Connecticut Choral Society To Perform ‘A Sea Symphony’

WATERBURY — On Sunday, June 3, at 3 pm, The Connecticut Choral Society will perform “Symphony of Voices,” featuring Ralph Vaughan Williams’ symphonic masterpiece A Sea Symphony, at Naugatuck Valley Community College Fine Arts Center.

Performed by a chorus of 200 singers, orchestra of 50, and soprano and bass soloists, “A Sea Symphony” embodies and combines the ideals of poet Walt Whitman as well as those of musician Ralph Vaughan Williams.

A Sea Symphony, lasting approximately 70 minutes, is comprised of four movements. The first is “Song for all Seas, all Ships,” beginning with the majestic statement, “Behold the Sea itself, and on its limitless, heaving breast, the ships…” accompanied by a triumphant trumpet fanfare and acknowledging the universality of vast waters and the ships upon them.

The second is “On the Beach Alone,” explaining that while there may be loneliness, the sea and the universe connect and unite all peoples to one another, past, present, and future, compensating for that loneliness.

In the third movement, “The Waves,” performers and audience alike are treated to a marvelous musical interpretation of “waves, undulating waves, liquid, uneven, emulous waves…,” and finally, in movement four, “The Explorers,” the poet and the musician conclude by changing the metaphor of ship and ocean to the human soul beginning its journey to immortality.

The Connecticut Choral Society, with Conductor Eric Dale Knapp, will be joined by special guest soprano Jessica Rivera, baritone Mark Womack and the New Jersey Choral Society for the performance.

Tickets for “A Sea Symphony” are $25 for adults, $15 ages 18 and under, and they may be purchased online at CTChoralSociety.org. Additional information is available by calling 203-206-7186.

A special art exhibit will open the afternoon of the performance at 1 pm, and a pre-concert lecture will be offered at 2:30.

NVCC’s Fine Arts Center is on the campus of the college, at 750 Chase Parkway.