPO and the second time Nocturnes, all under different guest conductors. Each conductor brings something different and…
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Being Me
By Maggie Symington Concentus first received this piece, a poem by Joshua Everett set to music by Joanna Gill, last spring, in anticipation of our joint concert with Vox Anima in Kent, England. I didn’t really focus on the lyrics as I was learning the piece, and the music wasn’t particularly intricate – no annoying…
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When is Concentus Recording Another CD?
By Alto-diva Maggie Symington This is a question we occasionally hear from singers and fans alike, since our holiday CD—Make We Joy—is now six years old. Unfortunately, it comes down to logistics and economics. Concentus currently has 20 singing members, but because of work/travel schedules and illnesses, it is rare that all are present at…
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Learning the Repertoire
By Concentus Alto Maggie Symington In college (pre-CD, let alone personal computers, cell-phones, and internet), I took a music history class from an amazing music professor. It was rumored that he didn’t have records or a record player, but could sit down with an orchestral score and hear the whole thing in his head as…
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Eternal Light in Music…and Giving Death its Due
By Concentus member (and by day, Lutheran minister) Johanna Rehbaum. At rehearsal one night recently, it struck me: for a spring concert, at a time of year the earth relishes in growth and new life, we are singing an awful lot of songs about death. The Brahms, with such lines as, “Dear Trenar is dead—dead!;”…
Concentus Women's Chorus 