Nashua Chamber Orchestra and Nashua High School South work together

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Courtesy photo The Nashua High School South Concert Choir.

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IF YOU GO

Gabriel Faure’s “Requiem in D minor, Op. 48,” performed by The Nashua Chamber Orchestra and the Nashua South High School Choir

WHEN: 8 p.m. Saturday, March 6, and 3 p.m. Sunday, March 7.

WHERE: On Saturday, Nashua High School South, 36 Riverside St., Nashua. On Sunday, Milford Town Hall, 39 Nashua St., Milford.

TICKETS: $15 for adults, $13 for seniors, $8 for students and free for children younger than 12. Tickets are $2 off if brought in advance. Available at Toadstool Bookstore and Darrell’s Music.

MORE INFORMATION: Call 472-3373.

NASHUA – Sophia Santerre, choral director at Nashua South High School, knows she has set her sights somewhat higher than usual.

On March 6, the choir will collaborate with the Nashua Chamber Orchestra, performing Gabriel Faure’s “Requiem in D Minor, Op. 48.” Composed between 1887-90, this choral-orchestral setting of the Roman Catholic Mass of the Dead is the best known of his compositions. Faure claimed at the time that he composed the requiem “for the pleasure of it,” but events in his own life throw this into some doubt. It was started after the death of his father, and his mother also passed away before its completion. Having been described as a “lullaby of death,” there are several different versions of the piece.

“It’s a major work, but still accessible to high school students,” said Santerre, observing that more technically challenging pieces might be a little beyond students’ reach.

Santerre has been teaching choir for the last 26 years, the last 12 at Nashua South. It’s a vocation that she finds rewarding on a technical as well as professional level. “There’s something about working with students at this age that challenge you as a musician as well as a teacher. With younger children, half the fight is getting them interested in the material – that’s just not an issue here.”

The choir has worked with outside agencies before. “We performed a different requiem in Manchester back in 1999,” Santerre revealed, but nothing quite on this level. “The anticipation is very high,” she said.

This particular collaboration came about when a member of the Nashua Chamber Orchestra gave her a call one day. “It was someone I’d known for about 15 years,” Santerre said, “but this still came out of the blue. She asked me if we wanted to collaborate. How could I turn it down?”

There is another bonus to buying these tickets – the purchase allows you to attend, at no extra charge, a concert featuring Sergei Rachmaninoff’s “Concerto No.2,” to be held at Milford Town Hall. This piece was originally written as a sort of therapy by the composer, as the 1897 debut of his first symphony was panned by the critics. Dejected, Rachmaninoff fell into a deep depression that lasted several years. The second concerto, composed between the autumn of 1890 and the spring of 1891, saw him throw off the constraints of clinical depression and writer’s block. Thrilled with his success, he dedicated the piece to Nikolai Dahl, the physician who had led him back to health.

Although the choir has collaborated with the Nashua Chamber Orchestra before, this is an entirely different kettle of fish.

“This time, we’re the only choral society up there,” Santerre said. “We’re on our own. That’s frightening, but also really exciting.