UGA’s Performing Arts Center presents the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir at 8 p.m. March 3 in Hodgson Concert Hall. Tickets, $23 (rear balcony) and $28 (orchestra/front balcony), are half price for UGA students with valid IDs.
The program for the Athens performance will include Cyrillus Kreek’s Estonian Religious Folk Songs; Benjamin Britten’s Hymn to St. Cecilia and Hymn to the Virgin; Arvo Pärt’s Magnificat and Nunc dimittis; and Francis Poulenc’s Mass in G Major.
The Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir is recognized as one of the best choirs in the world and has been hailed by the Wall Street Journal as “pure and impassioned, astounding choral artists.”
The EPCC was founded in 1981 by Tõnu Kaljuste, who served as the choir’s artistic director and chief conductor for
20 years. At the 1991 Takarazuka Chamber Choir Competition in Japan, the choir won three gold medals and was awarded the Grand Prix.
In 2001 Paul Hillier was named the EPCC’s chief conductor and artistic director. The renowned British musician has widened the choir’s perspectives and continued its success both in the recording field and as a performing group at prominent concert venues and festivals. The choir currently gives 60 to 70 concerts per season and tours regularly throughout Europe, the U.S., Canada and Japan.
In 2002 the EPCC began a relationship with the harmonia mundi label, recording Baltic Voices 1. The three-year Baltic Voices project, whose concept was to explore the breadth and depth of choral music from the countries around the Baltic Sea, continued in 2003 with the release of Baltic Voices 2. Baltic Voices 3 was released in 2004. The EPCC has received six Grammy nominations for Te Deum, Litany, Crystallisatio, Kanon pokajanen, Baltic Voices 1 and Baltic Voices 2.
In September 2005 the EPCC organized a major festival in Estonia to celebrate composer Arvo Pärt’s 70th birthday in his homeland. The choir performed a newly commissioned work by Pärt at the recently concluded Winter Olympic Games in Italy.
A pre-concert lecture will be given by Gregory Brown, a doctoral student in choral conducting at UGA. The lecture begins at 7:15 p.m. and is free and open to the public.
