The Capitol Hill Chorale performed "Keep on Singing!" on March 19 and 20, 2011, at the Lutheran Church of the Reformation in Washington, D.C. The concert took its title from a National Geographic lecture by Pete Docter, director of the Pixar film Up: after the talk, a Chorale supporter asked him to sign a card for the chorus’s annual fundraising spaghetti supper auction, and Docter instead sketched the film’s characters Kevin and Carl, with Kevin saying "Keep on Singing!" Artistic Director Frederick Binkholder won the sketch at auction and named the concert after the phrase.
The program moved from English Renaissance polyphony by William Byrd and Thomas Weelkes through Zoltán Kodály’s Missa Brevis, composed while he sheltered in a Budapest convent basement during World War II bombing raids. After intermission came twentieth-century works by Henryk Górecki, Morten Lauridsen, and Gabriel Fauré, two traditional rounds, German part-songs by Schubert, Brahms, and Hassler, and closed with the folk song "Shenandoah," a hymn tune by William Billings, and Charles Villiers Stanford’s "Quick! We Have But a Second."
Program
- Sing Joyfully — William Byrd
- As Vesta Was From Latmos Hill Descending — Thomas Weelkes
- Missa Brevis — Zoltán Kodály
- Totus Tuus — Henryk Górecki
- Sure on This Shining Night — Morten Lauridsen
- Cantique de Jean Racine — Gabriel Fauré
- Music Alone Shall Live — traditional round
- Viva la Musica — traditional round
- Lebenslust — Franz Schubert
- O Schöne Nacht — Johannes Brahms
- Tanzen und Springen — Hans Leo Hassler
- Shenandoah — arr. Derric Johnson
- O Praise the Lord of Heaven — William Billings
- Quick! We Have But a Second — Charles Villiers Stanford
The concert was led by Artistic Director Frederick Binkholder, with Jinsun Cho serving as Assistant Director and accompanist.
