Jubilee Artists Series
“Through the invisible hands of music, the soul is touched and healed,” Josephine “Jo” Phelps Fabian said. In her life, Fabian was a dedicated arts patron, donor, board member and advocate who loved classical music and opera. She frequently attended concerts at Townsend School of Music. Through The Fabian Center for Musical Excellence, the Jubilee Artists Series features leading artists performing concerts that are free or low cost to the general public,
making the best of music available to all.
Tickets on Sale soon at tickets.mercer.edu
2023-2024 Jubilee Artist Series
October 3, 2023 – Chanticleer
The GRAMMY® Award-winning vocal ensemble Chanticleer is known around the world as “an orchestra of voices” for its wide-ranging repertoire and dazzling virtuosity. Founded in San Francisco in 1978 by singer and musicologist Louis Botto, Chanticleer quickly took its place as one of the most prolific recording and touring ensembles in the world, selling over one million recordings and performing thousands of live concerts to audiences around the world.
Chanticleer’s repertoire is rooted in the renaissance, and has continued to expand to include a wide range of classical, gospel, jazz, popular music, and a deep commitment to the commissioning of new compositions and arrangements. The ensemble has committed much of its vast recording catalogue to these commissions, garnering GRAMMY® Awards for its recording of Sir John Tavener’s “Lamentations & Praises”, and the ambitious collection of commissioned works entitled “Colors of Love”. Chanticleer is the recipient of the Dale Warland/Chorus America Commissioning Award and the ASCAP/Chorus America Award for Adventurous Programming, and its Music Director Emeritus Joseph H. Jennings received the Brazeal Wayne Dennard Award for his contribution to the African-American choral tradition during his tenure with Chanticleer.
February 20, 2024 – Vienna Boys Choir
The angelic-voiced musicians of the Vienna Boys Choir celebrate the magic of the holiday season with a delightful program of Austrian folk songs, classical masterpieces, Christmas hymns, and holiday carols. For six centuries, these young cultural ambassadors have been adored the world over for their wide range of repertoire, purity of tone, and generosity of musical spirit.
The Wiener Sängerknaben or Vienna Boys’ Choir is the world’s foremost children’s choral group. It is also among the oldest of all musical organizations, having been founded pursuant to an
Imperial decree of Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I on July 7, 1498; the Emperor wished boys’ voices to be added to the choir of the Imperial Chapel, or Hofkapelle. This established a tradition of having the boys sing in weekly Sunday masses in the Imperial Chapel of the Hofburg Palace in Vienna, a tradition that continues today.
Over the centuries, illustrious composers have written masterpieces for the Boys’ Choir of the Imperial Chapel, including Mozart, Bruckner, Gluck, and Schubert. Many great musicians got their start as members of the Boys’ Choir; among them were the great conductors Hans Richter, Clemens Krauss, and Lovro von Matacic. During the days of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the choir became renowned for its secular performances as well, appearing in colorful Imperial-style military uniforms, each complete with a dagger. After World War I, wide popular and governmental disfavor of all things Imperial resulted in the dissolution of many long-standing institutions, including the Imperial Chapel Choir. However, Chaplain Joseph Schnitt remained in his position at the chapel and re-gathered the choir. Sparing no personal expense, he re-established a boarding school for the choristers. He replaced the imperial uniforms with a distinctive sailor-style uniform.