Milwaukee Choral Artists

The Milwaukee Choral Artists honored the human creative spirit and the victims and survivors of the Haitian earthquake Feb. 13, in a program called Land and Sky.

Chorister Kristin Houge read a brief dedication to Haiti acknowledging their resilience in the aftermath of this devastating trauma. Hogue, once conductor of the Haitian Boys Choir in Port Au Prince, recalled her time with them as a life changing experience.

Wade Fernandez opened the concert with Offering for the People, a piece he composed for piano and Native American double flute. His melody rippled through Wauwatosa Presbyterian Church like birds flying over a brook and wind whispering through barren winter branches.

The wide-ranging program referred to meditative music with complex measures and sounds of the Australian Mudbara Trib, Iglulik Eskimo women and the Lakota Sioux. Medieval Latin poetry praising the wind and sun complemented a poem penned by St. Francis of Assisi. Music with synthesizer by Libby Larson connected seamlessly with the rest of the program.

The entire evening displayed the collective talent in this women’s chorus, led by Sharon Hansen, as sacred and haunting melodies enchanted a cold evening.

The MCA commemorates their 10th Anniversary season with the release of their compact disc, Sky Born, which will be celebrated at the David Barnett Gallery in downtown Milwaukee on February 26, 5-8:00 p.m.