British Choir Tenebrae Makes Its Chicago Debut in Transformative Performance to Begin Holiday Season

Photo credit: Sim Canetty-Clarke

The Award-Winning Vocal Ensemble Will Perform Joy Talbot’s Path of Miracles & Owain Park’s Footsteps with the Chicago Children’s Choir Hyde Park Presto 

Award-winning British ensemble Tenebrae will make its Chicago debut in the University of Chicago’s stunning Rockefeller Chapel in a program on Friday, November 15, 2019. The program will feature works from Joy Talbot and Owain Park. 

Tenebrae (which translates from Latin to mean darkness), a critically acclaimed vocal ensemble that’s been praised around the world for its magnificent performance of 20th-century choral repertoire, will perform according to Catholic Tradition, with its service taking place three days before Easter. It will be characterized by the gradual extinguishing of candles to the sounds of reflective, meditative vocal music, an atmosphere that the London-based chamber choir Tenebrae is masterfully known for. 

Before the November 15 performance from Tenebrae, conductor Nigel Short will join composer Joy Talbot on stage to discuss the Camino de Santiago and Path of Miracles in a pre-concert conversation. 

Path of Miracles, the first of the pieces that the vocal ensemble will perform, is the first major work commissioned by the choir from Joy Talbot—it has become a defining piece for the ensemble. Composed in 2005, Path of Miracles traces the route of the Camino de Santiago, delving into the complex history of the path, the landscape along the route, and the transformative experience of those who walk its approximately 500 miles. The path, known in English as “The Way of St. James,” is a historical pilgrimage route stretching from the Pyrenees to Spain’s Atlantic coast, following the Milky Way to what pre-Christian travelers knew as the end of the earth.

In 2017, the ensemble commissioned a new companion work, Owain Park’s Footsteps, in order to collaborate with local choirs in parallel with its touring route. At Rockefeller Chapel, Tenebrae is joined by the Chicago Children’s Choir Hyde Park Presto to open the concert with Park’s companion piece.

Tenebrae’s performance on November 15 is the first part of a special two-concert pairing this season that explores light, as well as the absence of it. The second concert, which takes place on Friday, January 7, 2020, will feature the JACK Quartet performing Georg Friedrich Haas Ninth String Quartet in total darkness.