The 2008-09 season will be a busy year full of music and musical projects in fascinating variety. The Singers will collaborate again with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project in performances of Dominick Argento’s Jonah and the Whale — and then record the work as the Singers’ second professionally produced recording.

After last season’s enthusiastic reception, the Singers and the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra will join forces again for Handel’s Messiah. March marks some important anniversaries — Abe Lincoln, Felix Mendelssohn, Edgar Allan Poe, Georg Frideric Handel — and the fifth season of the Junior Providence Singers. In April, the Singers will perform Ludwig van Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy as guests of the Rhode Island Philharmonic.

We conclude our season with the music of Tarik O’Regan, joined by Aurea, an innovative ensemble that integrates music with the spoken word, and by the Rhode Island Children’s Chorus. The concert will feature the world première of a new work, the first commission supported by the Singers’ Wachner Fund for New Music.

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Dominick Argento: Jonah and the Whale

Rich, witty, full of alliteration, and wonderfully inventive, Dominick Argento’s Jonah and the Whale delights and instructs listeners of all ages with its clear lesson: Face woe with fortitude, and joy will follow. The Singers will give two performances, collaborating with FirstWorks Providence and the Boston Modern Orchestra Project.

8 p.m. Friday, Nov. 7, 2008, at Blessed Sacrament Church, Providence
2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 9, 2008, at Blessed Sacrament Church, Providence

About the concert  |  Tickets Online

Georg Frideric Handel: Messiah

Andrew Clark leads the Providence Singers, soloists, and the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra in Handel’s quintessential oratorio – a new musical holiday tradition for Providence. “It’s probably the most popular piece in the choral literature, yet conductor Andrew Clark and his Providence Singers managed to make Handel’s Messiah sound fresh,” said Channing Gray of the Providence Journal after last season’s performance.

8 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 20, 2008, at Veterans Memorial Auditorium, Providence

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Anniversaries: Great composers, poets and presidents

Together again for their 200th birthdays: Abraham Lincoln, Felix Mendelssohn and Edgar Allan Poe, with festive music from Georg Frideric Handel, 250 years after his death. Among the birthday tributes: Charles Ives’ Lincoln the Great Commoner and Elie Siegmeister’s Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight. The Junior Providence Singers join us to celebrate their own fifth season.

8 p.m. Saturday, March 28, 2009, Cathedral of SS. Peter and Paul, Providence
3 p.m. Sunday, March 29, 2009, at St. Mary’s Church, Bristol

More About the Concert  |  Tickets Online

Beethoven: Choral Fantasy

Francisco Noya conducts the Rhode Island Philharmonic, the Providence Singers, and pianist Fabio Bidini in a performance of Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy, the composer’s first complete effort to marry choral and instrumental forces. The Choral Fantasy is considered a precursor to the final movement of Symphony No. 9, which Beethoven completed 16 years later. Also on the program: Osvaldo Golijov’s Last Round and Robert Schumann’s Symphony No. 3 (the Rhenish).

8 p.m. Saturday, April 18, 2009, Veterans Memorial Auditorium, Providence

R.I. Philharmonic  |  Tickets Online (“Classical 7”) or call (401) 248-7000

Ecstasies Above: The music of Tarik O’Regan

The 30-year-old British composer Tarik O’Regan blends Renaissance and other early music influences with fresh 21st-century ideas. The Rhode Island Children’s Chorus joins the Singers for Stolen Voices, commissioned for the U.N. International Day of Peace in 2007. Aurea, an innovative chamber ensemble, will also perform, and the concert features the world première of the first work commissioned by the Singers’s Wachner Fund for New Music.

8 p.m. Saturday, June 6, 2009, at a venue to be announced, Providence
3 p.m. Sunday, June 7, 2009, at Immaculate Conception Church, Cranston

Aurea  |  R.I. Children’s Chorus  |  Tickets Online