Celebrating Greater Hartford! Choir and Strings Concert

Celebrating Greater Hartford! is a momentous occasion not to be missed! Join us as the “Downtown Singers” of the Music Moves Hartford program make their concert debut! At the beginning of 2018 Cuatro Puntos and Christ Church Cathedral partnered to form Music Moves Hartford, a choir program designed to serve the greater population of Downtown Hartford. It operates weekly at the Hands on Hartford MANNA soup kitchen at Christ Church Cathedral, as well as the South Park Inn transitional shelter in the South Green neighborhood. The “Downtown Singers” were a hit when they sang in front of the Old State House for I Am An Artist Day in September- now don’t miss their first concert!

The program will begin by slowing pulling in your focus with a string quartet piece by composer Aleksandra Vrebalov, played by the professional resident musicians of Cuatro Puntos. This begins amorphous and improvisatory, gradually becoming more pronounced and structured to create a driving and memorable rhythm. You will then be serenaded by the beautiful voices of the Downtown Singers, accompanied by string quartet and piano and led by music director Dianne Rechel. If you wish, you can even join in singing familiar tunes! The program will conclude with a monumental string quintet for 2 violins, 2 violas, and cellos titled “Coming Home” by David Macbride. This piece was written especially for Cuatro Puntos in commemoration of the Music Moves Hartford program, and it draws its musical influences from around the city of Hartford.

Composer, educator, and musician David Macbride was passionately involved with Music Moves Hartford and Cuatro Puntos, and was an avid supporter and creator of the arts throughout Greater Hartford for decades. Macbride and the resident musicians of Cuatro Puntos were awarded a generous grant from the Edwin C. and Ann T. Roberts Foundation to create the work you will hear. He passed away unexpectedly shortly after finishing “Coming Home”. The premiere performance of “Coming Home”, his final composition, will be in his honor and memory.

The performance will begin at 7:00pm on Friday, November 2, 2018. It will be held in the main sanctuary of Christ Church Cathedral, 45 Church St., Hartford, CT 06103. Admission is free, however a suggested donation of $10 per person will support Music Moves Hartford. The resident string quintet will repeat the Aleksandra Vrebalov and David Macbride pieces, with the Downtown Singers performing in absentia by video, on Saturday, November 3 at 7:00pm at the Lutheran Church of St. Mark, 75 Griswold Street, Glastonbury, CT 06033.

The Hartford program was made possible due to generous gifts from the Edward C. and Ann T. Roberts Foundation and the Greater Hartford Arts Council. Music Moves Hartford is made possible by generous gifts from the J. Walton Bissell Foundation, the Ensworth Charitable Trust, the George and Grace Long Foundation, and Christ Church Cathedral. Learn more about this and all of our programs and concerts at www.cuatropuntos.org, or by calling 860-333-0297.