Author name: Marty Sauser

Practice aids for Mozart Requiem and Coronation Mass

Here are some free online practice aids for both pieces. Be sure to use the Süssmayr edition of the Requiem.

Mozart Requiem
Mozart Coronation Mass

Thanks to Bass Martin Baltus for the Chord Perfect links. Thanks to Alto Sara Coles for the YouTube links.

The Gift to Sing – March 23, 2025

Photos

Click here to open Google Photos album for viewing and downloading

Videos
Publications

Painting, “Sunset” by Euguene Dalacroix:

Click here to access files for downloading

Practice Aids

Click here for practice aids for I Conquer the World with Words, provided by the Skylark Vocal Ensemble and including an introduction video by composer Jonathan Woody.

Click here for the printed music for The Gift to Sing, our commission piece by Jonathan Woody.

The player below has practice aids for “The Gift to Sing” and other songs:

  • Rehearsal run-through on March 19, 2024
  • Synthesized audio performance (provided by Jonathan Woody)
  • Slowed versions of “I Conquer the World with Words” (Skylark Vocal Ensemble) and “The Choir Invisible” (2009 ACDA High School Honor Choir)

Click here to access files for downloading

Rehearsals

Here is a player for dress rehearsal run-throughs in concert order:

Click here to access music files for downloading

Concert Recording – Sunday, March 23, 2025

This player has edited versions of two songs:

  • Bright Morning Stars: 3:22 to 4:45 from dress rehearsal
  • Arise, Beloved: final Arise from dress rehearsal

The original, unedited versions of these songs are available in the download folder below (tracks 15 and 16). The video soundtrack also has the unedited versions.

Click here to access music files for downloading

Dues for 2024-2025 season

You can mail your payment to Kent Singers, Box 774, Kent, CT 06757, or bring it with you to rehearsal. You can also use the PayPal buttons below.

Each time you click “Add to Cart” it will open a new PayPal window with your cart. If you’re not ready to check out, you can go ahead and close all those extra windows. Trust me, PayPal will not forget what you’ve added to your cart! When you’re all done, click “View Cart” to complete your purchase.

Don’t worry, the “Add to Cart” button never costs you any money. PayPal will give you a chance to see what you’ve added to your cart before you complete your purchase, and you can easily remove unwanted items.

Summer Concert Dues, $65

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Calendar for 2024-25 season

Holiday Concert

  • Saturday & Sunday, December 7 & 8, 2024, 3:00 p.m. at St. Andrew’s Church in Kent, CT
  • Rehearsals every Wednesday starting September 4, 2024, 7:00 p.m at St. Andrew’s
  • Thanksgiving week: Rehearsal will be on Monday, November 25 (no rehearsal on Wednesday, November 27)

Spring Concert

  • Sunday, March 23, 2025, 3:00 p.m. at St. Andrew’s Church in Kent, CT
  • Rehearsals every Wednesday starting January 8, 2025, 7:00 p.m. at St. Andrew’s
  • Dress rehearsal on Saturday, March 22, 2025 at St. Andrew’s (time TBD)

Summer Concert

  • Sunday, June 8, 2025, 3:00 p.m. at St. John’s Church in New Milford, CT
  • Rehearsals every Wednesday starting March 26, 2025, 7:00 p.m. at St. John’s
  • Dress rehearsal on Saturday, June 7, 2025 at St. John’s (time TBD)

Gift to Sing concert video

The “Gift to Sing” concert video is listed in our public YouTube channel (click here). Anyone can find the video by searching YouTube for “Kent Singers” and/or “Gift to Sing”. You can also go to kentsingers.org and click the YouTube social media icon at the top of the page.

The YouTube player for the entire concert has a playlist that will let you jump directly to each song. To find the playlist, click in the description where it says “more…” There is also a separate YouTube video clip for the premiere performance of our commission piece, “The Gift to Sing.”

Here is an audio player for the concert:

This player has edited versions of two songs:

  • Bright Morning Stars: 3:22 to 4:45 from dress rehearsal
  • Arise, Beloved: final Arise from dress rehearsal

The video soundtrack does not include these audio edits.

“The Gift to Sing” Premiered at Spring Concert 2025

The Gift To Sing

Sometimes the mist overhangs my path,
And blackening clouds about me cling;
But, oh, I have a magic way
To turn the gloom to cheerful day—
I softly sing.

And if the way grows darker still,
Shadowed by Sorrow’s somber wing,
With glad defiance in my throat,
I pierce the darkness with a note,
And sing, and sing.

I brood not over the broken past,
Nor dread whatever time may bring;
No nights are dark, no days are long,
While in my heart there swells a song,
And I can sing.

James Weldon Johnson, 1871 – 1938
(This poem is in the public domain.)

We presented our Spring concert on March 23, 2025 at St. Andrew’s Church in Kent, CT. The concert featured the first performance of our commission piece, “The Gift to Sing,” by composer Jonathan Woody.

The idea of a commission project arose from the celebration of our 50th anniversary season in 2022-23.  We strongly believe that singing is a gift that enables us to face challenges in our everyday lives — it gives us hope.  The poem “The Gift to Sing” by James Weldon Johnson expresses that idea perfectly.   Perhaps best known for the lyrics to the song “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” poet and author James Weldon Johnson was also a national organizer for the NAACP.  Born in 1871, his works explore racial identity and the African American folk tradition.

We engaged composer Jonathan Woody to set Johnson’s poem to music.  We asked him to write the piece for a four-part chorus with piano accompaniment so that it would be accessible for performance by a wide range of choral groups.  The structure of the music follows Johnson’s text, alternating between dark and gloomy passages and brighter music accompanying the words “I softly sing… And sing and sing,” building to a peak with the final words, “And I can sing.”

The commission project is supported in part by an Alfred Nash Patterson Grant from Choral Arts New England.

Summer Major Works Concert 2025

This year we are presenting Mozart’s Requiem and Coronation Mass with orchestra and soloists.

  • Sunday, June 8, 2025
  • St. John’s Church in New Milford, CT at 3:00 PM
  • Tickets available here: tickets

Spring Concert 2025 – The Gift to Sing

The Gift To Sing

Sometimes the mist overhangs my path,
And blackening clouds about me cling;
But, oh, I have a magic way
To turn the gloom to cheerful day—
I softly sing.

And if the way grows darker still,
Shadowed by Sorrow’s somber wing,
With glad defiance in my throat,
I pierce the darkness with a note,
And sing, and sing.

I brood not over the broken past,
Nor dread whatever time may bring;
No nights are dark, no days are long,
While in my heart there swells a song,
And I can sing.

James Weldon Johnson, 1871 – 1938
(This poem is in the public domain.)

Don’t miss our Spring concert for 2025, featuring a newly commissioned setting from composer Jonathan Woody of this uplifting poem by James Weldon Johnson. The program also includes Stephen Paulus’ setting of “The Road Home” by the American poet Michael Dennis Browne, which was performed in January at the funeral service for President Jimmy Carter.

  • Sunday, March 23, 2025
  • St. Andrew’s Church in Kent, CT at 3:00 PM
  • Tickets available here: tickets

The commission project is supported in part by an Alfred Nash Patterson Grant from Choral Arts New England.

Knox on WMNR’s Fine Arts Forum

Our director, Knox Sutterfield, appeared on WMNR’s Fine Arts Forum on March 16, 2025. Use the player below to listen to his conversation with host Bob Anderson about our 2025 Spring concert. Knox tells how the magic happens as he selects, rehearses, and conducts choral music.

Practice Playlist for Spring Concert 2025

Here is Knox’s practice playlist for our Spring concert.

  • Spotify (14 songs)
  • Youtube (same 14 songs, plus Dream of a Blessed Spirit)

Click here for a recording of The Choir Invisible on Youtube (not included in Knox’s practice playlist, therefore please use for notes only and not musical interpretation). Also included in audio player below.

Click here for practice aids for I Conquer the World with Words, including a introduction video by composer Jonathan Woody and an audio player that displays the music as it goes along (very cool). Be sure to scroll down and you will find all sorts of really great practice aids for Conquer, including each part separately with a click track to keep time. There’s also a player that leaves out each part, for example you hear SAT without bass, so you can sing along with the bass part (likewise for all four parts). All of this is really helpful!

And last but not least, here is “The Gift to Sing”, also by Jonathan Woody, which we commissioned for this concert!

  • Click here for the music PDF
  • Sing along with our rehearsal run-through on March 19.
  • Listen to a synthesized audio performance in the audio player below (our concert will be the world premiere!)
  • The audio player also has two slowed versions of “I Conquer the World with Words” (Skylark Vocal Ensemble), and “The Choir Invisible” (2009 ACDA High School Honor Choir).
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