Motet Choir of Carl Gustaf’s Church from Sweden

We are delighted to welcome to St Paul’s the Motet Choir of Carl Gustaf’s Church in Sweden for a concert on Thursday 10th May 2018 at 8.30pm. Entrance is free – everyone welcome.

PROGRAMME

Carl Gustafs Motettkör – Carl Gustaf´s Motet Choir

Staffan Sundås, piano

Dir. Mari Sundås

Swinging intrada                                     Anonymos, 17th century /arr. Henry O Mills

Domine/Deo Dicamus gratias                G A Homilius

See, we go up to Jerusalem                   Uno Sandén

Jubilate Deo                                            W A Mozart

Ave Maria                                               Piret Rips-Laul

Ave Maria                                               Kerstin Evén

Ave Maria                                               Jaakko Mäntyjärvi

Ave Maria                                               Bach/Gounod

Immanuel                                               Maria Nordenback

Ride on King Jesus                                  Trad

Almond tree and marble                        Mikis Theodorakis

At the beach                                           Mikis Theodorakis

The letter                                                Mikis Theodorakis

In the pine forest                                    Wilhelm Peterson-Berger

Summer-potpourri

         Summer hymn                                               W Åhlén/ D C af Wirsén

         A melody at midsummer                              Håkan Norlén/ Rune Lindström

         Out in our meadow                                       Swedish folksong, arr. Hugo Alfvén

         In this delightful summertime                     A Öhrwall/ P Gerhardt / J van Düben

         A summer breeze is blowing outside            Alice Tegnér/S Hedborn

         The maiden joins the ring-around                 Swedish folk dance / arr. Hugo Alfvén

Carl Gustafs Motettkör, Sweden

Carl Gustafs Motettkör (CGMK; The Motet Choir of Carl Gustaf´s Church) is a mixed choir of about 50 members. CGMK is linked to the Swedish Lutheran Church, the Church of Karlshamn where it regularly appears at services, sunday worships and concerts led by the musical director and organist Mari Sundås (since 1994). The Motet Choir is a direct continuation of the church choirs who have been singing in the church of Karlshamn for over one hundred years.

 

In addition to contributing at the worships the Motett Choir follows the strong tradition of oratorical performances including among others J S Bach’s Matthew Passion, Johns passion and Magnificat, Requiem of G.Fauré,  Markus Passion by R.Keiser, Mass in C-minor and Requiem of W A Mozart, G F Händel’s Messiah. The Motett Choir has also given concerts in Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands and Poland. After this concert tour to Greece, the choir is looking forward to the performance of Bach’s Christmas Oratorio together with the Baroque Orchestra Gothenburg Baroque at Christmas 2018.

 

Carl Gustaf’s Motet Choir blends freshly different styles in its program. From the early Baroque through romanticism, negro spirituals and Swedish folk songs to contemporary music. The legacy of the Swedish choir tradition is heard strongly in the summery songs. Even compositions from the other Nordic countries are represented in the repertoire. The choir is accustomed to appear in different configurations and in summer programs it presents both small ensembles such as women’s and men’s choir in addition to the usual formation. Carl Gustaf’s Motet Choir is accustomed to make use of the whole (church) room during the concerts to provide a different experience and to reinforce the message of the music.

An important part of the concert trips abroad are the contact and exchange with the local choirs, both through meetings in the music through social interaction and exchanging experiences concerning singing. By the exchange with local choirs the choir singers get an insight in the local music and the experience gets deeper through the musical communication. The music builds over the linguistic barriers and becomes a common language and a means of expression for choir singers, which is perceived both in rehearsals, the concert situation as in intercourse

 

Mari Sundås (born 1969, Finland) is music director and organist in the Swedish Lutheran Church of Karlshamn and conductor of Carl Gustaf´s Motet Choir. She graduated in 1994 with church music exam at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki after studying choir conducting for Juha Kuivanen and Eric-Olof Söderström (conductor of Finnish Radio Chamber Choir). Mari Sundås came in contact with the Swedish Church Music tradition when she was a fellow student at the Academy of Music and Drama, Univercity of Gothenburg. Since autumn 1994 Mari serves in the Swedish Lutheran Church in Karlshamn conducting Carl Gustaf´s Motet Choir and Carlshamn Gospel Choir. She is also and the organizer and a singing member in the vocal ensemble Bachspeglarna (The Bach Mirrors) with concerts in Denmark, Germany and USA.