Venezuelan guest conductor Maria Guinand's 'De la noche al dia' concert fits in with the choir's Sing Out the New Day theme for the season.
The choir began anticipating another visit immediately after Guinand left, Simpson says, but the onset of COVID inevitably delayed her return by a couple of years. “De la noche al día,” which translates as “from night to day,” is very much born of the pandemic. The theme of the chamber choir’s season is “Sing Out the New Day,” and Guinand built the concert along a similar dark-to-light trajectory. As such, her selections cover a wide swath of emotional territory, from despair to jubilation.
“After darkness, I believe that light will prevail,” she says. “I want to keep believing that, even in these days [when] we are living again through very dark times. But I want to keep believing that if there is light, darkness cannot take it away suddenly. Simpson is enthusiastic about the chamber choir’s latest cross-cultural foray, which comes on the heels of last month’s participation in Da Camera’s Tyshawn Sorey commission “Monochromatic Light ,” a celebration of the Rothko Chapel’s 50th anniversary. The styles of music may be quite different, he notes, but the underlying purpose is similar.