July 20, 2024

The 50-voice Summer Singers of Lee’s Summit performs their tenth annual concert weekend under the baton of Music Director Jennifer Lahasky. The non-auditioned summer-only choir will perform a concert of music from the Hispanic tradition, highlighted by the “Misa Criolla” of Argentinian composer Ariel Ramirez, 1921-2010, and also including “Donde Hay” by American composer Paul Page and a set of Venezuelan folk songs. There will be two performances, Sunday, July 28, 4:00 PM, and Monday, July 29, 7:30 PM, at the St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 416 SE Grand Avenue in Lee’s Summit. A Wine & Cookie Reception will follow each concert. Tickets are available at the door, or online at ChoralFoundation.org/concerts.

“Misa Criolla” is a Spanish language setting of the traditional Mass using traditional Argentinian folk music and dance genres including chacarera, carnavalito and estilo pampeano, and employing Andean influences and instruments. Composed in 1964, the work was one of the first settings of the Mass for both concert and liturgical performance not written in Latin, following the approval of non-Latin settings by the Second Vatican Council a year earlier. The Summer Singers of Lee’s Summit will be joined by accompanist Dr. Geoffrey Wilcken on harpsichord, Dr. Sean Sweeden, percussion, tenor soloist Daniel Baker, and Amado Espinoza on charango guitar. “Misa Criolla” has been described as hauntingly beautiful while at once joyful and exuberant. The dramatic tenor solo line has attracted world renown performers and recording artists, including Jose Carreras, Placido Domingo, and Mercedes Sosa.

The Summer Singers of Lee’s Summit was created in 2014 as an ensemble of the William Baker Choral Foundation, based in the Kansas City area. The choir begins rehearsals in early June to prepare a concert of unique music for performances at the end of July. The age range of the choir has stretched from 16 to 90, and singers have commuted from as far as Nevada, Missouri and Topeka, Kansas to be a part of it. Previous performances have included the “Holocaust Cantata” of Donald McCullough,the “Requiem” of Gabriel Faure, “The Creation” of Franz Joseph Haydn, and the “Requiem” and “Coronation Mass” of Mozart, along with many other immortal masterworks.

Jennifer Lahasky became Music Director of the Summer Singers of Kansas City in 2022, having joined the choir as a singer in its inaugural season, and serving as Associate Director from 2018-2021.

The performance is sponsored, in part, by the Friends of St. Paul’s Music and by Lee’s Summit Cultural Arts. For additional information, call 913-488-7524 or email [email protected].