Masterworks featuring the VSO Chorus

The VSO wouldn’t be the organization we are today without the artistic vision and leadership of VSO Chorus founder Robert De Cormier. This tribute concert is our small way of thanking him for his musical service to Vermonters and the VSO.</p>

<p>The first half of the concert will feature the Vermont Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, under the direction of Jose Daniel Flores-Caraballo, who is making his conducting debut with the VSO. Los Angeles-based composer Morton Lauridsen (b. 1943) wrote <em>Lux Aeterna</em> following the death of his mother in 1997, and the text for the piece is based on various references to light from sacred Latin texts.</p>

<p>The first half is anchored by Robert De Cormier’s own composition for chorus and orchestra: <em>Legacy.</em> De Cormier composed this piece in 1981 as a memorial for his son. This performance marks the first time the VSO has ever performed the work.</p>

<p>After intermission, VSO Music Director Jaime Laredo takes the stage to lead the orchestra in Schubert’s ninth symphony, aptly nicknamed “The Great.” Widely regarded as Schubert’s supreme masterpiece, this is an extremely challenging piece to perform, due to the endurance and technique required–particularly among the strings and woodwinds. In fact, orchestras refused to play the symphony in Paris and London when Felix Mendelssohn attempted to program it in the