Riley will lead Market Square Singers to Italy

Eric R. Riley

Eric R. Riley is Director of Music and Organist at Market Square Presbyterian Church, a position he assumed in November 2007. He is also conductor of the Central Pennsylvania Oratorio Singers and newly-appointed artistic director of the Wheatland Chorale. Previously, he held the post of Director of Music/Organist at First United Methodist Church, Cleveland, Ohio, for fourteen years. Riley has held other church positions in Syracuse, New York, Nashville, Tenn., Richmond, Va., and Canton, Ohio.

Riley has lead the Metropolitan Chorale of the Metropolitan School for the Arts in Syracuse, New York; has been conductor of the Walsh University Chorale in North Canton, Ohio; and was, for ten years, the Associate Artistic Director of Voices of Canton, Inc. (VOCI), formerly Canton Civic Opera, of Canton, Ohio. He has also been accompanist to the chorus and harpsichordist for the Canton Symphony Orchestra. 

Riley holds the Master of Church Music degree in choral conducting and organ from Scarritt Graduate School (Vanderbilt University) in Nashville, Tenn., and the Bachelor of Music degree in organ performance from Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York.

He has studied conducting with G. Burton Harbison at Syracuse University, Larry Doebler at Ithaca College, and Sandra Willetts at Scarritt Graduate School. He has also studied Renaissance choral style with Peter Phillips, conductor of The Tallis Scholars, in Rimini, Italy. 

It is Riley's love of Renaissance and other ancient musical forms that led to the formation of Market Square Singers for this once-in-a-lifetime musical tour of Italy. "The response from area singers and their devotion to learning and performing the contrasting pieces in the program have been intensely gratifying," Riley says."It will be my honor to present them to Italian audiences."

 

Concerts in Italy will feature "Sacred Music: Ancient and Modern"

Composers through the centuries have expressed similar concepts, emotions, and ideas in varied ways.

Even in the same historical period, composers have managed to express the same or similar words in
very different ways.

Basilica Superiore di San Francesco in Assisi

Bach and Handel were contemporaries in that era we call “Baroque,” sharing some stylistic elements, but the “Alleluja” from Bach’s motet “Lobet den Herrn alle Heiden” (BWV 230) and the “Hallelujah” from Handel’s Messiah are still very different expressions of the same ecstatic religious utterance. 

This contrast in expression forms the basis of "Sacred Music: Ancient and Modern," a choral program the newly-formed Market Square Singers are performing in Italy this summer.

The program includes intentional pairings of sacred works from the Renaissance and Baroque eras with compositions by living composers based on the same or similar texts. 

The exquisite 16th-century contrapuntal setting of “Ave Maria” by Josquin des Pres is paired with the lush “romantic” harmonies of the setting by Franz Biebl. A charming Baroque cantata is paired with a stunning
contemporary piece by American Jackson Berkey. Ancient music by Palestrina and Sweelinck is performed along side modern compositions by Morten Lauridsen and Bob Chilcott. Regardless of the era, this program is full of some of the most interesting, powerful and beautiful sacred music ever written.

Market Square Singers will depart on June 17 and return on June 26. Performances will be presented in the Basilica Superiore di San Francesco in Assisi, the St. Zeno Cathedral in Pistoia, the Orsanmichele Church in
Florence, and at Santa Maria Corteorlandini Church in Lucca.

St. Lawrence Chapel in Harrisburg

You may experience this fabulous program and wish your Market Square friends a fond “buon viaggio” when the singers perform on Sunday, June 3, at 4 p.m. at the St. Lawrence Chapel, 110 State Street, Harrisburg. The concert is open to the public with a suggested donation to benefit the programs and activities of the State Street Academy of Music, headquartered in the chapel. This is glorious choral music sung in the wonderful acoustic of St. Lawrence Chapel. Do not miss this opportunity to feed your soul with great choral music and to support your friends!