Schola Cantorum de Venezuela, Press Quotes

From La Pasión (Golijov):

"The Venezuelan choristers, a multiracial assemblage of men and women who can clap

and stomp as well as they can sing, must be counted among the handful of the world's

great vocal ensembles, and they may be unrivaled for the range of sounds they can

produce‖ –New York Observer

"It grabs you, it holds you tight, and at the end—as the stricken Jesus filters into our

sensibility to the throb of mambo rhythms while the Hebrew Kaddish sweeps over the

ensemble as if from another world—you find yourself uplifted and drained." –Alan Rich,

LA Weekly

"Extravagant choral outbursts, feverish street-band percussion and ballad like bar-room

solos. Amazing. An unquestionable masterpiece." –The New York Times

"Transcendent. A triumph. The audience leapt to its collective feet and let loose with

cheers, deafening applause and foot-stomping for a full 20 minutes." –Los Angeles

Times

From A Flowering Tree (Adams):

―The Schola Cantorum de Venezuela, an impressive choir of mostly young singers from a

country with an enviable national program of music education, sings extended passages

in Spanish. And there is something about Mr. Adams’s mix of international idioms here

that seems exactly right, with elements of Indian lore, South American dance, West

Coast modernism, scat-singing choruses and even strands evocative of Mozart.‖ – The

New York Times (2009)

A Capella Concerts:

―The Schola Cantorum de Venezuela, from Caracas, has become Lincoln Center’s

resident exotic choir, mainly because composers seem so strongly drawn to the group’s

robust, flexible sound.‖ – The New York Times (2009)

SCHOLA CANTORUM DE VENEZUELA

Critical Acclaim

New York Times

Published August 27, 2007 By Steve Smith

“Passion, through a Choir‟s Revelation”.

“.. A dignified performance of „Crucifixus‟ by th 17th century venetian composer conducted by Mr. Grau,

illustrated the Schola Cantorum‟s approach to standard early- music repertory. In place of the smooth homogeneity normally encountered in this kind of music was a more characterful mix of timbres.”

“Mr Grau also led two of his own compositions. In his intense ‟Stabat Mater‟, singers swayed and paced

in place; slippery harmonic shifts created an air of instability, whil whispered lines conjured gusty winds. “Confitemini Domino” opened with an evocation of plainchant before erupting into a more ebullient

mode”

“.. After the intermission the Schola Cantorum joined the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra in a gripping

performance of Mozart‟s Requiem conducted by Louis Langrée. Those expecting Viennese piety with a

dash of picante might have been disappointed; still, there was real blood in the dramatic Kyrie and the

furious Dies Irae.

“The soloists (…) provided heartfelt contributions. But here the choir stole the show”

New York Times

Published August 16, 2009-11-09

By Allan Koznin.

“The Schola Cantorum de Venezuela, from Caracas, has become Lincoln Center‟s resident exotic choir,

mainly because composers seem so strongly drawn to the group‟s robust, flexible sound. Osvaldo Golijov

wanted that sound in his “Pasion según San Marcos”, and after the choir sang the work at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in 2002, Lincoln Center brought it back to New York for performances in 2006 and

2007. John Adams wrote for it as well: the choir sang in the first performances, and on the recording, of

his opera “A flowering tree” and the choir is in town mainly to sing that work as part of the Mostly Mozart Festival.

But, as in 2007, Lincoln Center has also given the Schola Cantorum a concert all its own…

Nominally this was all contemporary music: the oldest work, Vicente Emilio Sojo‟s ebullient,

contrapuntual “Laetitia”, was composed in 1939, and the newest, “Salve al Celeste Sol Sonoro”, a

melodic, vital work by the choir‟s founder Alberto Grau is from 2007. But it was also thoroughly accessible. If dissonance was not entirely banished, it was used more as a coloristic effect – in the chaotic

introduction to Eric Whitacre‟s “Cloudburst”, for example – than to create expressive tension. Even an

Elliot Carter work “Mussicians wrestle everywhere”was drawn from the early, consonant part of his catalog.

But if dissonance was rare, rhythmic complexity and vivid timbres were plentiful.”

Of the Schola Cantorum in La Pasión según San Marcos:

The Oregonian

Published on July 31, 2005

By David Stabler

“...the real stars were the chorus (Schola Cantorum of Venezuela) and Maria Guinand, the

conductor. The 45 Venezuelan singers, who premiered the work in Germany in 2000, faced one

another across the stage and sang the difficult syncopations expertly, whether contorting their mouths to snarl insults or keening in earthy chest voices. And Guinand was a marvel to watch,

particularly her expressive hands, as she commanded myriad instrumentalists, singers and soloists.”

LA Times

Published on October 21, 2002

By Mark Swed

“The brilliant singers that Golijov relies on in the Venezuelan chorus, the Schola Cantorum de

Caracas, seem to be masters of just about any style the composer throws at them, from riveting

ritual chanting to clapping out flamenco rhythms to producing amazing sounds from deep in their throats. This is a chorus alive to the moment that sways balletically as it sings and dramatizes every

note.”

The Times

Published on February 28, 2006

By Richard Morrison

“There‟s nothing gentle about Golijov‟s St Mark Passion. Directed by the excellent Maria Guinand,

its pulsating polychoral movements and hard-as-nails counterpoints were punched out by the

impassioned Schola Cantorum de Carácas in a guttural timbre that turned at times into a mass snarl. This is the Crucifixion angrily reinterpreted as a drama of torture and injustice replayed daily in the

prisons of bad regimes around the world. Even the odd bits of dancing that accompanied the music

seemed bitter and twisted.”

New York times

By ANTHONY TOMMASINI

Published on November 1, 2002

“The authenticity is assured by the participation of La Schola Cantorum de Caracas, an

extraordinary amateur chorus, and the Orquesta la Pasión, an ensemble of Latin American percussionists, who in this performance joined members of the Brooklyn Philharmonic, all under

the energetic direction of the conductor Robert Spano. During long stretches, the chorus relates the

story, even its horrific moments, in quasi-shouted outbursts, with a mix of raspy beauty and

breathless elation.

Yet in other places, over quietly muttering drums, the chorus shapes Mr. Golijov's hushed melodies

with aching simplicity and floating tones. Not many professional North American choruses could sway, clap and dance in place to such undulant South American rhythms with the naturalness of

these dynamic choristers. “

Of the Schola Cantorum in A Flowering Tree:

Variety Published on November 27, 2006

“This is the most unabashedly romantic, gloriously tonal score to hit the opera scene in many years.

Sellars' direction is understated. The Technicolor traditional Indian costumes by Gabriel Berry --

rich brocades and paisleys -- for principals, chorus and orchestra (even Adams, who conducts these

premiere perfs) dominate the evening, along with George Tyspin's minimal, evocative, saffron-hued scenery.

The visuals are abetted by the ever-present choir from the Schola Cantorum de Venezuela, which passionately delivers the opera's descriptive passages in Spanish.”

BBC Music

Published on September, 24, 2008

“Solid contributions, too, from the young Venezuelan choir of the Schola Cantorum Caracas,

whose delivery of the Spanish-sung choruses carries the same impressively articulate impact one now associates with their orchestral peers.”

Musicalcriticism.com By Una-Frances Clarke

Published on August, 12, 2007

“It is always difficult to perform works such as these in a concert venue that is not suited to drama, and with the choir restricted to lining up on stage behind the orchestra like a symphony chorus, the

scene looked rather cramped. Fortunately the sound was anything but, and the choir, the 'specially

imported' Schola Cantorum de Venezuela, burst forth with a vibrancy that matched their brightly-coloured clothing.”

www.guardian.co.uk Published on October, 12, 2008

By Peter Culshaw

“Based on an ancient Indian folk tale about a girl who turns herself into a tree this shows a wilder

flowering of John Adams as a composer. An opera in two acts, its influences range from Indian

ragas to Balinese music, Sibelius and even Motown, with terrific singing both from soloists and the amazing Schola Cantorum de Venezuela, like a fresh, latin Carmina Burana.”

New York Times

Published on August 14, 2009 By Anthony Tommasini

“The Schola Cantorum de Venezuela, an impressive choir of mostly young singers from a country with an enviable national program of music education, sings extended passages in Spanish. And there

is something about Mr. Adams‟s mix of international idioms here that seems exactly right, with

elements of Indian lore, South American dance, West Coast modernism, scat-singing choruses and even strands evocative of Mozart.”

Baltimore Sun

Published on August 14, 2009 By Tim Smith

“The demanding choral writing was delivered with terrific flair by the Schola Cantorum de

Venezuela (Adams set the choral lines in Spanish, the rest in English – an oddly satisfying arrangement).”

New York Magazine Published on August 16, 2009

By Justin Davidson

“A storyteller, baritone Sanford Sylvan, presides over every scene, and a chorus, the superb Schola

Cantorum de Venezuela, exorts and comments in urgent, crystalline Spanish, giving the opera the quality

of a multicultural ritual.”

The Magical Mystery Masque

By Harry Rolnick

“…The third (theme) is the amazing Schola Cantorum of Venezuela, singing in both English and Spanish,

dressed in the most shatteringly gorgeous South Indian colors rising on the stage or sitting in the

background”

Schola Cantorum de Venezuela

The Oregonian June 30, 2011

Schola Cantorum de Venezuela choir set to rock Oregon Bach

Festival BY DAVID STABLER

One of the triumphs of the Oregon Bach Festival comes from Caracas, Venezuela. It's the 45-voice choir, Schola Cantorum de Venezuela, and if you haven't heard this chanting, swaying, rockin' group, you need to. The singing is

pell-mell punchy and as colorful as a Crayola box.

On Wednesday, Schola Cantorum ("School of Singing") comes to Portland as part of the Eugene festival's outreach

around the state. They'll sing a program of South American music that promises to raise the roof.

The darling of such venerated conductors as Sir Simon Rattle, Claudio Abbado and Gustavo Dudamel, Schola

Cantorum first sang at the Oregon Bach Festival in 1996. They premiered Oswaldo Golijov's "Oceana," a work in the

"Cantatas of the Americas" project that asked four composers to write modern choral works in the spirit of the greatest

composer of cantatas, Johann Sebastian Bach.

In 2005, the choir blazed through another work by the Argentinean composer, Golijov's "La Pasion Segun San

Marcos" ("The Passion According to St. Mark"), a moving sacred work the group had premiered to thunderous ovations in Stuttgart, Germany, in 2000.

What listeners admire is the singers' intensity and authority in music rooted in a living culture, whether it's from Cuba,

Venezuela or Argentina. While they're capable of snarling and snapping when the music demands, they can also spread tonal smoothness as still as a lake.

Directed by Maria Guinand, the choir rehearses three times a week and gives up to 60 concerts a year. Besides premieres of Golijov's music, the choir gave the much-anticipated world premiere of John Adams ("The Flowering

Tree") in Vienna, and has been nominated for two Grammy awards.

Guinand herself is a wonder to behold. Her hands are the most expressive thing about her, pulling the kinds of sounds

she's seeking from the singers.

In a previous interview in Eugene, Guinand said she looks for singers who are committed. "I need very engaged people

who feel they belong to a family. We don't only share rehearsals, we strive to higher levels of artistry, of discipline as human beings."

In addition to performing, the choir is on a mission to bring choral music to poor children in Latin and South America.

At the close of a 2005 concert in Eugene, Guinand stepped into the alto section to join in a swinging, swaying song, a

huge smile on her face. As she said, paraphrasing one of the songs, "Never mind the song, it was the singing that mattered."

Schola Cantorum de Venezuela

The Register-Guard June 29, 2011

Oregon Bach Festival Review: Virtuosic Latin choir packs UO’s

Beall Hall BY TERRY MCQUILKIN

When Schola Cantorum de Venezuela first visited Eugene during the 2006 Oregon Bach Festival, audience members were mesmerized by the ensemble’s virtuosity, urgency and sheer energy. Thus it was no surprise that Beall Hall was

completely full Saturday evening, when the chamber-choir contingent of Schola offered a program of contemporary

works from the Americas.

The 15 works on the program used a variety of texts, and translations were displayed unobtrusively above the stage. But for most of the pieces, the text was just a starting point: Conductor Maria Guinand’s 27 singers served as

storytellers, not so much through the words themselves, but by the way they clothed these words in complex harmonies

and rhythms, thick textures and bright timbres, often with accompanying choreography.

In one case, there were really no words at all. Using vocables and animal sounds, Canadian composer Murray Schafer’s

“Magic Songs” evoked an ancient (if imaginary) world where the primal relationship between human and animal/spirit

world was celebrated communally. In one of the eight songs, “Chant to make the stones sing,” glissandos and thick

tone clusters created an ethereal, spellbinding effect.

Schola performed two works by Catalan-born Alberto Grau, the ensemble’s founder: “Abraham” from his

“Magnificat,” in which rhythmic, repetitive incantations alternated with complex contrapuntal writing, and

“Binnamma” which began fairly conventionally as a modern setting of a Catalan song, but morphed into frenzied, ritualistic chant.

“La Fiesta de San Juan,” by Venezuelan composer Beatriz Bilbao, vividly portrays the joyous clamor of a three-day

celebration that is an amalgam of Christian and pagan traditions and is characterized by endless drumming and dancing. Assistant conductor Pablo Morales led the ensemble effectively.

Late in the program, the choir delivered a hypnotic performance of American composer Eric Whitacre’s most

frequently performed work, “Cloudburst,” set to a text by Mexican poet Octavio Paz. Using finger snaps, piano and

percussion, the composer proved remarkably effective in simulating a thunderstorm.

The concert opened with two works in which the words and melodic lines — rather than the sonic effect — were of

primary importance. The “Lacrimosa” from Cuban composer Calixto Álvarez’s “Requiem” combined harmonically

straightforward choral writing with doleful laments that represent the mourning of Santería’s high priests. The fairly conventional “Psalm 114” by Argentine composer Roberto Caamaño, showcased the vibrant sound and clear

enunciation of Guinand’s choir.

The pair of works opening the second half had a folksonglike simplicity that contrasted with the athleticism of most of the evening’s fare. The sweet and charming “Cancion de la Molinera” by Venezuelan Antonio Estévez was followed by

“Se equivocó la paloma,” a melancholic song by Argentine Carlos Guastavino. For much of the evening, I was dazzled

by Schola’s technical prowess and vigor. But these two songs still linger in my mind for their unpretentious beauty and

for the way they were delivered — with sincerity and heart.

The ensemble will repeat the program on July 6 at Trinity Cathedral in Portland.

SCHOLA CANTORUM DE VENEZUELA

San Francisco Classical Voice June 29, 2010

Golijov's Sensational Passion BY JASON VICTOR SERINUS

Boom! Wham! As the percussion of Orquesta La Pasión, led by Mikael Ringquist and Gonzalo Grau, pounds away,

Argentinean-born composer Osvaldo Golijov wastes no time proclaiming that his St. Mark Passion will take a giant step

away from the language of J.S. Bach’s monumental achievement.

In 2000 the Bach Academy of Stuttgart, to mark the 250th anniversary of the composer’s death, asked Golijov, Wolfgang

Rihm, Sofia Gubaidulina (San Francisco Symphony’s recent composer in residence), and Tan Dun to compose new settings

of Passion segments from all four Christian Gospels. Golijov’s commission, La Pasión Según San Marcos, is as awe-

inspiring as it is rousing. Written by a Jew who grew up surrounded by classical chamber music, Jewish liturgical and

klezmer music, and nuevo tango, and who did not own a copy of the New Testament at the time he received the commission,

Golijov’s Passion is part Latin America meets klezmer Afro-Cuban dance party, part performance work, and part oratorio.

It’s also as emotionally gripping as it is thrilling. When seen on the live Holland Festival DVD performance, conducted by

Robert Spano, that supplements the far better sounding, two studio-recorded Deutsche Grammophon CDs conducted by the

work’s dedicatee, Maria Guinand, it is also theatrically compelling. This is a work that cries out for the higher visual and

sonic resolution of Blu-ray.

The distinct Latin flavor and brilliant colors of so much of the music — not to mention the delicious voices of ―Latin-

American alto‖ Biella Da Costa; Afro-Cuban vocalists Reynaldo González-Fernandez, Gioconda Cabrera, and Manolo

Mairena; and the less luxuriously titled vocalist Alex Alvear — contrast with the heartfelt purity of soprano Jessica Rivera. A

favorite soloist of Golijov and John Adams, who was profiled in SFCV earlier this year (here), she first enters about 23

minutes into the piece. In the aria of Judas, ―¡Ah! quisiera yo renegar‖ (I wish to forswear), Rivera’s unadorned sadness

instantly transforms the energy of the Passion.

The even more striking section that follows, titled ―The Eucharist,‖ showcases the women of the Schola Cantorum de

Venezuela. To ominous drumbeats, their singing segues into the full chorus’ ―Demos Gracias al Señor‖ (We give thanks unto

the Lord). As we hear the words (in translation) ―Even while the earth trembles ... When death comes and captures me ...

Tremble, tremble earth ... We give thanks to the Lord,‖ the chanting becomes primitive, at times imitating shaking sounds.

If Rivera has the soul of a soprano trained in the European classical tradition — the high-lying arch of her major aria, ―Lúa

descolorida‖ (Colorless moon – Aria of Peter’s Tears), is transfixing — Da Costa has the soul of a Latin vocal goddess.

Contrast their voices with the sounds of the chorus toward the end of the work, when they accuse Jesus, smite him on the

head, spit on him, and then ―worship‖ him with screeches, hisses, and other disquieting effects, and you sense the scope of

Golijov’s achievement.

As the crowd/chorus clothes Jesus in a purple robe, then crowns him with thorns, the orchestra goes wild. Complete with a

discordant piano and jarring trombones, this orgiastic outburst leads to Jesus’ death, and finally to the Hebrew Kaddish.

According to critic Alan Rich, whose liner notes were probably written shortly before his death (see SFCV’’s obituary) , the

audience at the 2000 Stuttgart premiere awarded the work an ovation that lasted over half an hour. As you listen to the CDs,

then see the choreography on the DVD, you will know why.

Schola Cantorum de Venezuela

The Los Angeles Times April 25, 2010

Music review: Osvaldo Golijov's 'St. Mark' Passion finally reaches

Los Angeles

BY MARK SWED

Maria Guinand conducts Osvaldo Golijov's "St. Mark" Passion at Walt Disney Concert Hall on Saturday night.

Credit: Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times

Ten years ago, as a new millennium was dawning and hope was in the air, an audience of well-dressed, severe German

Bach enthusiasts filed in -- a tad condescendingly, I thought -- to the International Bach Academy Stuttgart to hear the

news from Latin America. Osvaldo Golijov, an Argentine composer who taught in the Boston area and who was at the

time an underused composer-in-residence at the Los Angeles Philharmonic, had been asked to walk in Bach’s footsteps

and write a passion, a musical setting of one of the four gospels. Golijov’s assignment was to adapt the text of the

Gospel according to St. Mark.

My first impression, two hours later -- 95 minutes for the performance of “La Pasión Según San Marcos” and 25

minutes for the riotous standing ovation from an audience that was whooping and applauding until its hands turned

red -- was that modern music history had just been made.

A true pan-American passion, this joyous but also powerfully theatrical and shockingly original carnival of South

American singing and dancing and drumming turned Golijov into the most feted young composer in America. Over the

Schola Cantorum de Venezuela

The Los Angeles Times April 25, 2010

page 2 of 3

past decade, “St. Mark” has had them dancing in the aisles, as well as shedding a contemplative tear, in Atlanta and

Amsterdam and seemingly everywhere else.

Everywhere, that is, but L.A. The Philharmonic proved inexplicably slow to jump on the “St. Mark” bandwagon. But

Saturday night the orchestra finally presented the passion at Walt Disney Concert Hall, as part of the orchestra’s

"Americas and Americans" festival. Better late than never? No, better late.

You don’t need me to tell you that Americans and the Americas are much changed in the past decade. In our country,

we have had terrorists attack our cities, fought long and divisive wars, endured the abuses of Wall Street and watched

religious intolerance become a growth industry. On the other hand, we have become a globally connected society and

appear to be emerging as a post-racial one as well. We can also add to that good news column the discovery of a major

source of new musical energy in Venezuela.

And in the 10 years since its premiere, Golijov’s “St. Mark” has gone from startling novelty to a guidebook for the new

Americas. In a pre-concert talk, the composer, whose roots are Eastern European and Jewish, explained certain

differences between La Plata, Argentina, where he grew up, and Jerusalem, where he went to study music. He

described South America as a melting pot, where cultures come together. In Jerusalem, however, musics collide -- each

Arab and Jewish community, each Christian, Jewish and Muslim sect lords over its tiny but exclusive piece of territory,

be it culture or soil.

Golijov wrote “St. Mark” as an outsider, a Jew who didn’t at the time of his commission even own a copy of the New

Testament. His concept of Christ was based on his surroundings, the black Christ of Latin America and then the

divisive sectarianism of the Middle East. He wrote what he knew and he went to Caracas, the Venezuelan capital, to

learn more.

There he collaborated with one of the world’s most versatile choruses, Schola Cantorum de Venezuela. Its conductor is

Maria Guinand, whose technique can be described as a combination of Pierre Boulez-like precision and the authority of

a dancing Gustavo Dudamel (she was one of his mentors).

One Latin thing led, for Golijov, to another, and along the way he picked up Brazilian percussion and a capoeira dancer

to portray a vision of Jesus in the form of a Brazilian beach dance. An exquisite soprano aria expressing Peter’s tears,

“Lúa Descolorida” (Colorless Moon), is more classical and became the score’s best-known excerpt. Golijov also

created a part for the well-known jazz vocalist Luciana Souza.

The text is mostly Spanish, but the passion ends with the Jewish prayer for the dead, the Kaddish. A small orchestra

includes sweet-and-sour strings, hot brass, prominent guitar, a feast of percussion and an electrified “hyper-accordion.”

The impressive performers Saturday were imported from Caracas and included many from the Stuttgart premiere,

including the Schola Cantorum, which sings and moves and makes textured sounds like no other chorus. Reynaldo

González Fernández was once more the Afro-Cuban singer and dancer and Deraldo Ferreira the capoeirista, and both

Schola Cantorum de Venezuela

The Los Angeles Times April 25, 2010

page 3 of 3

were commanding. Jessica Rivera was the heart-stopping soprano and Souza made sitting still difficult.

Guinand conducted. She impressed me in Stuttgart as the finest unknown conductor anywhere. But she is even more

impressive now and still too little known, outside of her performances of the passion (there is a new Deutsche

Grammophon recording with essentially the same forces as the performance on Saturday).

But maybe that will change after her Los Angeles debut, in which a tighter, more focused and punchier “St. Mark” is

more than ever the soundtrack of cultures colliding and cohering as they must in a world that moves forward.

MUSIC REVIEW | SCHOLA CANTORUM DE VENEZUELA

Visiting Venezuelan Choir Enjoys Its Own Evening By ALLAN KOZINN Published: August 16, 2009

The Schola Cantorum de Venezuela, from Caracas, has become Lincoln Center’s resident

exotic choir, mainly because composers seem so strongly drawn to the group’s robust,

flexible sound. Osvaldo Golijov wanted that sound in his “Pasión Según San Marcos,”

and after the choir sang the work at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in 2002, Lincoln

Center brought it back to New York for performances in 2006 and 2007. John Adams

wrote for it as well: the choir sang in the first performances, and on the recording, of his

opera “A Flowering Tree,” and the choir is in town mainly to sing that work as part of

the Mostly Mozart Festival.

Hiroyuki Ito for The New York Times

Schola Cantorum de Venezuela, at Alice Tully Hall, performing R. Murray Schafer’s “Magic Songs,” which

conveys the power of ritual.

But, as in 2007, Lincoln Center has also given the Schola Cantorum a concert all its own,

and on Saturday evening at Alice Tully Hall it sang a program devoted mostly to

Venezuelan music, with a few exceptions from the United States, Cuba and Canada.

Nominally this was all contemporary music: the oldest work, Vicente Emilio Sojo’s

ebullient, contrapuntal “Laetitia,” was composed in 1938, and the newest, “Salve al

Celeste Sol Sonoro,” a melodic, vital work by the choir’s founder, Alberto Grau, is from

2007. But it was also thoroughly accessible. If dissonance was not entirely banished, it

was used more as a coloristic effect — in the chaotic introduction to Eric Whitacre’s

“Cloudburst,” for example — than to create expressive tension. Even an Elliott Carter

work, “Musicians Wrestle Everywhere” (1945), was drawn from the early, consonant

part of his catalog.

But if dissonance was rare, rhythmic complexity and vivid timbres were plentiful.

In his “Magic Songs” (1988), the Canadian composer R. Murray Schafer did away with

literal meaning, giving his singers strings of phonemes instead of words and creating a

ritualistic drama partly through movement and partly through the way the vocal sounds

were ordered and shaped. Chants, declarations, call and response and communal

celebration were all suggested in turn, indicating that the magic of a ritual can have

more to do with the physicality of its enactment than with its text.

César Alejandro Carrillo’s “Oiga Compae, Prelude and Fugue” (1994) is both earthier

and more formal: its plaintive text, hard-driven textures and syncopated rhythms give it

an elemental power, but the counterpoint in its fugue section elevates it.

Most of the music was sung a cappella, but Mr. Whitacre’s “Cloudburst” added another

level of color, by way of a piano, a percussion ensemble in the balcony and handbells

played by the choir.

The singers also played percussion instruments in Beatriz Bilbao’s “Fiesta de San Juan”

(2003), a lively work the choir performed here in 2007, and in several pieces — Edgar

Zapata’s “Menciona’o” (1980) and Otilio Galíndez’s “Arestinga” (1959) — the choir was

accompanied by two small guitars (four-stringed instruments called cuatros) and

percussion.

On the closing work, Adalberto Alvarez’s “Dale Come Es” (1993), the audience was

taught a responsive part and encouraged to join in. The work’s staging, which involves a

rebellion by one of the choristers and a bit of dancing, was a little hokey, but it was hard

to resist the energy of the performance.

Most of the music was conducted by María Guinand, the choir’s artistic director. But Mr.

Grau led a few pieces, and Ana María Raga, the associate conductor, and Pablo Morales,

the assistant conductor, had their moments in the spotlight as well.