In the Good Old Summertime with Counterpoint Vocal Ensemble

The LGLC is proud to support this program at The Sembrich!

As the success of HBO’s “The Gilded Age” shows, the final decades of the 19th century in America continue to fascinate the public. The age of the robber barons was also the peak of the middle-class parlor piano and vaudeville, and saw a flowering of tragic ballads, naïve love lyrics, theater songs and pictures of city life, as well as the first stirrings of Tin Pan Alley. In this concert, Vermont-based chamber chorus Counterpoint will lead a tour of this repertory, in sparkling a cappella arrangements that show off what critics have praised as the ensemble’s “clarity, skill” and “sophisticated musical expressiveness.”

The program ranges from the evergreen songs of Stephen Foster (“Beautiful Dreamer”) to Bowery waltzes (“The Sidewalks of New York”) and from sentimental classics like “Home Sweet Home” to comic numbers such as “You’ll Have to Put a Nightie on Aphrodite.” In addition, pianist Michael Clement will join the chorus for an opus by American Romantic composer Amy Marcy Beach and selections from the opera Treemonisha by Scott Joplin, the Father of Ragtime. Counterpoint was founded in 2000 by legendary choral conductor and arranger Robert De Cormier. Now directed by Nathaniel G. Lew, the ensemble performs throughout Vermont and surrounding regions, and has released seven CDs with Albany Records and five more independently. www.counterpointchorus.org

Followed by a lakeside reception.