Author name: Marty Sauser

Season Album 2024-2025

Once, as I Remember
December 7 & 8, 2024
The Gift to Sing
March 23, 2025
Mozart Requiem & Coronation Mass
June 8, 2025

Our December 2024 concert, Once, as I Remember, followed the form of the Festival of Lessons and Carols presented annually by the King’s College choir in Cambridge, England, but with poetry readings in place of the traditional scripture lessons. The Spring concert, The Gift to Sing, on March 23, 2025 featured a newly commissioned setting from composer Jonathan Woody of “The Gift to Sing” by James Weldon Johnson.

We ended the season singing Mozart’s Requiem and Coronation Mass for a large and appreciative audience. The performance featured a large orchestra and four talented soloists, two of whom have a Kent Singers family connection: Bass soloist Dylan Armstrong’s mother, Sue Ellen Armstrong, sings in our alto section, and his wife, Sarah Armstrong, was our soprano soloist! (The other soloists were Megan Roth, mezzo-soprano, and Matthew Newhouse, tenor.)

Listen to selections from our 2024-2025 concert programs
A rehearsal in November
Audience arriving for Once, as I Remember
Josh Alexander assisting organist (and pianist) Isaiah Williams at the December concert
Jon Lafleur assisting pianist Sandra Kleisner at The Gift to Sing
The Kent Singers at December concert
Exiene Lofgren reading a poetry selection at Once, as I Remember
Bass section at rehearsal in February
Knox plugging our Spring concert on WMNR radio’s Fine Arts Forum
St. John’s Episcopal Church, New Milford, CT
Mozart orchestra at dress rehearsal
Sarah, Zea, Dylan and Sue Ellen Armstrong
Singing the Mozart Requiem at the June concert

2024-25 Season Ends with All-Mozart Program

We ended our 2024-25 season singing Mozart’s Requiem and Coronation Mass for a large and appreciative audience. The concert, on June 8, 2025 at St. John’s Church in New Milford, CT, was a big success thanks to many hours of rehearsal and individual practicing by our fantastic singers, our world-class music director and conductor, James Knox Sutterfield, the talented orchestra players and soloists who joined us for this concert, and the support of our generous donors, advertisers, grantors, and MOST OF ALL, our wonderful and faithful audience! Thank you for coming to our concerts, and we hope to see you again next year!

Save the Dates for 2025-26 Season

Here are the dates for our concerts in December and next year:

  • December 13 & 14, 2025
  • March 22, 2026
  • June 7, 2026

Tickets now available here: tickets

Mozart Requiem & Coronation Mass Concert Recording 2025

Click here to listen to the entire concert

Click here to access the music files for downloading

Photos and Program

You can find everything you’re looking for in the Concert Archive pages.

(As always, we’re making these recordings available to you, our members, for your private enjoyment only. Please don’t copy them to any streaming services or publish them in any way.)

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.

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.

Full Season Dues, $165 (all 3 concerts)

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Holiday Concert Dues, $55

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Spring Concert Dues, $55

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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 2025 – The Gift to Sing

March 23, 2025
St. Andrew’s Church, Kent CT
James Knox Sutterfield, cond.

Our Spring 2025 concert features 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.”

Click here to see concert program

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