Sing with the Dexter Community Orchestra

The Dexter Community Orchestra will perform Gustav Holst’s “The Planets” at its Spring concert on May 7.

They are actively recruiting soprano and alto voices for this piece.

The choir will also perform acapella settings of two early American songs at the concert: “Poor Wayfaring Stranger” and “Hark, I Hear the Harps Eternal.”

The Planets is a seven-movement orchestral suite in which each movement is named after a planet of the solar system and its supposed astrological character. In the last movement, “Neptune,” the orchestra is joined by a wordless female chorus.

“Each movement is a musical rendering of each of the planets, trying to capture their image and the personality,” says Gordon Darr, Director of Hudson Music Center in Dexter. “The voices are a blend of altos and Sopranos. It's these really beautiful and complex vocals, complex and very haunting.”

Darr is collaborating with the DCO to recruit and provide the altos and sopranos. Hudson Music Center houses the Dexter Community Choir.

‘This is a wonderful opportunity for the women in our choir to expand their range and experience choral music at a new level,” says Darr. “It has also enabled us to do some recruiting for this special project.”

Darr is looking for another twenty voices to fill the chorus for this one-time event. More information can be found on the DCO website at https://www.dextercommunityorchestra.org/

The concert fits well into Hudson Music Center’s focus on encouraging adults to get back into the musical performance experiences they may have had in their youth.

“Our goal is on helping all adults get the experience and music that they secretly would love to have,” explains Darr. “One of our vehicles for doing that is Dexter Community Choir because that's a great need in our area.”

More information on Hudson Music Center and the Dexter Community Choir can be found at https://www.hecmusic.org/