WESTON, Vt. – The Sundays on the Hill concerts series is delighted to have Counterpoint Chorus start the 26th year of providing wonderful concerts in Weston, Vt., on July 14. All of the concerts will be held in the Old Parish Church on Route 100 in Weston, Vt. Admission cost is kept low thanks to generous support from Patrons of Sundays on the Hill and other anonymous donors. Children under 12 may attend at no charge. Please be aware that the doors open at 3:30 p.m., and there are no reserved seats, no advance tickets, and admission is paid at the door. See www.sundaysonthehill.org for additional information and a complete list of the concert series.
Founded by legendary choral director and arranger Robert De Cormier, and based in Montpelier, Vt., Counterpoint is dedicated to performing choral chamber music and engaging with student musicians in Vermont and beyond. Praised for “clarity, skill,” and “sophisticated musical expressiveness,” they present concerts throughout Vermont and the surrounding region. Counterpoint has recorded seven CDs with Albany Records, and has released four further CDs independently. Artistic director Nathaniel G. Lew holds degrees in music from Yale, Cambridge, and the University of California Berkeley. He currently serves as professor of music and director of the honors program at St. Michael’s College in Colchester, Vt.
Three of Vermont’s finest classical instrumentalists – violinist Laura Markowitz, cellist John Dunlop, and pianist Annemieke McLane – join the singers of Counterpoint for this fascinating crossing of folk traditions and classical music: Johannes Brahms’s passionate “Zigeunerlieder,” a collection of Ludwig van Beethoven’s settings of Scottish folksongs, and folksong settings by Béla Bartók, plus piano trio movements by Fanny Hensel and Clara Schumann.