I Cantanti 20th Anniversary Concert

The I Cantanti Chamber Choir presents their 20th Anniversary Concert at 7:30 p.m. this Sunday, April 27 in the Northfield Middle School auditorium. Admission to the concert is free, but donations will be appreciated.

The ensemble was founded in 1988 to give adult singers in the Northfield area the opportunity to perform with a first-rate, auditioned choral ensemble. During the past two decades the choir has grown in size from 18 to 34 voices, and also added a women’s ensemble, so that in 2008 there are 46 participants.

Because of the rich history of choral music in Minnesota, there is no lack of community and professional choirs in the state.  But I Cantanti is unique in the fact that neither singers nor conductor receive any financial remuneration. The choirs have performed in the surrounding communities of Faribault, Owatonna, New Prague, Eagan, and has twice performed for the American Choral Directors Association of Minnesota and once for the Minnesota Music Educators. In 2004 they were invited to participate in a choral festival in Italy.

This 20th anniversary concert will be celebratory in nature. The mixed choir, I Cantanti, will open the concert with “The Heavens are Telling” from The Creation by Haydn, “Lux Aeterna” by Edwin Fissinger, and “O Clap Your Hands” by Ralph Vaughan Williams. Le Donne Cantanti, the women’s ensemble, will sing “Laudamus Te” by Vivaldi and “O Had I Jubal’s Lyre” by Handel. After a brief intermission, the choirs will perform Carmina Burana, a secular cantanta by 20th century German
composer, Carl Orff.

The choirs are conducted by Wayne Kivell.