Meridian Herald

About the Meridian Chorale

The Meridian Chorale is comprised of many of the finest choral singer-vocal soloists in North Georgia. Conducted by Steven Darsey in the tradition of Robert Shaw, their repertoire spans the gamut of concert vocal music. The Chorale’s singing has been said to “change lives” and has been likened to “hearing stained glass.”

Founded on important regional traditions, our Folk Advent and Folk Passion programs are original creations based on texts and tunes from Georgia’s 1844 Sacred Harp tunebook. Our camp meetings, in addition to preaching and prayer, include authentic 19th century camp meeting songs and vernacular hymns as well as Native American songs. Rooted in folkways, yet imbued with contemporary idioms, these events strengthen appreciation for the wisdom of previous eras and thus fulfill a unique and vital need of contemporary culture.

Beyond American heritage and Western canonical classical works, our programs, especially our Science and Theology events, have included readings and songs from Native American, Indian Muslim, Druid, Egyptian, Taizé, Tao Te Ching repertories; an excerpt of the opera Gilgamesh by Stephan Dickman, as well as the premiere of Darsery’s aleatoric work on the Christian chant, “Ubi Caritas,” the Hebrew traditional melody, “Ki hiney kahomer,” and from Sufi spiritual song, “Tere dar se jo,” offered as a prayer for universal healing.

Our Atlanta Music Festivals are dedicated to advancing harmony among communities. These feature traditional works as well as important contemporary works of African American composers. Steven Darsey’s research revealed the common use of the folk hymn “Bound for the Promised Land” in 19th century African American and white cultures, inspiring him to paraphrase words from Barack Obama’s speech, “A More Perfect Union,” words which composer Adolphus Hailstork employed in his arrangement of this tune, commissioned for our 2016 Festival and soon to be published by Theodore Presser.

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