LYYRA IN CONCERT | SEPTEMBER 22, 2024 | 5:00 PM
LYYRA (Voces8 Foundation) | ORLANDO SINGS HARMONIA | Sandra Shafer, conductor
Park Lake Presbyterian Church (309 E Colonial Dr, Orlando, FL 32801)
In their debut performance in the Southeastern US and Florida, NEW ensemble Lyyra looks set to reach a glittering place in choral music’s constellation – it was created by The VOCES8 Foundation to build support and visibility for upper voices and their potential. The group’s sound combines velvety richness alongside starlike brilliance. With a broad texture and exhilarating range of sound, the group’s members specialize in classical, jazz, pop, and folk music from diverse traditions and backgrounds. Lyyra is the only professional six-voice women’s a cappella group in the US. Lyyra delivers inspirational, uplifting, dynamic performances and has the desire to make change in the world. They will be joined by the acclaimed Orlando Sings Harmonia, the premier choir for auditioned adult soprano-alto voices on the East Coast, for a rousing finale! Harmonia will also present selections from their recording project (to be released early 2025).
We can’t wait for the lovely historic venue to RESOUND with the beauty of soprano and alto voices!
ORLANDO SINGS GOES TO THE OPERA | NOVEMBER 15, 2024 | 8:00 PM
ORLANDO SINGS SYMPHONIC CHORUS | ORLANDO SINGS HARMONIA | SOLARIA PLAYERS
The Harriett Coleman Center for Performing Arts (901 Highland Ave, Orlando, FL 32803)
Experience the rich and colorful tones of the 120-voice Orlando Sings Symphonic Chorus and 60-voice Harmonia RESOUND in a NEW intimate venue in the heart of Orlando. Bask in the melodies and harmonies of some of the greatest stories ever told with every audience’s favorite and most famous opera choruses. In addition to our large ensembles, some of the finest classical singers in Central Florida will also be featured soloists. Bizet, Delibes, Gounod, Mozart, Puccini, Verdi, Wagner, and MORE all in one concert!
A SOLARIA SOLSTICE | DECEMBER 21, 2024 | 8:00 PM
SOLARIA SINGERS featuring special guest artist MOIRA SMILEY | Andrew Minear, conductor
The Harriett Coleman Center for Performing Arts (901 Highland Ave, Orlando, FL 32803)
Hailed as “exquisite,” “transcendent,” and “…the deepest expression of the cathartic power of music I have ever heard,” A Solaria Solstice will be presented in a fabulous new venue providing more seating while still maintaining the special intimate quality of the Solstice concert experience that has made this an unmissable holiday season tradition for hundreds of Central Floridians. Hear moving poetry and music from Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa, as well as compelling contemporary choral works that reflect on this time of darkness, renewal, and the light to come!
NEW for the 2024 program, Orlando Sings has commissioned folk and choral music icon Moira Smiley to compose a brand new solstice-themed choral work, which will receive its world premier performance with the composer in attendance as a featured guest artist performer on stage.
The Solaria Singers is a professional choir comprised of the finest vocalists in Central Florida. Conducted by Andrew Minear, Solaria has been hailed as “mind-blowing… delightful, entertaining and thought provoking”, “moving and magnificent”, and voted Orlando Weekly’s Best of Orlando for Best Chamber Music Group. Solaria is a 2024 national finalist for The American Prize Ernst Bacon Memorial Award for the Performance of American Music.
WHEN I FALL IN LOVE GALA CONCERT | FEBRUARY 15, 2025 | 7:00 PM
SOLARIA SINGERS | Andrew Minear, conductor
The Woman’s Club of Winter Park (419 S Interlachen Ave, Winter Park, FL 32789)
Orlando Sings presents the award-winning Solaria Singers in a special performance of love songs ranging in style from jazz, to contemporary classical, R&B, and pop! This Gala Concert includes dinner and will be followed by dancing and a silent auction. Feel the love RESOUND in your heart on this special occasion night!
The Solaria Singers is a professional choir comprised of the finest vocalists in Central Florida. Conducted by Andrew Minear, Solaria performs fresh interpretations of the greatest choral works of history as well as the most adventurous, compelling, and meaningful music composed for vocal ensembles in the 21st century. Solaria has been hailed as “mind-blowing… delightful, entertaining and thought provoking”, “exquisite,” “moving and magnificent”, and voted Orlando Weekly’s Best of Orlando for Best Chamber Music Group. Solaria is a 2024 national finalist for The American Prize Ernst Bacon Memorial Award for the Performance of American Music.
ORLANDO SINGS CHORAL FESTIVAL 2025
ORLANDO SINGS CHORAL FESTIVAL CONCERT #1: SHEMA KOLEINU (HEAR OUR VOICE) | JEWISH MASTERWORKS | MAY 15, 2025 | 7:30 PM
ORLANDO SINGS SYMPHONIC CHORUS | ORLANDO SINGS HARMONIA | SOLARIA PLAYERS | Andrew Minear and Sandra Shafer, conductors
The Harriett Coleman Center for Performing Arts (901 Highland Ave, Orlando, FL 32803)
Jewish choral music has a beautiful and ancient heritage. It said that gregorian chant, the forebear to western classical music, has its own roots in Hebrew chants. The Psalms are indeed songs! The Orlando Sings Symphonic Chorus opens this program with the thrilling “Chichester Psalms” by Leonard Bernstein. Then, along with Harmonia present the music of Judith Lang Zaimont, who is internationally recognized for her music’s distinctive style, characterized by expressive strength and dynamism. Harmonia sings “Life Cycle”, an ongoing project of new music for women’s voices to poems by women. Then the Orlando Sings Symphonic Chorus presents Zaimont’s “Sacred Service”, an epic and powerful work that is complex yet always accessible and expressive. This is the first of three concerts of the 4th Annual Orlando Sings Choral Festival.
Leonard Bernstein Chichester Psalms
Judith Lang Zaimont Life Cycle; Sacred Service
ORLANDO SINGS CHORAL FESTIVAL CONCERT #2: PATH OF MIRACLES | MAY 17, 2025 | 4:00 PM
SOLARIA SINGERS | Andrew Minear, conductor
The Harriett Coleman Center for Performing Arts (901 Highland Ave, Orlando, FL 32803)
The Solaria Singers and conductor Andrew Minear present one of the most compelling contemporary American choral works of today. Jody Talbot’s Path of Miracles is an hour-long a cappella exploration of the phenomenon of the Camino de Santiago — the ancient Catholic pilgrimage route across northern Spain to the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia. The text comprises excerpts from historical and sacred documents in several different languages, alongside original material by poet Robert Dickinson.
The Solaria Singers is a professional choir comprised of the finest vocalists in Central Florida. Solaria performs fresh interpretations of the greatest choral works of history as well as the most adventurous, compelling, and meaningful music composed for vocal ensembles in the 21st century. Solaria has been hailed as “mind-blowing… delightful, entertaining and thought provoking”, “exquisite,” “moving and magnificent”, and voted Orlando Weekly’s Best of Orlando for Best Chamber Music Group. Solaria is a 2024 national finalist for The American Prize Ernst Bacon Memorial Award for the Performance of American Music.
Jody Talbot Path of Miracles
ORLANDO SINGS CHORAL FESTIVAL CONCERT #3: EARTH SYMPHONY | MAY 17, 2025 | 8:00 PM
ORLANDO SINGS SYMPHONIC CHORUS | ORLANDO SINGS HARMONIA | SOLARIA PLAYERS | Andrew Minear and Sandra Shafer, conductors
The Harriett Coleman Center for Performing Arts (901 Highland Ave, Orlando, FL 32803)
“Earth Symphony,” the EMMY® award-winning, ground-breaking choral symphony from GRAMMY® nominated composer Jake Runestad and librettist Todd Boss, is a 5-part dramatic monologue from the voice of post-anthropocene Mother Earth.
The work imagines Earth’s hope for humanity, her discovery of its power, her ruination at its hands, her lament at its loss, and her recovery. By anthropomorphizing Earth herself, “Earth Symphony” enables entry into our own ecological shame, guilt, responsibility, potential, and redemption, all from a wide-angled, time-telescoped lens, thereby asking our most immediately pressing environmental questions in an entirely new way.
Jake Runestad Earth Symphony